Personal Narrative: My Culture

I was born and raised in Vietnam, so I naturally observed my culture from my family and my previous schools. I learned most of my culture by watching and coping the ways my family do things. My family and my friends all spoke Vietnamese, so I eventually knew how to speak and understand deeply about my language as I grew up. At home, my mom cooked many Vietnamese foods, and she also taught me to cook Vietnamese food. So I became accustom Vietnamese food. I also learned that grandparents and parents in my culture are taken care of until they die. At school, I learned to address people formally and greet higher-ranking people first. In Vietnamese culture, ranking and status are not related to wealth, so they are concerned with age and education.

Most of people in my country, including my family, are Buddhist. When I was a child, my mom and my grandmother frequently took me to temples on specific holidays of Buddhism. That was also one of the reasons that I became Buddhist. I learned how to observe things with sincerity in life, including sincerity in mindfulness, speech, judgment, and work.

I think the Internet has changed my culture drastically. Today, people tend to depend too much on the internet, so they like to communicate with other people through social media rather than face to face. In order to absorb culture fully, people need to communicate and follow others in real life. However, I think internet helps me explore some perspectives that I have never known before.