Comfort with one's cultural self

There are many aspects that may  change how comfortable someone is with their cultural self. Specifically today, I am going to talk about my thoughts on the effects of minority groups, first/second generation immigrant, or whether you live in a unicultural or multicultural setting.

When we look at whether someone is from a minority or majority group it would make a lot of sense that this would effect the comfort with the cultural self. It would be quite apparent, that someone from a minority group would be less comfortable with their cultural self. They would be in a society of people of dominant other beliefs, skin colours, or languages. Because of this, they would be less certain with how others view them, and how they act culturally.

When it comes to looking at a first/second generation immigrant, it is very clear that a second generation immigrant would be much more comfortable. This would be because they had grown up in the same area as the culture, and while there would be certain things transmitted by their parents, they would be interacting everyday from birth in the dominant culture. First generation immigrants would be dependent on when they moved here. As discussed in the textbook, there seem to be sensitive periods for cultural learning (that's linked quite closely with the sensitive periods for language acquisition). So the earlier they would have immigrated, the more comfortable they would be likely to be with their cultural self in a new area.


The area I live in is quite bicultural. At this time, more and more Asians are beginning to move into the Moncton area, but the area is still dominated by white people of European descent. The two major cultures around Moncton are the English and the French Acadians. Because of this mix, Moncton like other Acadian areas has a health dose of the French English mixed language named Chiaque (or Frenglish to some). due to being a part of one of the major groups in the Moncton area, it is a lot easier to be able to feel comfortable with my cultural identity.