Personal Narrative: My Asian Heritage In My Family

Improved Essays
I’ve grown up with two cultures in my household. My mother who moved to America from South Korea when she was fourteen and my father who was born in New Jersey and raised in Washington. Our family is one that is always active. Trips as a child were almost always camping. But they were camping with a twist. Instead of roasting marshmallows over the fire we would be roasting pot stickers. My mothers Asian heritage has always been relevant in our lives. It influenced a lot of my childhood including when her and I moved to Korea for six months my Sophomore year. My mom got a work opportunity in Korea and she took it and me. I was much further immersed in Korean culture. We lived in the center of Seoul an extremely urban city to that of what I’m

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    When my father first immigrated from China to America, he was nervous, bittersweet about leaving his native country, but mostly excited. To him and thousands of others like him, America was a sign of a life of new opportunity. Growing up, my life was a blend of American and Chinese cultures. As a young child, I was always unsure if I was more American or Chinese, or even both. I didn’t feel like I fit into any of those categories.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    When one thinks of Iowa, one does not necessarily think of cultural diversity. The more and more I think about it as I have matured, it was exceedingly challenging to grow up as an Asian in my community. That is because I sometimes had trouble understanding the culture of others and my own culture at my young age. When I was younger, I found it very challenging to understand many of the things my peers and teachers were saying figuratively. For example, I had difficulty understanding jokes, so I took them literally and did not know they were joking.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout my life I have been part many diverse cultures and of many community that contain a wide range of race and ethnicity. I was born in Ecuador and moving to the United States was a huge slap in the face. The culture and the way thing were done here compared to my home country was totally different. The life style in Ecuador was harsh and unpleasing but in the states life was so much more pleasurable with all the opportunities that are given me. The only problem is that people where closed minded.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The world I come from is filled with great people, and is set up with opportunities for success, and achievement. I come from a strong, large, multiracial family. A family of courage, pride and one that has fought to prosper for generations. I know because of them I became the woman I am today. I grew up very fortunate due to the fact that my parents fought so hard to give my three sister, brother and I the life they couldn't receive.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Being in a biracial family is something I had never expected to happen. Growing up in a stereotypical Asian family, I was always taught to be conservative in our behavior, never be out walking alone, and to be cautious of the poor, Black homeless people who are often hanging around the slummy alleyways of downtown Los Angeles eying random passersby with either a gloomy, defeated look in their eyes or a hard, uncomfortable stare. As a result, I grew up to become a very cautious and reserved family girl. I rarely went out with friends and usually felt content with settling in my warm, serene home. The thought of becoming friends from outside my comfort zone was never something I expected nonetheless becoming family with a whole different race never crossed my mind until the one day…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I do not live the typical Asian American life. I reside in a state of limbo, somewhere between being full American and full Asian. My well-off, Wisconsin bred parents are not what people expect when they see me from the outside. From the exterior, it’s easy to assume that my parents (or at least one of them) are Asian.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Going through small private schools in a little town since I was in kindergarten has set me up for very few cultural experiences but my parents never wanted my siblings and I to grow up like this. When my family goes on vacation my mom always tries to fully submerge us in the culture around us. For example, a few years ago, my family and I went on a vacation in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. We stayed in a nice resort and it was never necessary to leave the property if you didn’t want to. Most people never did.…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    There are many different ways we can identify ourselves—perhaps you are a white, female, San Franciscan, or a first-generation college student and Chinese-American son. Please share two or three of your core identifiers and how they have shaped who you are. (500) I am Chinese-American. I am the proud daughter of two Chinese immigrants, who rose out of poverty in order to go to medical school and become successful doctors in the United States. They raised my sister and me while still struggling through their residency, and still take us back to their native cities of Shanghai and Wenzhou whenever they can.…

    • 1366 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the area I live in, there is a mix of many different cultures. I’ve lived in the same area for almost 14 years and I've seen different culture groups grow and others slowly decrease. The language the was usually heard when I first moved in has also changed throughout the years and has had an impact on the type of people I now interact with on the daily basis. With the different cultures growing and moving into the neighborhood I live in I have begun to see a change in the type of local shops, clothing, and food. Even at the local schools, I can see the changes in culture and how schools try to have better interactions with the children.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    My Mexican Culture

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I’m Mexican, I was born in Mexico but then brought over here to the US when I was around 3 years old. My whole family was born in Mexico and I’m the youngest child which means that all of my brothers and sister grew up for most of their childhood in Mexico and my oldest sister even got married over there. We eventually all moved over here and that resulted in our family being very culturally connected with Mexico’s culture. My mother is a strong believer in continuing cultural traditions even if we are in a different place. So she made sure we always knew a lot about where we came from or special traditions that were done in Mexico.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Place with a Memory Just like everyone in the United States of America, excluding Native Americans, I’m an immigrant and/or come from immigrant descendants. This means everyone has a race or ethnic group from which they descend from, and they may or may not follow the cultural aspects of their kin. For me, I am an immigrant who moved to the United States from Pakistan at the age of two (2002), so while my parents grew up with a great deal of culture and tradition, I did not; I only have what they attempted to affix on me. Being a first-generation immigrant, I grew up with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents directly on the opposite side of the world from me, so to me my real family was only between me, my mom, my dad, and…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Growing up in San Jose, California, for example, I was always surrounded by Vietnamese and—to a lesser extent—Filipino students at school. Because my schools were dominated by a Vietnamese population, I tended to drift towards that direction and befriend Vietnamese people. Being Asian was enough to be able to have shared experiences and beliefs with them, yet other parts of their culture I had to learn from them. Slowly, I began to assimilate with the culture of Vietnamese-Americans which has been reinforced through my ideals and experiences shared with friends. Reflecting on my life now, I see that even today a majority of my friends are Vietnamese.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Living in the U.S for so long didn’t change my mother much, she continued to be adamant on traditions of her country; however, on the other hand me and my siblings live a fairly normal American life, or so I thought. According to my mother, we were very lucky to live the life we did: we had a home, food and family - I couldn’t agree more. The preparations began early,…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Even among other Korean Americans, I did not fit because usually they were more American or more Korean. For instance, they didn’t speak any Korean and were totally raised as an American. When I tried to speak Korean to them, although they were Korean themselves they would tell me speak English because this is America. It really surprised me because even though they don’t speak Korean or very little, they dismissed their Korean heritage. Moreover, there were other Korean Americans not in those categories as well but they had their own culture made.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I will focus on aspects from school, from my family, and from my friends that led to the formation of my cultural and ethnic identities. I was born biracial. My father is Italian American and my mother is 100% Filipino. As a result, I have been exposed to a wide range of beliefs, values,…

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays