Personal Narrative: How I Respond To My Culture

I was thirteen when I moved to the United States. July 7, 2007 was the day my brothers and I packed up our belongings and left Haiti. It was a very exciting day because I got the chance to be on an extremely large white and blue airplane for the first time, and most importantly, reunite with my parents, whom I did not know because my father left Haiti when I was three years old, and my mother left a several years later. As a teenager, I had the mindset of living in a fairytale land. I did not think about the possible challenges I might encounter after leaving my homeland. The idea of adjusting to a new culture, learning a new language, and socializing with others that do not have the same tongue as me never ever crossed my mind. Little did

Understanding Culture One source once stated, “Cultural identity is a broader term: people from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). People have the right to analyze their culture to better themselves and they should not be judged for expressing their cultures. Many have different beliefs concerning the term culture and what it means to them. One source explains cultural identity can be defined as, “When we encounter a culture that is different from our own, one of the things we are faced with is a set of beliefs that manifest themselves in behaviors that differ from our own” (Trumbull and Pacheco 10). Various aspects of a person’s life that may determine his or her cultural

Culture, by its definition, is, “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.” Almost 80% of Americans identify themselves as caucasian, yet within this large group there is a great variance in culture. This group is comprised of european cultures, ranging from italian to irish, in addition to middle eastern cultures, ranging from israeli to arabian. Similarly, around 12.3% percent of Americans identify themselves as black, yet once again within this group there is a multitude of different cultures; ethiopian, haitian, south african, and many more. These statistics demonstrate that race has no direct impact on cultural diversity. Despite this, people tend to be identified by race almost always more than by culture. Race being more commonly used as an identifier, is purely due to the fact that it is easier to distinguish between races, than between cultures, because the differences are generally more nuanced. Also relating back to the previous idea of the United States as melting pot, many cultures that were probably more distinctive at one point in time have become interwoven into the ‘general’ culture within America. Overall, race, despite its being a popular defining feature, is not the same as

Throughout my life, I have struggled with accepting my cultural identity. My parents were born and raised in India, but I was born here, in the United States, and hence, born an American citizen.

What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".

Today, as Americans, we are surrounded by an increasing number of very different cultures, and along with that we are surrounded by numerous

I experienced my pop culture moment when I was a senior at my high school. My transportation to go to my school was buses. I took the same buses to school from freshman year, but I have never noticed what I notice in my senior year. Every morning I wake up to go to school at 8 a.m. I would see people going to work, schools etc. but one day I notice there was a group of white women who is going to their work wearing sari (sari is a garment which is long and usually it’s draped around women’s body. Asian women mostly wear it). I found that very odd because they didn’t look like to me that they would know anything about the roots of sari or the culture. I thought they were mocking the culture because the saris that they wearing weren’t 100% correct. I used to see them wearing traditional Indian cloth and I

People without the knowledge of their past history nor origin and culture is like a tree without roots.(Speaks, A. 2003) This quote written by Marcus Garvy briefly explains the feelings that surface when I 'm asked the question of what I am the culture I identify with. If I were to answer that question honestly my response would be, "I 'm not sure" because I am living in a society that has stripped me from all cultural make-up while at the same time inhibited me from becoming more culturally diverse so I can lay dormant in this system that was built to keep me inferior. American citizens should become more culturally competent to promote unity in diversity, to decrease the rate of poverty, improve relations with foreign countries, and to

However, before I started high school, my father's workplace was transferred therefore I moved to the United States with my family. I went to a local high school in California and I thought I have to go through the hardship of cultural different over again. Fortunately, I adapted to the American life much quicker than when I lived in Australia due to my experience with a foreign culture. Also, I did not experience too much difficulty with the English language even though accent and pronunciation were different from Australia. As a second language learner who had experience of learning a new language, I understand how difficult it is to assimilate into a foreign culture and to learn its language.

My “outside” cultural influences I have: America is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world culturally. We have German-Americans speaking German, Filipino-Americans speaking Tagalog, Irish-Americans speaking Irish, Scandinavian-Americans speaking Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, etc., Welsh-Americans speaking Welsh, Japanese-Americans speaking Japanese, Iraqi-Americans speaking Arabian, Mexican-Americans speaking Spanish, and all Americans united in the common goal to create the best possible nation in accordance with our Constitution.

For my inter-ethnic encounter, I interviewed one of my best friends from high school Ashley Arias. Ashley is nineteen years old, so she is a year younger than me. She is currently pursuing a nursing degree at Notre Dame of Maryland University located in Baltimore, Maryland. She is originally from Virginia but now lives in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Her immediate family includes her parents and her younger brother. She also has a bulldog that she has had for three years. I have known Ashley for about seven years, but we have been really close for about five of those years starting during my junior year of high school.

My ethnic identity is Mexican. I have always identified as Mexican. However, I remember questioning my ethnicity when I began working and interacting with a wide range of people. African-Americans would question me and ask if I was sure I was 100 percent Mexican. I thought in my head, how could any of us be 100 percent of any single race/ethnicity. It was not till then that I decided to question and look into where my father’s family came from and

“Although dominated by white Anglo-Saxon sociocultural patterns, American culture is in fact a tapestry woven of diverse threads that include Native American, Hispanic, Asian and African traditions, as well as those of European origin” (Craven, 2003, p. 529). America is often described as the melting pot; the concept of culture is formulated around the notion of many subcultures inside one larger nation in which, “the melting pot has not merely melted; it has cooked a broth with an unmistakable favor of its own” (Perry, 1949, p. 357).

Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, I was unaware of other cultures. My parents were white middle-class, Anglo-Saxon, American’s. The world I was brought up in

How many different “hats” do we each wear on a daily bases. From our careers, to our family and friends we all have different identities that we claim and live out day to day. These identities help us define who we are. “When we identify ourselves, we draw on a host of different characteristics associated with various social groups to which we belong” (King 2012, pg. 429). My ornament is explaining the social identity through a snow-women and her many hats.