Personal Narrative: My Three Cultural Events

My experiences helping immigrant’s students was very rewarding for me because I could connect with the students and understand what they were going through. I will definitely continue to help as a peer tutor for next semester and I will recommend some of my friends to volunteer there too. Also I hope that my contributions to them, helped them achieve their goals and to be

Losing My Culture and Language When people view my brown skin they assumed I can speak Spanish fluently. When Hispanic people talk to me, I try to answer back in Spanish. They stare at me with a confused face and tell me that I don’t talk well in Spanish and that I don’t have an accent. It hurts me on the inside because I feel that I don’t belong in the country that I was born in, which is Mexico.

Do I know who I am? Am I who I think I am? What makes me, me.? There’s a lot to know, and still so much more to explore and learn about myself. There are three main aspects about my life, that symbolizes who I am as a person. My cultural identity is based upon values, appearance and my life itself. I love who I am, and who I am becoming. My happiness and intelligence is what makes me stand out from others. I’ve always put my best foot forward and make the best decisions for myself. I am half Indian, Caucasian, European & Mexican on my mom’s side of the family. On my dad’s, I am Half Jamaican on my dad’s side of the family. Both of my parents taught me different ways around life and what is expected of me. But the three things that sums up my cultural identity are food, fashion, and family traditions.

My personal Artifact is a baseball my son and I caught at the Giants game. It is white,

Teaching Diverse Learners: Tutoring Reflection For my tutoring requirement for Teaching Diverse Learners, I had the opportunity to spend time with the visiting teacher from Thai. Staying for three months, Lek, the Thai woman, stayed at Lee to learn about America and expand her English language skills. Since Lek is in her mid 50’s, we had a very different relationship than that of one tutoring a young child.

This has been a wonderful experience and I sincerely enjoy it. One kid who specially inspired me was a 3 year old boy named Kobi; when Kobi first came to Kumon he barely spoke English. After working with him for a few months, Kobi, has now learned English, and continues to progress every day. He has become very talkative and now is learning how to write numbers write words and read sentences. He has inspired me, as well as many other

The world is filled with people, and like snowflakes, each person is not the same as another. Each person identifies with different aspects of their lives to create their own personal identities. I personally identify with my Italian side of my family to help form who I am today. I have found myself connecting with this side more so than the other parts of my identity. It affects how I live my life by becoming the center to the culture surrounding me. However, my ethnic identity as an Italian American also influences how I live when it comes to my religion, and how my religion affects my life alongside my ethnicity. I will expand on this issue on how I express my ethnic and religious identity in regards to each other.

Two would deal with math and the other would deal with reading and writing. When the boys first arrived at Oasis they would come sit down at the table, and we would chat about their day. That is a very important part of tutoring these boys. When they feel comfortable, and get the chance to tell you all about their day that lets them know you care and they are more open to listening to you in return. Plus these are first graders and they have been sitting in a desk all day doing schoolwork, the last thing they want to do after school is more schoolwork!

I suppose when i used to think of cultural identity, i perceive it as what racial background we come from, what race we are. Whether it’s Mexican, Asian, French, etc… I assumed it meant what special foods we eat, and events or activities we participate in according to our background. Little did i know this is a misconception; quite a common one actually. Cultural identity is actually how you live your life and how you express yourself, the things you enjoy that make you, you. I am someone who enjoys many things, ranging from A-Z. The things that are most important to me between that range, are the ones i focus on the most, the ones that are most important to me, and define who i am.

My Cultural Hat The cultural hat that represents me and that is deeply significant to me would be a mother to my four children. Some of the artifacts from my past as being a mother would be sleepless nights, baby bottles and lots of diapers. As my children have grown older and more independent. Some of the artifacts in the present would be their homework, sporting events. In the future some of the artifacts that I have to look forward to would be buying them their fist car, high school graduations and paying college tuition.

Blurred Barriers “So where are you really from?” That was and still remains the most frequent question I get asked on a regular basis. My peers and strangers would generally weave this question into the first five minutes of conversation. As someone who was born and raised in California, my initial response to this question has always been “America.” My answer to this question rarely satisfied other’s curiosity and my reply often sparked follow-up questions further asking where my parents are from.

For me, my racial and cultural identity has always been at the forefront of my life experience. I grew up in an Iowan rural small town that was founded on Swedish heritage. My home town of Albert City, Iowa was founded by my Swedish ancestors, many of which still have family there today. Therefore, I have always known that my Swedish blood was an important aspect of my life. However, I am also of German, Norwegian, and Danish heritage which has conflicted my views of my identity. Having lived near a Swedish settlement most of my life, I grew to wonder how much of myself I was to delegate towards my other national origins that I also cared deeply about.

I am an algebra and geometry tutor in my hometown during the summer. I also volunteer at the Maryland food bank during breaks. In Sewanee, I have participated in civic engagement as part of the African American Alliance and the Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness. As part of my fraternity "Gamma Sigma Phi," I volunteered in community activities and fundraisers for breast cancer awareness, Sewanee elementary, and Haven for

Different cultures have always been something that brought a large amount of interest to me. Learning the way of life about someone else allows me to have an open mind and enables me to accept others, regardless if they are different. The Ethnic experience that I chose to do was a face to face interview with a close friend that I was given the chance to meet here at The Fort Valley State University. The person I interviewed was Olamikunle Onikosi, Ola (As we know him). The interview ran for about an hour and it was conducted using the question and answer technique. During the interview we were able to experience all kind of emotions. He gave me an inside look on a specific area in the world that I had never associated my life better yet, my culture with.

Throughout my day to day life, my cultural identity shifts between two nationalities: American and Peruvian. Because of the melting pot that New York City is, it is extremely common and normal to come across a person that shifts between cultural identities. Just as I ride the train to school, I hear people speaking in Spanglish and enjoying shows on their phone in their native language. As far as I know, I subconsciously shift between my cultural idenities based on where I am and who I am speaking to.