Cultural Awareness Essay

841 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Conclusion about cultural awareness

Cultural Awareness: Definition, Purpose and Benefits Cultural awareness is where one becomes open to new beliefs, cultures, and religions. It requires one to be open to new ideas and perceptions, without discrimination. Cultural awareness also requires one to understand his or her own beliefs to better learn about another culture’s differences. The purpose of cultural awareness is to understand people who are different then oneself to better interact with them. By learning a person’s culture one could also incorporate traits of another culture in his or her life. Lastly, being culturally aware is very important when learning about new cultures and beliefs.
Selection of Event or Meeting The meeting I attended was a traditional Hindu service. …show more content…

For example, growing up my childhood friend practiced the Sikh religion. And being in a highly Roman Catholic influenced area, this religion was unfamiliar to me at first. But by spending time and really getting to understand this religion, I was shown a very different way of life.
Sikhs devote much of their time praying to God and studying his word; more than the modern Christian does. Sikhs are also very involved with the Thai and Indian culture. They embrace the traditional food and drinks of their native countries. Sikhs often take part in traditional knife dancing and musical performances as well. Being around this different way of life eventually led me to getting involved with the religion. I would attend prayer services, learn traditional Indian and Thai music, and eat the cuisine.
I have also explored my own culture to better my understanding of the world. Being primarily of the German descent, I have embraced this within myself and have learned so much. By actively getting involved with the culture I have met with the German Ambassador to the United States, became semi-fluent in the language, and have taken part in numerous German oriented events around the country. By immersing myself in the culture I have begun to better understand myself and how the German people live and

Show More
Related

  • Is Art A Waste Of Time Analysis

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Art is a Waste of Time” it is said that “art’s impact grows by reaching larger audiences” (Southan,439). So for example, the more people who see that picture of a police officer beating a black man then the more impact it makes and the more people will empathize and want to do something to make a change therefore bringing awareness to the issue. Through art is how we find out about many issues going on in the world and without that we would just be a chaotic world full of unaware people. Art can also bring awareness for different cultures because often times people are ignorant or disrespectful to people of different cultures because they don’t know anything about it. If people are exposed to different cultures either through settings like school or the workplace people will be more aware. So everyone will be respectful of each other when it comes to their cultures, their beliefs, and values. I think the world would benefit from being culturally aware because it would lead to respect which would bring some peace to the

    Read More

  • Understanding Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Individuality

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Life experiences allow individual to grasp the meaning of culture, people in our surrounding, and value the ethnic diversity into our society. Culture consists of the knowledge people use to live

    Read More

  • Cultural Awareness: Egypt

    2834 Words  | 6 Pages

    Becoming aware of a culture supersedes the individual emotions you may experience in trying to understand how a group of people have become, through their own experience, different from the identity that you have attained from your own culture. “Cultural awareness is one being aware of their personal attitudes, beliefs, biases, and behaviors that may influence the type of care they are able to render in an environment.” (Mopraize)

    Read More

  • The Culture Intelligence Difference: Cultural Intelligence

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    Author David Livermore defines cultural intelligence is as the “capability to function effectively in a variety of cultural contexts” (Livermore, 2011, p. 3). In order for achieving dimensional

    Read More

  • The Mexican American Culture

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    Our world is made up of many diverse cultures. These cultures have influenced many aspects of this world that we live in today. Understanding and developing knowledge about these cultures is vitally important. Having the ability to understand other cultures will allow you to look deeper into your own cultural values.

    Read More

  • Cultural Interview Essay

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    A cultural assessment interview is very important when taking care of patients or their families who may be from a different culture than the nurse’s. In order to be able to better take care of a patient, we first need to know their own interpretation of disease and illness within their cultural context, values, and beliefs. Since I am Indian and my culture is a mix of the Indian cultural beliefs and my religion Islam, I was looking forward to this interview so that I am able to learn more about different cultures using my assessment.

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay On Culture

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    The word “culture” is defined different to every person. It is how you interpret it in your life. Many ways of how we interpret culture is based on your ethnic, personal experience, and who you see yourself as. You interact with the group that best fits you. For instance, the language you speak, where you were born, the people you work with, and last but not least your career. Culture is rapidly changing as we continue to grow up. We belong to different group of cultures. There is not a certain culture you pertain to but how comfortable you feel within that culture. Indeed, there’s this quote used in Lisa Sherff and Karen Spector book, that explains that it’s not about the ethnicity or geological location you come from but based upon

    Read More

  • Racism And Cultural Awareness

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cultural awareness focuses on raising individuals knowledge about cultural experiences that are different from their own. Cultural awareness training maintains an ‘other’ rather than clear self-focus for participants. Cultural awareness also tends to have an individual rather than systemic focus.

