Cultural Study Measures and my Family
One of the things that I notice about myself is how much I change my personality and how I carry myself depending on who I am around. When I am with my Canadian friends, I tend to be more reserved and quite, but my humour is a lot more dry and sharp. When I’m with my European friends, we often joke that my “Eurotrash” comes out. This means that I am usually a lot louder, more physically affectionate and I am much more liberal and there is usually food and wine involved. These two distinct cultures make up my sense of self, and where I am and who I’m with dictates which self I ma more comfortable presenting.
My maternal grandparents were first generation immigrants from Belgium and Holland, they moved to rural Ontario where they mainly farmed and opened a family restaurant. The culture my grandparents were raised in was very affectionate, open and family-oriented, much like many aspects of European culture today (especially in smaller towns and rural areas). They also came from very large families, so from a young age I learned the importance of being able to speak very loudly or even yell to be heard over the racket of a typical family gathering. I grew up exposed to alcohol in social settings, so when I turned nineteen, I didn’t feel the need to go off the deep end drinking because it wasn’t a milestone for me, alcohol had been in my life for years.
Contrastingly, my estranged father’s side of the family was several generations Canadian. They were far more reserved, the families were much smaller and alcohol very rarely had a positive element to it. Affection was reserved for special circumstances, such as “hello hugs” and “Goodbye hugs” and if anyone was yelling, someone was definitely in trouble. This made family gatherings incredibly stressful as a child because you weren’t entirely sure which cultural identity to take.
This is why I feel the different methods of cultural study are so important. Methods such as situation samplings I find crucial as I have experienced these in some form of way. Situation sampling is used by taking groups of people from different cultures and having them discuss specific parts of their day, then a group from each culture is brought in (in the textbook it is Americans and Japanese) and they are given these generated situations and asked how they would feel or react, this allows the researcher to compare and contrast the two to see where potential similarities and differences may be between cultures (Heine, 141-143). For example, when my parents’ divorced, the European side of my family was positively devastated, and became very supportive and involved to help my mother and our family. Meanwhile, my father’s side, which is very Canadian/North American, were very indifferent to the proceedings, as divorce is very common in Canadian culture.
Another term in the chapter which I found interesting which applied to my life was the term Unpacking, which is defined as, “identifying the underlying variables that give rise to the cultural difference” (Heine, 147). This means looking at moth my Canadian and European family and understanding what the difference is between the two which makes their cultures so different. Unpacking is a critical point in helping me better understand my own family.
The Canadian side of my family stayed in very urbanized areas, such as Vancouver, Toronto, etc. My paternal grandmother worked in munitions during WWII and was married three times. They were always on the move and everything was always newer, better, faster and sticking to the status quo. Not making noise.
The European side of my family came from heavily religious, farming backgrounds in Europe. Very little formal education and large families with far away neighbours. As a result, the family unit became the stronghold, with everyone helping out and working and contributing together. It wasn’t fast, new and easy and many times they had to roll with unexpected setbacks, which molded them into a far more relaxed and jovial group than my Canadian family. Living in Europe in WWII was also a huge factor for my family as the continent struggled to survive.
There are so many other ways that build and define the culture the two sides of my family have, and neither one is truly negative. It just illustrates the differences in values between Canadian culture (North American) and European Culture. These differences have allowed me to be able to move between groups of both Canadians and non-Canadians with relative ease, as European culture is very similar in regards to family as others I know. I value both sides of my family and upbringing I was given as a result and really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to understand it on a more psychological level while reading this chapter.