Nguyen 1

Carrie Nguyen
Makarosyan
English 114B
12 May 2016
My Culture and Identity
I am proud to say that I am Vietnamese-American girl who is born here in Northridge,
California. Growing up, I learned many things about my culture and in the process I have
matured about how I see things. However, living in America it can be hard to maintain your
culture. Living in American can feel like I have this inner battle between my native culture and
the American culture. If I have to pick a place that I would claim as my own then I would say
that it would be a Buddhist temple. Although, this may seem strange to pick this but I believe,
this describes a lot about my culture and has shaped me and my world view.
There is this Buddhist temple that me and my family would always visit especially
around Chinese New Year and the temple has a lot of cultural Vietnamese influences. My temple
has a shrine which is where my family pray to our dead ancestors and our family is required to
pray every day. The temple also has these statues, charms and momentums in it that possess good
luck and ward off evil spirits. During Chinese New year my family makes food for the ancestors,
and also my family is about respecting the family and valuing traditions. I also feel like the
traditions make me feel more connected with my family as well it is what brings us together.
Chinese new year is a time where I feel so connected with not only my family members but the
Vietnamese community as well. Living in America, can be difficult because it is hard to stay in
touch with your cultural roots. Visiting my temple, always give me wonderful memories of
feeling connected with my family and my culture and I realize that spending time with family is

Nguyen 2
so important. I learned that I should not take my family for granted and I should spend time to
appreciate them more often. I also learned that I should be happy to what I have now and
appreciate everything that comes to my way instead of complain about them.
There are physical boundaries in my space such as the leaking roof in the temple. I think
to me it represents more of the cultural barriers. In my family, my parents are very traditional and
sometimes our beliefs and traditions would clash because I learned throughout all my life and in
my school about the American culture so at times our viewpoints might get in the way and we
may disagree with each other at times and sometimes I get embarrassed of my culture because it
is different. My other friends would sometimes tease me about how different or weird my
culture is compared to them. Sometimes I would get confused of my Vietnamese culture and my
American culture since I am Vietnamese-American. In the essay of Borderlands, I felt like the
main character in the essay when she said that cradled in one culture, sandwiched into two
cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems la mestiza undergoes a struggle of
flesh, a struggle, of borders, an inner war. (Anzaldua 2099). But in the end, I learn to respect my
culture and I decided that I should learn to understand the roots of my culture. I remember ny
parents would always watch this DVD called Paris by Night (which is a Vietnamese performance
show that has singing, dancing, skits, etc.) and I always thought to myself, what is so good
about this DVD? I decided to watch more Paris by Night DVDS and I was so fascinated
watching the performers and by watching the DVDs I even got better at speaking my native
language. Not only that, but listening to those songs really touched me. Those songs made me
realize how fascinating my cultures history is and that some of these songs are songs that my
parents love to hear when they were kids which made me happy because in a way it is like a little
sneak peak in their past. Now, I watch Paris by Night DVDs with my parents because it creates a

Nguyen 3
great bonding time with my family. Back in middle school, I also ended up taking Vietnamese
classes at a Buddhist temple, they taught me how to write, speak, and read in Vietnamese, but
since this was in a temple I also had to know the rules, and the teachers taught me the customs of
the temples. In the beginning, I had a hard time adjusting to the customs because in the past I
was not too in tune with my customs so it took me a little more longer than the other classmates
to follow and adjust to the customs, but eventually I was able to learn this. Since my Vietnamese
has been improving, I was able to make new friends. I was able to be confident about speaking
my language and in a way this is a benefit for me because now I am able to communicate to
more people in Vietnamese and ever since I stayed at that temple, I had wonderful memories in
that temple. In the end, I learned to be proud of my culture just like in the short story called
Pomegranate Trees when the uncle said Ive planted twenty acres of pomegranate trees out
there on that land and Id appreciate it very much if youd let me take care of those trees
(Saroyan 345). The uncle said this because the pomegranate trees symbolized life in the
Armenian culture so he did not want to sell them for a low price it is a mockery of his culture,
which he seems to be very proud of his culture. The uncle and nephew seems to uphold their
traditions and they seem to be very proud of their traditions as well. I learned to be proud of
where I came from and embrace it instead of being embarrassed by my culture because other
people say that my culture seems weird or not normal I realize that you know what. Every
culture has a weird aspect about them. What may seem weird to one culture may not be in
another culture. I learned to be more open minded with other cultures and be proud of my
culture.
For my fieldwork, my group went to the Museum of Tolerance but for me I decided to go
somewhere different. Now, it was mainly because I have already gone to the Museum of

