Cultural Identity

1. Name: Tohuratun ChowdhuryClass: ENG1121
   Prof. Hall

Cultural identity

Every single person has their own unique identity and culture. An ‘identity’ is the image that one projects out into the rest of the world and ‘culture’ is the image which one has of themselves. Culture plays a huge role in shaping our identity. A person’s beliefs and morals are made up of culture and remain throughout our entire life. Culture is what made us the person we are today and determines who or what we choose to associate our-self with. Our background and upbringing are what sets us apart from everyone else because no one has been raised the same. My identity would not exist if it wasn’t for my own culture and the values I have carried from it along the years.

The morals I have today exist because of the certain culture I grew up in. I grew up hearing and listening to what my parents telling me what it acceptable for me to do and what is not acceptable for me to do. Because of this, I learnt the difference between what is right and what is wrong from my parents. My parents learned from their parents and so on. It’s a generation of morals that I carry with me and refers to constantly, sometimes without even realizing it. I was born in Bangladesh and even though I don’t live there today, it’s definitely a huge part of my life. My parents have taught me to assimilate my culture into my everyday life. Everyone has a different culture and different habits based on how they were raised. It’s what sets people apart from others and adds diversity to life.

When I came to New York everything was new for me. I was 14 years old I didn’t know how to speak English it was hard for me when I start school. I had a hard time to match with other students because they all know English. I used to take after school to learn English and do my homework. I also face bully from some students because of I didn’t understand English. On the break time, they used to sit like a circle and used to ask my lot of bad questions like “are you virgin?” “do you go to the club?” “Do you take drugs?” let’s have a se… etc. I used to get nervous and I didn’t know what to answer they made me a joker in the school where ever they see me they used to make fun of me. Some of my classmates help me to face the situation and help me to inform our teachers. This type of situation gave me more strength to work hard on my academics and I graduated in 3 years out of 4 years from school.

Developing a concept of self or personal identity is a result of interaction with people who make up your culture. You associate yourself with the larger group of which you are a member. For instance, I am from Bangladesh so I consider myself as a “Bangladeshi”. This is part of my identity. Islam is the religion I believe in – this is again, part of how I identify myself. A person’s culture is usually what they are from, what language. Sometimes our cultural identity could influence our perspective. For example, I came from a Muslim family my mother she wear hijab and she had to face a lot of bad comment when she goes outside. Some Americans think that Muslim peoples are terrorist and they judge people based on their outlook. Therefore,sometimes our cultural identity could become a thread for us.

Cultural identity is one of the important things in our life to show us as person front of the world. Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity or upbringing.

I don’t live in Bangladesh but my identity is not going to change because I live in New York. I think New York is the city of diversity where you can practice your culture, religion, language, tradition etc. When I came here I learn more about other countries which I never heard before and I also let people know where I belong. Realizing we have more in common than not when I meet new people, I look at them as individuals. I take into consideration the concrete, the behavioural and the symbolic for they all have their place in a person being who they are.

My marginal comments are HERE. My grade and endnote are in the “comment” section.