culture paper

Culture A person’s culture is extremely important. It helps to tell our story; who we are, where we came from and the customs to which we follow. As we learn our roots more deeply we begin to understand why we were raised the way we were and taught what we now know today. For my family and myself our Portuguese ethnicity has made a tremendous impact on how we live our lives. My culture strongly believes in the Roman Catholic faith. These beliefs also include being baptized and being married in the church. Ever since I was a little I have always attended a Catholic church. I attended CCD on Sundays from preschool until fourth grade. Once I got to fifth grade I began going on every Wednesday until my sophomore year of high school when I was confirmed. Although I was not baptized as early as most of my family would have liked, I was baptized during kindergarten and shortly after received my first communion. We also attended church every Sunday, which was always very important to my family. Along with our beliefs, our values included God, family and work. Our Catholic faith and respect for authority has always been practiced for as long as I can remember. The Portuguese language was influenced by Latin roots and had some Arabic origin. Portuguese was made the official language under King Dinis. The dialect of Portuguese is found near the border with Spain and is slowly disappearing. Most of my Portuguese family lived in Hawaii; because of this many of them spoke Hawaiian instead of Portuguese. However, my great-grandparents knew the Portuguese language as well as Hawaiian. I have never been taught Portuguese, but when we would go to Hawaii my great-grandma had a book of the Hawaiian language and she would teach me different words. Because of our cultural relativism it was typically looked down upon to use foul language. So when I am around my family I do not use it as a sign of respect towards them. Today I would consider this a folkway