Nguyen 4
Tolerance and I wanted to go somewhere different because I have already been there to my
middle school field trip, and I thought that it would give our group project something different to
talk about. Instead of going to the museum I went to a presentation that was held by a holocaust
speaker. Although, it was not held by a holocaust survivor I thought that the speaker would still
have some good insights about the holocaust. During the presentation, the presenter, Julia
Werner, did not really talk a lot about the history of the holocaust but instead she talked about the
photos that were taken in the holocaust, preferably in Kutno, Poland which is her hometown.
Werner talked about the ghettoization at Kutno, Poland and talked about the photos that were
taken there. Werner states that these photos were taken by an amateur photographer which she
has no relation to. Most of the pictures were basically pictures of the Jewish people during the
ghettoization. There was a picture of a sugar factory in Kutno and she talks about what life was
like over there. In one of her photos, which is the picture of a barber at his work, she realized that
she also as a picture of a barber as well. Werner also says that the photos allows a connection for
the viewers to see the idea of what happened outside the pictures. She says that by taking a photo
in that type of situation just adds another layer of violence to it. The reason why she says that it is
because taking a photo without a persons permission is in violation of their privacy. She also
states that even though the pictures had no violence to it, there probably was some violence that
was invisible to the photos. Werner says that she went to testimonies and she says that it helped
her realize the events that could have happened beyond the pictures. Werner also says that the
photos show the individuality of the Jews in the photo instead of one person which is what the
Germans treated them in the photos. Then she states that by going beyond the picture you can
bring back the voice of the people who were photographed. I thought that it was quite interesting
listening to her perspective about how the German photographers treated all the Jews as one

Nguyen 5
person instead as an individual. One of the reasons why Hitler wanted to get rid of all of the
Jewish people because he believed that they are the inferior race or the weak link but really
in the end, there is no superior race, there is no race that is inferior to each other either. This
resulted in Hitler and his army to massacre a lot of Jewish people during the holocaust, and
caused many physical and psychological damage to the survivors. From going to the
presentation, and the Museum of Tolerance a while ago, I realized that the holocaust is a horrible
time and a lot of people suffered. I am glad that there are ways to show or teach to the future
generation about the history that occurred in the past. This way, it can teach the future generation
to learn from the pasts mistakes and prevent from more of this horrible event from occurring
again in the future. I believe that all cultures should learn about the historys mistakes and
prevent from this type of horrible event from happening again.
In the end, I learned that I should be proud of my culture and I should not be embarrassed
by it because it is different I learned that I should be proud of my culture and learn to accept
other cultures as well. Compared to when I was a kid and until now, I have learned to be more
open minded with other cultures and I learn to be more accepting of other cultures and to be
proud of who I am. Learning from other cultures also gave me a new perspective in life such as
appreciating my family more often. When I recently, visited my temple again I found out that the
leaking roof is now fixed and is strong as ever, just like my bond with my native culture.

Nguyen 6
Work Cited
Anzaldua, Gloria. "Chapter 7." Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. San Francisco:
Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987. N.d. 2099. Print.
Saroyan, William. "The Pomegranate Trees." The William Saroyan. First ed. N.p.: George
Braziller, 1958. 345. Print.