Pedram Peddy PPI Rahmanian Speech 7Intercultural Communications Tuesday, March 08, 2011 Cultural Identity Mini-Paper #1 I am one

final product of my Jewish, Hebrew forefathers throughout all time. The Jewish nation has been dispersed around the globe, and my ancestors have landed themselves in the country of Iran. My loving parents then brought my family of five to the best country that is known as the land of the free; The United States of America! My previous brief history would indicate that my true culture is that of an Israelite (as the book Intercultural Competence states, Culture is a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms, and social practices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people, and my being Persian or Iranian, and an American would be co-cultures within first the country of Iran and then within the white Americans that discovered the United States of America. In chapter two: Culture and Intercultural Communications chapter of the book Intercultural Competence also states, Co-culture suggests, for instance, that there is a single overarching culture in the United States, thus giving undue prominence to the European American cultural group and implicitly suggesting, as Thierry Devos and Mahzarin Banaji note, that American equals White: We view the United States as a nation within which there are many cultures, and we regard and similar groups of people as cultures in their own right. Well ingrained within my culture, and co-cultures, there have also been three main relationships I have had, that also shaped my life into where it is today. My initial relationship arising from my family and my roots, My relationship with society, and finally rediscovering my long lost relationship with my inter self!

I dont think there exists, too many individuals that have mastered the art of life, YET that having been stated, I was born above average, but created my own personal defects as I grew older. I was born in the Islamic fundamentalist country of Iran, the capital of Tehran, and into a Jewish, above average family. My young age and the protection my family provided me, guarded me from the very brutal environment I was born in. The very small co-culture population of Jews didnt really have as many fans as the majority of Muslims who were the main culture of Iran, and the Jews and other minority co-cultures were periodically oppressed! After a baby bird is born and fully nurtured, the mother bird pushes the baby bird out of its nest to force itself to fly and grow! Most humans, including myself, have transitioned from their home into the society to further develop. My relationship with society wasnt that easy at first, because I really missed my mommy! But I learned to make friends, and from the very early on, I learned to love and respect others. This characteristic trait, that was passed down by my Israelite ancestors, onto my Persian parents, and then on to me has always guided me to better form and manifest my life. I grew older, adopted the wrong role models, and dragged myself to the very bottom of the gutter. A monster was who I had turned in to, and I often got into trouble for breaking the law. I sustained a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, spent 13 days in a coma, and turned into a vegetable; from a catastrophic car accident for being intoxicated and high at the age of seventeen! That is when my harsh sufferings intensified, and gradually progressed! Not being able to communicate my inter thoughts, feelings, and desires forced me to turn on to my inter self. Much depression, anxiety, and hopelessness on top of a

variety of other ailment had inhabited themselves in to my everyday life. This long and torturous journey lasted approximately over ten years, but I then started to better realize my mission in life, resulting from my relations between my external aspects of my life to my internal aspect of my life. I received every kind of therapy that was available to me, and I learned to communicate appropriately with my surroundings, once I learned how to communicate with myself! This latter stage of my development, was devastating, okay, fun, and exhilarating back and forth, while also intertwined! Self realization lead me closer to my ideal life actualization. I became more pure, and then witnessed my surroundings also become more pure. Im extremely happy and grateful for having the opportunity of working on this essay, since I managed to successfully meditate, introspect, and finally better realize my history. My culture has been learned, through a set of shared interpretations, that has involved beliefs, values, norms, and social practices; it affected my behavior, within large groups of people: nations as our book explains, Nation is a political term referring to a government and a set of formal and legal mechanisms that regulate the political behavior of its people. Within races, Race commonly refers to certain physical similarities, such as skin color or eye shape, that are shared by a group of people and are used to mark or separate them from others. Also within Ethnicities, Ethnicity is actually a term that is used to refer to a wide variety of groups who might share a language, historical origins, religion, nation-state, or cultural system. I go through life viewing myself equal to everyone else, while loving and respecting everyone and everything. A very bright future is the only option I am left with