Helena Mancini

CI 280
3 March 2015
Language Autobiography
When I was young, I grew up in a predominantly English speaking family and went to
school in an English speaking community. All around me was the English language, but the
English language is not the same everywhere. My language and culture was constructed by those
that surrounded me, and as I grew up I have become more aware of the impacts these social
constructs have had on me and my life.
My language is different than my parents in the way I pronounce words and the phrases I
use, except I speak the same language as my parents and community. My parents, who grew up
in the inner city of Philadelphia, have specific phrases they use and pronounce words in a
different way than I do. Although I originally learned how to speak from my parents, I grew up
in a slightly different culture than my parents did so I learned phrases and how words were said
in a suburban town. For example, my parents pronounce the word water, sounding like wooder, while I grew up pronouncing the word as wah-ter, which was result of where I grew up
and who I was surrounded by and how they spoke. My parents have always been encouraging
about learning another language; however have not implemented one in my life. My dad spoke
Italian to his father and I grew up listening to the occasional different language but I did not ever
learn how to speak the language, however parts of the culture associated with the language was
incorporated in my life.
My visual culture, my outward displays of behavior and identity, are hard to identify as a
culture because my culture seems as though it is the norm. In order to identify my visual culture I

must view myself from the outside and take into account my culture that is easily seen by others,
such as what food I eat, how I dress, what music I enjoy and other parts of me seen by others.
Personally, I find this very hard to do since I consider myself to be American which is considered
a melting pot of visual cultures. The American culture is not singular and each person is not the
same within the culture, however I associate with many subsets of the American culture and
language. In regards to food, I tend to eat a lot of Italian and Polish foods since my parents are
from Italy and Poland and introduced these kinds of foods to me since I was young. But then
again, I dont have a preference of the types of food I eat, except that most of them are
Americanized versions of culturally diverse foods. The manner in which I dress is in very first
world, westernized manner. Typically, I dress in relaxed clothing produced specifically for
western cultures, which are found mostly in the United States, Canada, and many countries in
Europe. I know that many cultures dont wear jeans; however jeans are an American staple and
make up a lot of my closet. My culture is my own and does not match the culture of any one
specific group of people. Parts of my visual culture are taken from others such as the Italian food
culture, or the American jeans culture, but overall I cannot be defined as one culture.
However my invisible culture is much more difficult to define because I have never truly
analyzed why I behave a certain way. What is even more confusing to me is that there are a lot of
invisible culture aspects that do not define with a set culture that I know of, that how I behave
and who I am does not fit into a culture that is known to me. Much of my invisible culture was
instilled by my parents and the community I live in though. In the individualistic, westernized
culture I live in, personal space is very important to the people in it and there is a sense of
hesitancy when that personal space is broken. For me, personal space expands about a two foot
radius from all sides of my body, like a personal bubble and when people come into my bubble I

begin to feel uncomfortable. Touching is another aspect of the individualized culture that I was
raised in. Typically, a physical touch, such as hugs and touching of the arms, is only made by
close friends and family, other than handshakes in professional settings. For some of the aspects
of culture that I did not believe was shared by anyone I knew, I have recently joined a group of
people that share many of these invisible culture identifiers with. In the American culture, many
people do not look people directly in the eyes while holding a conversation, often times people
look down or away, rather than holding the other persons gaze; however, I have always
maintained eye contact with others while discussing with them. In my newly found group, I have
learned that I am not the only one who values the importance of eye contact. What I did find
interesting though is that I did not realize how important eye contact was in my culture until
people started looking me back in the eye when we spoke. While thinking about my invisible
culture, I compared myself with what I assume to be the culture of the typical North Eastern
American since that is where I was born and raised. But even within that subset of the American
culture, cultures between cities change. However, I noticed that in regards to handing emotions,
most communities in where I live tend to mute emotions. Many people are expected to be happy
and joyful all the time, but not too happy or too joyful. Also, it is not acceptable to be sad or
depressed, or to cry in public. Personally, I find this to be odd because I go around expressing
myself fully in a community that does not think that is the norm and I have no idea where I have
learned to behave this way since it seems as though no one in my culture acts the way I do. At
times I feel as though I am too emotional, but I have learned that I am just more expressive than
the culture that surrounds me but then again, I dont know of a culture that shares this same view
as I do. To me, the concept of beauty is always changing. At the moment I am a transition
between what the American culture believes beauty is and my personal view of beauty.

Originally, I assumed beauty consisted of a symmetrical face, a thin but healthy body, full breasts
and a round bum, however now I am associating less with that idea and more with the idea that
beauty is within. A person is beautiful by their personality and not by their outward image but I
have only found a small group of people that truly believe that point of view. Many people say
that a person is beautiful from the inside, however many of them care so much for their outward
appearance, trying to meet the idea that I think that they really believe that beauty is an outer
appearance thing. It is extremely difficult to step out of my shoes and to view myself from the
outside and actually analyze my culture because I feel as though as I have been growing up I
have been picking up bits of cultures I come in contact with and combining them all together to
make my own.
Being a white, blonde, American female, I assume that I have many privileges compared
to other females in different cultures. Luckily, I was born into a society where women, although
not completely equal to men, have the opportunity to do so many things. Growing up I was told
that I can be anything I want to be and do anything I want to do. I mentioned in my invisible
culture that I express my emotions more than the typical American, but I have found that
expressing my emotions has hindered me and my privileges. Usually someone who expresses
their emotions are considered weak and unable, so being someone that expresses herself I have
noticed that I have rarely been offered positions of power in jobs, or leadership spots in group
projects. But I have also noticed that I have been granted so many privileges just by living in the
American culture, such as schooling, a career and the opportunity to be myself. Also how I speak
has afforded me certain privileges. My language tends to be regarded as a form of proper
English, while how my parents grew up speaking is regarded typically as belonging to a lower
socioeconomic status. I feel as though the way I speak and the words I use portray displays a

higher socioeconomic status and a higher level of education. I am blessed to have the privileges
and opportunities I have due to where I born, the culture that surrounds me and my use of
language.
I think it is extremely important to have an awareness of language and culture as teachers
of English language learners because everyone is different and requires different ways to be
taught. Teachers especially need to have cultural competency, recognizing and understanding the
norms and tendency of their students, in order to teach in a way that everyone will learn. If a
teacher does not understand the culture in which their students grew up in or the way language is
used in their culture, it is difficult to educate them and ensure they are comfortable in their
learning environment. I also think that it is important to allow the students to teach their teachers
about their cultures since all cultures have subsets and slight differences. Personally, I do not fit
in to the stereotypical American culture, so it is not always beneficial for me to learn in the
manner that the American school system runs. The same goes for other cultures, each person is
an individual and learns a certain way and has a specific culture for themselves. It does not help
when a teacher stereotypes a student into a broad idea of the culture, and teaches the student
incorrectly or offends his or her student. Teaching English language learners will be a difficult
process for me because I have grown up in a culture that speaks one language, and I am not well
aware of many cultures on Earth, which is why when I am a teacher, I work directly with my
students to make the classroom a comfortable place for them and easier to learn.
As a future teacher, I worry that I will not be able to teach my students in the way that it
is most helpful for them to learn. I believe it is so difficult for these emergent bilinguals to
combine the culture they grew up with and the culture that is associated with the other language
they learn. But then again, I look at my own culture, invisible and visible, and I am confused

about where I fit in culturally, and I wonder if my future students will be in similar situations.
Culture is so important to each person, and little did I realize that culture pervades every aspect
of my life and how my culture prompts me to act in the world.