Cultural Identity: Communicating With Multicultural Parents

Cultural Identity Essay
Radhika Gogna
0757448
Parent Child Relations, ECS 2000
Mohamad Haniff
Wednesday September 26, 2012

Parent Child Relations Essay
This paper will briefly describe how Hinduism reflects my upbringings, as well as my abilities to communicate with multicultural parents, and their children. This essay will entail the traditions and values that shape my identity, as well as my everyday life. Furthermore, my in depth detail of the struggles and hardships that immigrants have to deal with will allow me to sympathize for whomever deals with similar circumstances.
Part One A
While my household consists of a two- parent family, both parents differ in numerous ways. The main differences that may be drawn to are
culture. Culturally, both my parents were brought up in different ways, which eventually leads to it affecting my upbringing. My father was born and raised in India where he followed one solid tradition. However, my mother was raised in England, following the same tradition, while she celebrated holidays that were outside of her religion, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. This mixture of culture and tradition, from both my parents, allows me to have a greater scope of the variety of religious there are out there.
Being from an origin of the Hindu background, there are several religious practices that shape the family relationship. Many of the cultural traditions that Hindu’s follow throughout the year indirectly or directly deal with family relationships, and connection through certain experiences. An example of one of the main traditions that happen every year is Raksha Bandhan. Raksha Bandhan is a day solely devoted to the bond of the brother and sister. On this specific day, sisters are asked to tie a Rakhi around the brother’s wrist, which signifies the sisters praying for a life filled with love, happiness and prosperity (Raksha Bandhan n.d.). A Rakhi is a symbolic thread, which represents the love and affection a sister has for her brother. It can also be said “ this frail of thread of Rakhi is considered stronger than iron chains as it binds the most beautiful relationship in an inseparable bond of love and trust” (Raksha Bandhan n.d.). While growing up, socialization from family and friends had a dramatic effect on the person I am today. Although the lessons I have learnt as a child did not directly take place verbally, many were learned from observing my parents as they were going through their daily lives. Not only did socialization affect the relationship between my parents and I, but it also taught me to adapt to social rules, and acquire a new outlook on culture.
Part B
From an early period of a child’s life, young children are taught not to discriminate amongst other cultures, and religions.
Moreover, children are taught to embrace all cultures, and values that the world has to offer us, with either it be music, art, religion or a diversity of food. While examining Guthrie’s theory based on children learning new cultural patterns, I believe it is relevant to myself, for the reason that I am involved in more than one culture, even though I follow one concrete religion. From a young age, I have been taught to abide by the Hindu culture, although this does not necessarily mean I missed out on the opportunity to celebrate multiple holidays outside of my culture. Annually, my family and I celebrate numerous festivals and celebrations even though they may not relate to our specific religion or
culture.
It is noticed that all children can open-mindedly accept cultural patterns more easily than adults, and this may be for numerous reasons. While observing Guthrie’s theory about children learning new cultural patterns more easily than adults, I believe it would help me empathize with multicultural parents and their children by understanding the fact that young children may be curious, or feel the need to ask questions about their religion and culture. As a young child, I was never to sure about the reasons as to why we celebrated a certain tradition, or why we prayed to the specific gods that we did. Furthermore, I never felt comfortable enough asking my parents because I felt that might lecture me about religion or even look down on me. Just as I did, I believe that many children would also be struggling with grasping the concept behind their specific religion. As an ECS professional, I would be more than willing to explain, and empathize with multicultural parents and their children. This is why I believe that it is critical for ESC professionals to have a clear foundation based on religion, and culture of all sorts.

Part Two C
While being raised to have an open mind towards religion, culture, and traditions, I find that it will be first nature for me to understand the variety of struggles that many immigrant parents had to deal with in their past.
Coming from a family where my father emigrated from India, I have a broad concept of the struggles and difficulties many multicultural parents and their children may be trying to over come. While being a new immigrant, my father only knew how to speak his first language, which was Punjabi. Moreover, while he first came to Canada he only had a limited amount of money, which would only suffice him for a short period of time. Comparatively, while I was growing up, English was my first and only language, which I knew how to speak at the time. As a result, this had made a language barrier between the two of us from a young age. Even at the present age, my father and I have found ways to work around this, such as him speaking in Punjabi while I may respond in English. While dealing with this obstacle for a majority of my life, I have found ways to deal with this problem, and work around
it.
While working as an ECS profession, I believe that my past experience having first hand difficulties with language would be a great addition working in a child welfare agency. For instance, if I were observing a child struggling with his or her peers, I would suggest communication skills that would benefit the both of them, while teaching them skills that they could use in the future. In addition, I believe that it is important for children of all ages not to judge different cultures or languages, simply because they may not understand that specific religion

This paper briefly explained the transactional and situational nature of my culture identity and how it would help me as an ECS professional. Furthermore, by using one of Guthrie’s five theories, I justified and related it to myself describing how it would assist me in helping multicultural parents and their children. In conclusion, I believe that it is essential that ECS professionals reflect upon themselves, and their overall identity, in order to grasp the value of tradition and culture in students, and multicultural parents everyday lives.

References
Raksha Bandhan. (n.d.). Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India. Retrieved from
http://www.raksha-bandhan.com/