Cultural Identity Essay Examples

I am a first generation immigrant to the United States from South Korea. While my ethnic identity is Korean, I consider my cultural identity a blend of both American and Korean as my cultural experiences have occurred in the United States while my roots lie within Korea. Considering my family’s origins as a whole, my family has resided in Korea. It was the decision of my immediate family to move to the United States for better opportunities. The Korean culture’s unique foods have been around my household as I grew up, but we did not continue with any particular celebrations nor customs during our time in the United States at home.
Growing up in a moderate town of Columbus, Georgia, we faced the issue of being a minority race and ethnicity in …show more content…
This disparity did not affect us much in the dominant culture of the United States as much as the differences in our culture or the physical differences. These other family history factors seemed to be minimalized by the other concerns of the language barriers and the physical differences during our time here. Recognizing these differences have influenced me by learning to accept that I am inherently different than the major population at a very young age. While I may be difference, there is certainly nothing wrong with this …show more content…
I recognize that I have a significant privilege to pursue higher education. My identity as a student is important to me because I believe education is a major factor of future success. My identity as evolved from a previous participant of an ESOL program during elementary school and have now progressed into a full-fledged college student, who is involved in many parts of campus. My powerful influences on this evolution can be attributed to the encouragement of my teachers to seek learning. Whether it be in the arts or sciences, I was encouraged to learn and grow in education and ultimately as a person. To this day, I seek to learn any way I can, whether it be from books or from my relationships with others.
My identity does play a significant role in how I perceive the world and how the world perceives me. I have a particularly unique perspective of being a part of two completely different cultures while I am unable to be fully immersed in either. Additionally, the world will perceive me with a certain bias by my racial status as an Asian male but also a college student as well. These multiple identities have shaped how I view the world to be explored while the world may perceive me as a naïve individual due to my experiences (or lack