My American Culture

Who am I ? The type of question we tend to ask ourselves at least once in a lifetime. The image that we develop and show to others, is who we are. As you can see in the title of my essay, our identity is shaped by our culture. Many people assert, that culture is simply the way you live, but in my own conceit, culture are all the things (beliefs, values, traditions, religions, & behaviors) that as a person I learn, and define my actions or positions. Each individual is different from the rest of the population (including closest family members), it's not only genetics that make a person different, but also culture and society. Besides having different fingerprints , the cultural environment in which we grow up, define who we are. Vygotsky's
Sociocultural theory emphasizes that a child's cognitive develops as a result of communal connections between members of a culture. I grew up in Central America. specifically in a country named Honduras. As anyone that is currently my age, I come from a different background. I grew up speaking Spanish as my first language, and English as my second language.
In my Honduran culture is essential that as a kid you are taught that appreciating what you have is important and that what was given to you is what you need. Also, that respect is the golden rule in school and at home, sing proudly your national anthem, always be cordial and that family always comes first. I practiced all of the above, in my house and in school ( by the way I was taught that school was my 2nd home). In my opinion those were some of the important contributions my culture made in me. According to Vygotsky's, as children we play and cooperate with others and we learn what is important for our society and we also start to comprehend the world differently. When I came to this country 5 years ago, I realized that the people that surrounded me had different attitudes and point of views; that is because we are from diverse cultures, but besides that we had similarities that united us, and that’s how we started our friendship. For example , my friend Sarah she is American Caucasian , and we have different views on what is the importance of family. she believes that its normal that after you graduate high school to leave your house, have friends in 1st place and family in 2nd place, and for me that’s a bit too extreme , because I didn’t grew up with those
examples. As I have mentioned already, the environment and people we grow up they influence us a lot . This is known as reciprocal transaction. The way I was raised and taught in school was different from what my friend Sarah was taught here. therefore we have influenced each other in different ways. The skills we develop and the way in which we approach to others, in my case the subject "family" are different, but despite that we are close friends and that’s all about living in a multicultural society like LA. According to Brofenbrenner, we are products of 4 components: processes, person, context, & time. In this case I want to focus on context (mesosystem,exosystem, macro system), but zooming more into it what I want to talk about is the macro system. The macro system is the representation of all the cultural influences in a person's life. I grew up in Honduras, and that shaped the way I see, live, and act in the American society, but also living here has changed my view in many aspects. All of these factors influence a child's development. the exposure that we have with a main culture and subcultures also shape what we know and grow up with. Its many things that come in hand with culture that emphasize the development of any child.