Personal Narrative: My Cultural Identity

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.

I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. My family was catholic and so I was taught to pray and by the age of 13 I had all my sacraments. For most of my life I lived the downtown area of the main city where my mother and her family had also grown up. I considered myself very lucky because even though our economic security was not the best as I grew up, my mother always strived for me to receive the best education she could afford. As a result, I learned to speak English from a very young age and then French, I learned to play the guitar and also to paint. I also took embroidery and etiquette classes and so on. Because of the location where we lived, I also took advantage of many cultural interactions with people from other

When I think of culture I think of the way I live and where I come from. My culture describes how I act and who I am. My cultural identity is country. My favorite thing about my culture is the food eat because it is some great food. Culture is also about the food I eat, the clothes I wear, the music I listen to, the language I speak, and my religion.

Her father built a house in Coal Valley, IL when she was very young, where she lived until she was married at the age of 18. Her paternal grandparents were both born in Germany. It is unknown what city or village in Germany they came from, other than the northern part of Germany. They immigrated to the United States shortly before her father was born. She remembers her grandparents speaking little to no English, then, eventually broken English. Her father spoke English as a first language and some German. Her mother, her sister and she never learned the German language. English was the only language spoken in the home. Her father was a coal miner and her mother took care of the home. In her culture, each generation lived in separate homes, whereas in some cultures, multiple generations live in the same household. However, her grandparents and extended family members did live nearby, so she spent a lot of time playing with her cousins, and saw her grandparents, aunts and uncles on a regular basis. They would all get together on Sundays after church, and have lunch together.

Amish speak both English and Pennsylvania German or “Dutch” Amish speak a dialect of german or Pennsylvania

Many people writing this essay are going to talk about their religion or what race they are. But this is my personal cultural identity essay. I don't have a religion that I talk about or a race that I care about. My cultural identity is about sports, family and everything that makes me, me.

The way I see it humans are just biotic machines where people from the first SECOND we are born to expect us to be used to be in their likeness or their standard of code. Luckily, due to a creation of identity and personality, people often never reach that likeness and become different. Cultural identity impacts us for our interests can make a person grow and gain traits. My cultural identity is made up by many factors, Mx-Bones and my mom impacted my life and guided me to be an artist and an aspiring scientist of some sort that is not confirmative and very curious.

I am Scottish and English, but that means absolutely nothing to me. To me I am your classic white american boy. I am from Lake George New York, born in Glens Falls Hospital. I love to watch American football(My team is the NY Jets or the NY Giants) I am a big Gamer, and I LOVE to grill.

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".

As a second generation Chinese-Vietnamese American, I often found it difficult to identify myself as American or Chinese. I felt as if I did not entirely belong in one culture or the other as my peers often bullied me for being “too Asian” if I brought lunch from home or wore ethnic clothing. Despite social exclusion, I maintained my cultural identities because it defined myself and my cultural origins. I realized the importance of diversity in a field like healthcare when I witness non-English Vietnamese speakers in the hospital having difficulty forming coherent questions regarding their needs and requests.

The independent cultural experience that I chose to participate in was going to dine at the Taj Palace, in Yakima, Washington. This place is very authentic. When you walk in the restaurant, it felt very traditional because they had Indian music playing, and it was well decorated. I felt very interested in doing this experience because I have an Uncle related by marriage who is from India, and I do not know very much about this culture. Although I don’t know very much about it, I am very curious and interested in learning about it. India is a place that has always intrigued me, and has been on a list of places that I would love to travel to. Learning very surface level facts about India in school has sparked

The first object that represents my identity is my cross. The cross I wear is special to me because it was given to me by my Grandmother when I was 10 years old before I left Eritrea. It doesn’t just represent my religion, it represents who I am and where I came from. It helps me to not forget my identity as a person. Every time I’m about to give up or do something bad, I look at it and reminds me of my past and all the thing I have gone through to get to this point of my life. Essentially, you can say that its part of me and represent my past.

“The English language belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages,” according to M Boyanova. The Indo-European family started in Europe and South Asia, later spreading to other parts of the world. The West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family includes the Afrikaans (spoken in South Africa), Dutch (spoken in Holland), English (spoken in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada), German (spoken in Germany), and Yiddish (spoken in Germany and Israel) languages (Thompson). Even though Scottish belongs to the Celtic branch (Thompson), it is one of the English language’s closest living relative, along with Frisian. Frisian is located in the Dutch province of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea. It is only spoken by approximately half a million people (Boyanova).

When I hear the words ¨cultural identity¨ the first thing I think of is my religion, my ethnicity, and my family history. I never really looked back at my cultural identity, or (background) some might say. If I were to look back at my cultural identity I would say it’s like a stop light because It constantly changes. When my cultural identity changes it lowers my chances of doing what love which is running.

Identity is a complex ideal that everyone struggles with. Consequently, people often will not act as who they are due to a fear of being ridiculed. To me this is such a ridiculous time waster, instead this time people waste on being someone else could be used for much more meaningful memories. Society makes people feel like they have to fit a mold, yet I personally have learned from my dad that it is a necessity of life to accept who you are.