Course: Intercultural Communication

Instructor: Ms. Nguyễn Thanh Hà

Student’s name: Nguyễn Thị Minh Châu

Student ID: 17040513

FINAL ASSIGNMENT
Topic 1: Cultural Identity Narrative 

Answer:

It is undeniable that identity plays a vital role in our life. It affects our life
chances, positions in society and many other aspects as well as enable us to detect
our own strengths and weaknesses in order to become a better version. Steven
Chbosky once said: “So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And
maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to
choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can
still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.” This saying has given me
motivations to explore and define my identities by finding answers to some
questions such as “Who am I?” or “How is that identity of mine formed and
maintained?”. And on the way to find out the answers, I realized one important fact
that the development of my personal identities has been deeply influenced by
social groups and relationship that I am connected with and the culture that I am
immersed in.

First things first, some concepts of identity need to be clarified. Identity is

defined as “an individual’s sense of placement within the world—the meaning one
attaches to oneself as reflected in the answers one provides to the questions, “Who
am I” and, “Who am I to be?” (Zanden and Pace,1984); it focuses on dealing with
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the questions about who we are and how we perceive ourselves in relation with
other. A person can have many different identities at the same time such as
personal identity, social identity and cultural identity. According to Blackwell
(2014), personal identity is involved with the qualities of a person that make him or
her different or unique from others. Social identity is “where the individual meets
larger collective bodies, or groups of affiliation”. Cultural identity means “a sense
of belonging to a distinct ethnic, cultural or subcultural group” (Kelly, 2010). All
these above identities contribute greatly to the self-definition of one individual in a
comprehensive way.

To answer the question of “who am I?”, it is necessary to take a look at some

social groups and relationships that I am connected to. Firstly, in terms of gender, I
am a female, meaning I was expected to have some characteristics/qualities from
my early years of life. For instance, I was taught to be tender, caring, feminine,
girly and obedient and some other personality traits that people think a member of
my gender group need to have. I actually did become a tender and caring girl and
looked girly enough to be recognized as a female at first sight. Also, some other
behaviors that I was taught to learn/ conformed to as being a girl are not drinking
alcohol and not talking too much and too loud. These behaviors established in my
teenage years and has affected my ways of thinking/reacting to the world (for
example I tried to refuse any parties in which people often drank wine/beer).
Secondly, regarding my family, I was born and grew up from a family with a father
being a soldier and a mother being a teacher, which has had great influences on my
living styles. Undergoing harsh training course and living/working lifestyle in the
army force, my father is extremely disciplined, careful and strict. He always asked
me to set up a “different stuffs for different time” habit, clean my own room/ study
corner as well as set up a schedule which helped me to learn effectively. My

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mother is the most influential person in my life. She taught me to dress politely
(with long skirts/dresses and/or shirts) and behave appropriately (rules of greeting,
eating, talking, cooking etc). Thus with such a family, I have established a habit of
getting up early (5:00-6:00 AM), having 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), a
personal closet with no short skirts and so on. Even now I have to stay away from
home as my university is about 50 kilometers far from my hometown, I haven’t
given up those habits thanks to my father. From grade 11, I gradually developed a
passion for cooking with the contribution of my mother; I have a dream of my own
bakery which is strongly supported by her. Moreover, as being the oldest child in
my family, I was expected to study well and behave appropriately, presenting
myself as a model for my siblings. As a result, I knew how to take care of my
younger sister when I was very small and my friends often call me “a young mom”
because I am always in charge of basic care when we’re going out together. The
consciousness of getting good marks when studying was included in my mindset
since I was at primary school; I was well-known for many prizes in contests for
gifted students which seemed to be my “identifying mark” and I was terribly sad
when the result didn’t come up with my expectation. Regarding religion, like every
member of my family, I haven’t follow any religious group yet but I totally trust
the law of “you reap what you soil”, leading to my careful thoughts of possible
consequences before I make any decisions. Finally, in terms of education, I chose
to be a ULIS-er, meaning I have had some features in personality traits that a
student from ULIS (University of Languages and International Studies) often has.
At this university I have been taught and instructed to be creative, independent and
active in both thoughts and behaviors. Since I attended ULIS, I have become more
confident as the teachers and students here embrace every idea/opinion. Being a
ULIS-er, in addition, enables me to manage my time effectively to deal with school

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workloads; even when I am free of deadlines, I always try to schedule every daily
activity.

Talking about culture identity, I am defined myself as a pure Vietnamese

since I was born in Vietnam with red-blood-and-yellow-skin parents, having my
own language, traditional costumes, special cuisine and beliefs of living. Growing
up, I gradually realized that Vietnamese culture has great impact on my sense of
self, mindset and course of behaviors. Though having been an English learner for
years, I always respect my mother tongue and avoid mixing any English words
when communicating with other people in Vietnamese. I am also proud whenever I
wear or see our national as well as traditional costume – “ao dai” – which carries a
lot of Vietnamese core beliefs and values. Last but not least, the way I see the
world has been affected a lot by numerous beliefs of living as well as precious
traditions that were passed down from our ancestors, which is great patriotism,
solidarity and hard work. These are the factors that contribute a lot to the
establishment of my true self accompanying those from my family, gender,
religion and education.

In conclusion, understanding our own identities is a long process which

requires a lot of time and effort. Perhaps we are not aware of our personal, social
or cultural identities but all of social groups and relationship that we have
connection with is now and then significantly affecting our sense of self. This
identity narrative did a great job in helping me discover my actual and long-
standing personality traits which I haven’t known before. Thanks to this, I got a
chance to better understand myself, what I am really as well as others.

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 REFERENCES

Baldwin, J. R., R., M. C., González, A., & Shenoy-Packer, S. (2014). Intercultural
communication for everyday life. West Sussex, UK: Chichester.

Gender & Gender Roles. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2020, from
https://www.youthdoit.org/themes/sexual-and-reproductive-healthand-rights-
are-human-rights/gender-and-gender-roles/

Kelly, L. (n.d.). What is identity? Retrieved May 22, 2020, from

https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/what-is-identity/

Storey, R. (n.d.). How does environment shape a person’s identity? Retrieved May
22, 2020, from https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?
appid=b9c42eb1a7604910b5f7e86055a0d159

Vander Zanden, J., & Pace, A. (1984). Educational Psychology: In Theory and
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Vietnamese People - Characteristics & Lifestyle - Viet Vision Travel. (2020,

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Wakefield, J.R.H., Sani, F., Madhok, V. et al. (2017). The Relationship Between
Group Identification and Satisfaction with Life in a Cross-Cultural
Community Sample. J Happiness Study 18, 785–807.
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