    Read More

  • Multicultural Education Essay

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Public schools in this country are, historically and still today, the major institution charged with preserving and teaching the icon of morality. “"Common School" means elementary school intended to serve all the children. It was not "free school." Parents were often required to pay part of the cost for common school. The history of common school is complicated by local variation.” (Carl Kaestle) In the early years public schools functioned to ensure that domination of Protestant Anglo-American culture in the United States. But as immigration increased from non-protestant countries and minority cultures struggled for recognition, the schools became a battleground over multicultural education. The three main focuses on why education has changed and evolved are Schools, Charity,

    Read More

  • Culturally Responsive Teaching Essay

    1561 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to Gay, culturally responsive teaching is employing previous experience, performance style of student, and cultural knowledge for the purposes of making learning more suitable and effective for students (Gay, 2000). In other words, culturally responsive teaching practice is using cultural experiences, perceptions of ethnically, and cultural features of student to facilitate when teaching. Furthermore, culturally responsive teaching practice teaches through and to the strength of students. Culturally responsive teaching practices is necessary in connecting the cultural knowledge of students, style of performance, and previous experience to the knowledge of academic with the goal of legitimizing what the students already know. Therefore,

    Read More

  • Cultural Awareness In Australia Essay

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Australian people and the way live are not as different as one might think. They do some different ways of living, and different ways of believing, but one thing they are not is negative or mean. Most live a happy, modest life, most are happy and want everyone around them to be as happy as they are. They have had their difficulties, but always come back on top. The Australians diverse way of looking at life has shown that they truly are what they seem to be friendly, down to earth and very conscientious about their way of living truly sets them aside from most places in the world.

    Read More

  • What Is Cultural Awareness Essay

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    The key aspect of cultural awareness is understanding the differences between people from other countries, races, beliefs and values. Individuals who are culturally aware are accepting of other cultures; they also make an effort to understand other cultures. Others will label these cultures as “incorrect” owing to the fact that they lack the understanding of cultural awareness.

    Read More

  • Cultural Awareness In The United States

    2114 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cultural awareness is defined as, “A history treating one or a number of historic world cultures as an integrated unit for purposes of cross comparison with others and for analysis of the forces presumed to be in operation as regards to cultural growth, development, fruition, and decay” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). One could argue the United States has made important milestones in developing into a progressive, culturally sensitive society. One question still remains: through the vast amount of global campaigns, has the United States achieved any actual benchmarks in cultural awareness? Recent history would indicate no. Our inability to understand and adapt to other cultures has cost the United States significantly in conflicts in Germany,

    Read More

  • Cultural Relativism Essay

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...as well as understand it. Culture is gray; there is no black and white. There are many aspects that come into play in the importance of culture, such as political economy. Being able to maintain my culture here in Los Angeles has become more important to me after moving from Minnesota. Just because I am not geographically in the Minnesota anymore doesn’t mean I feel any less Minnesotan. It is also important to overcome the stereotype of knowing everything about a culture because a lot of the time, and in my personal experience, I am just a piece of the puzzle. This is especially true when it comes to the culture of a state. Therefore, the duality that I believe exists in this idea of cultural relativism has proved my ambivalence toward it due to my experience living in a culture where aspects of both the principle of cultural relativism and its criticisms are true.

    Read More

  • The Traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Two religions’ that stood out the most I would have to say is Hinduism and Buddhism These two religions have been around for centuries. In Hinduism it means a way of Life, traditionally is followed by Indian descent. We learned in class that Hinduism is called “Sanatan Dharma meaning External Religion. In India majority of people that reside there are identified as Hindus. Predominantly, Hinduism is of India region. There are many names that are followed by Hinduism which to name a few are Sanatan Dharma which was stated above, Vedic religion, Agama Hindu Dharma just to name a few of many. (Dorma pg. 16) To mankind Hinduism is one of the oldest religions, which has a dated that goes far back as 2500 B.C., which has been argumentative. Their are many forms ritual’s that are passed on and done through Hinduism for example like piercing of child ears, ritual when child is being taken out of his or her house, also in the third month called Pusavana. Fourth month and fifth month of pregnancy ritual is performed which is called Simanatonayana. There is a marriage ritual done called Vivaha. (Dogma p. 26-29) In this religion important and interesting beliefs that carried out are as follows: Salvation, Reincarnation, Karma. (Dogma pg. 7-13) In Salvation our souls go through continuous suffering and will even exiting to change bodies. Next we go into reincarnation we all have Supreme soul it can be relieve by changing clothes and going into another body, transformation. In Hinduism, basically doing good deed is the right thing to do. We are reincarnated and the soul does not die, it just passes on depending on how good we were in previous life. Hinduism requires meditation in the form of Yoga, offering for temple. (Dogma Pgs. 7-13) Mos...

    Read More

More about Cultural Awareness Essay

Open Document