To me, language is a way certain groups of people communicate with each other. There can be various subsections and whatnot, for example if some people know English and Spanish, and others know Spanish and Portuguese. Culture, on the other hand, is the traditions certain groups have, whether it be language, or celebrations, or way of eating food. They play a pretty big role in my life, as I speak both Enlglish and Chinese, so I’ll often speak Chinese at home but English outside, which helps show how I’m Chinese American. Language relates to culture in this sense: if people have a similar culture, they will also have a similar language. Often, it’s also important to learn culture when learning a language to get context for things like idioms or sayings.

Some misperceptions I’ve faced about my culture is I have online friends who have only seen me talk, and since I grew up in the US, I sound very American. However, most people won’t realize I’m Chinese, since they think I would have an accent. My guess as to why is because Chinese people are viewed as foreign, so if I’m Chinese I’m foreign, and they don’t expect me to have good English.

Since I come from multiple cultures, I understand the struggles some people face to understand other cultures, since I grew up with a mash of both, not really belonging to one. I guess this is the challenge I face; knowing both individually instead of thinking of them as the same.

It’s important to recognize that people have different cultural norms. For example, in one culture it may be normal to eat in hands, but in much of the US that would be considered barbaric. Recognizing people have different norms and ways they do things can help alleviate some of the “disgust” some people might feel for other classes.