Personal Narrative: My Cultural Experience

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".

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 bucket filled with images represents my surface and deep culture unique to me. I found out where I got my passions and which people influenced my culture, and what I need to do to continue to keep my culture and faith to be something I’m proud of.

Is usual to hear people associating common behaviors from a cultural background to how they expect an individual to act and react to certain situations. So I was really curious to see the results of the self-assessment comparing me to my cultural profile. I was born in Venezuela, and I lived there for most of my life, for that reason I wasn’t really surprised when my answers were almost the same to my cultural norm. The dimensions that I’m most similar to are in leading, trusting, disagreeing, evaluating, and persuading. In “leading”, the scale measures between egalitarian and hierarchical, and my cultural norm and individual answer is more hierarchical than egalitarian. Also, in “trusting” Venezuelans (including me) are definitely a relationship based society, where trust is built by affective connection, for example is very common that most of the business partnerships in Venezuela are made between friends and family rather than with individuals with

My Early cultural influences from when I was a kid was always say thank when you receive something, have good table manners when we are eating dinner, no elbows on the table because that disrespectful, don’t talk back when you been called on, respect your elders, eat whatever being served to you because that food isn’t cheap, whenever grandpa and grandma are here they get the front seats and so on. My Ideological influences would be school and be getting an education is important because schooling can lead you to great things in life, it can lead you to get a nice job that pays well, a nice home for your family, nice material things that you would enjoy. Education has a lot to offer, especially helps kids who are on the low; it helps them get

Growing up as a child, I wore my dark black hair back in tight braids, baggy jeans, my tanned skin in white tank tops, and sneakers; not to express culture appropriation, but because it was all that I had. My surrounding environment was full of diverse races, and seeing color was a part of my daily routine. As I grew up and began to change throughout life, my environment did as well. I moved from the city streets to a suburban area, and as time wore on I noticed a distinct lack of color amongst my peers. Instead of me looking at the world the same day by day, it was as if the entire world was looking at me.

Wrapped in the history and culture of East Asia. Unaware to me, I became enthralled by the language, art and culture of East Asia.  The colors are vibrant. Catching my attention, I can’t seem to look elsewhere. It took me awhile to find my fit. My parents since I a little kid had a dream for me to become a doctor. Coming to the last stages of high school I realized that was not the right choice for me because of different amount of reasons. An exceeding amount of arguments between my parents and myself. My mom came to me and told me of a major that she said would fit me. I did not know East Asian Studies was a subject until my mom researched it. At that moment I found the career to pursue. Now Even I have to admit mothers are always right.

Who are you? Most respond with their names, but there are probably a thousand other people who have that name. Knowing one’s name doesn’t mean you really know a person. No, to really know someone you learn their birthday, star sign, favorite color, favorite hobby, how many brothers or sisters they have. You learn them like you’ll have an exam on it next week. You learn their cultural identity. Who am I? I am a candle stick. I am one of six, a capricorn, a soccer player, and someone who lacks ambition. I am, and my culture is: the people I surround myself with, my environment, and most of all, my memories. I am an unexplainable enigma far too complicated to be analyzed by any single human being.

“Focus on your education, it’s going to be the only thing you are going to have in the long run” Its the first thing my mom tells me every time I start complaining about school. I have grown up in a bicultural lifestyle where I have managed both of worlds.I grew up in a typical mexican household, where we are not allowed to go anywhere without our parents, were we have thousands of second, third, and fourth cousins. My parents were born and raised in a rural area in mexico. My dad stopped going to school when he was in elementary school, because he had to help my grandpa with the harvest and with feeding and taking care of the animals. My mom stop going to school when she was in middle school, because her parents couldn't pay for her education

Experiencing a new culture is usually life changing. I first started going to Tijuana, Mexico three years ago because my dad was deported. The only places I had ever been to were here in California. When going to a new place I never thought there would be a drastic change in the environment, or people. It’s amazing how a border can separate two worlds and make them so different.

Influences, they come from many sources; people, television, places near and far from our homes. For me however, my influences are in games, one game in particular. A game, whose community is so small and minute, that even its creator has moved on to other aspects of life. This game doesn't even originate in my own country, and most of the people in this fanbase don't either. In fact they are mostly spread across Europe with at least one member in South America. Because of that I can only speak in one of the many languages we have among us. Thankfully, English is what we speak most commonly, and that this majorly influential game of my childhood, has an option for.

“To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” Throughout my life, I have been blessed with two individuals who were the world to me and have inspired me to be a person whose daily mission is to make a child’s day better. Both of these inspiring women loved children, and when I was a child, they made me feel like I was important each and every day. They made my heart feel whole and my face smile endlessly.

I am an African American female that learned my culture from my family. It was taught early on about slavery and what my ancestors went through. Majority of my family was born and raised in Georgia. My grandmother and my grandfather was from Americas, Georgia. My grandmother would tell me stories of how she had to take care of her siblings, cook and care for the farm. She was the true example of what a resilient woman looked like and she raised her children to be the same and it was passed down to their children and so on. My grandmother believe in family and supporting one another. She felt like a good home cooked meal should bring a family together and celebrate one another. That helps with building a strong bond within the family. We were

I chose the topic of “What are the benefits of Chinese immersion?” because I have been in Chinese immersion since kindergarten, excluding 4th and 5th grade, and I wanted to figure out whether learning Chinese would be rewarding and well worth my time and effort in the future. A few of my sub-questions to help me with my research were “What are some jobs that require fluency in Chinese?” “What does learning a second language do for your brain?” “Can learning another language help your English?” these questions allowed me to gather lots of information on how Chinese can help me in the future.