Cultural Heritage

I feel as though I have a few different cultural identities that I value and identify with. Everyone has a culture that that they are a part of and most often there is more than one culture to which we belong. The experience we gain from associating with these different cultures help shape us into the individuals that we are. Every aspect of our present has been greatly influenced by our past experiences and environment we were associated with. The two main cultural identities that I feel I identify with the most consist of being an athlete and being a part of a wrestling team and also being raised in a middle class household.

There are many different rituals that I practice on an everyday basis because of the simple fact that one of my cultural identities is being an athlete and collegiate wrestler. Some of these different rituals consist of eating healthy and following a diet plan during season, and also following a strict practice schedule daily. These two rituals are rituals that are followed by thousands of collegiate wrestlers around the country. Since I also identify with being raised in a middle class household, some rituals I have become accustomed with consist of being family oriented and having a full formal education. I come from a very family oriented family, my entire family gathers for almost all holidays. Being family oriented is a very important value that my parents have emphasized while raising me. Being raised in a middle class household has given me the privilege and opportunity to a full formal education. The ritual of attending class on a daily basis is a ritual that I started when I was five years old.

There are many different language terms that I use while identifying with my Wrestling team. There are many phrases and forms of slang that would make no sense to the normal person, but another wrestler would easily understand. A common slang phrase used is the phrase, “I packed him up”. If someone asked you how you did in your match and you respond with “I packed him up”, it simply means you pinned your opponent with little difficulty. Another slang phrase you commonly hear is “we need 6”. This is a very common phrase that you hear the coach using to communicate with his wrestlers. If the coach tells you “we need 6”, all it means is that the team needs a pin. A pin is worth six points in a dual match, which is where “we need 6” comes from. Although I participate in this slang while identifying with this group, I was still raised with a formal education and was taught to use proper American English. Regular American English is the language I was taught when I was young, and it is the only language that I feel comfortable communicating fluently in.

The culture I was raised in made it pretty clear what is good and bad. Our culture has different reactions to “deviant behaviors”. Our culture has a way of determining how bad or severe a deviant behavior is. Some things may be so bad that there are legal consequences, while other things are just frown upon with no legal consequences. An example of something that would be considered very bad and have serious legal consequences would be murder. While lying would be an example of something considered less serious in our culture that is just frowned upon with no legal consequences.

I am only fluent in English, so I would be unable to hold a conversation with people of any foreign culture. Although I have never encountered a situation where I needed to communicate with a person of a foreign culture who didn’t speak English, I feel as though I would use body language to help in this situation. By looking at a person’s body language you can sometimes infer what the person is trying to say. When interacting with people of the same or similar culture there is usually no feeling of uncertainty or confusion. This is because two individuals of the same culture can verbally understand each other, which makes it very easy to communicate.

The experiences and knowledge I have gained from associating with these different cultural identities has helped shape me into the person that I am today. My sense of cultural identity has been created, changed, negotiated, and made obvious to me through daily communication. Thank You….are there any questions?