Betancourth 1

Jonathan Betancourth
English 113B
Professor Beadle
February 24, 2016
Soccer? Futbol? Or Football?
I never thought of culture other than being an ethnicity, race or religion. Anastacia Kurylo
in her article, Culture and Communication describes culture in page 3 as, Any group of
people that share a way of life. (3) Culture is more than just our ethnicity and could also be the
daily activities we participate in. My love for the game of soccer has opened me to the culture of
the worlds most beautiful game as people would describe it. A bond of trustworthy in a team of
11 men playing together to achieve one goal has gained a large popularity throughout the world.
But the sport varies around the world and every country have their own traditions and even what
they call it. So in different spaces soccer has different meanings to someone which is what makes
it beautiful! Soccer has taught me to add every ounce of effort I can to accomplish my goals in
life and to never give up after one loss. Although, some just see soccer a sport of men in tiny
shorts just kicking the ball around for a long amount of time, there much more to soccer then one
would imagine from different rituals I do either having a fest before the big game or all of my
friends wearing the team jerseys while watching the game, vocabulary such as screaming Goal!
Outsides! Ole! and traditions throughout the world like painting our face our countrys color but
most importantly has also affected my personality to become the person Im today striving to be
successful in life.
Soccer, Futbol, Futsbol, and Football these are just examples of different names of the
sport throughout the world. As an American Latino I switch around from calling the sport Soccer

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or Futbol just depending the space I am in. The majority of my life I would call it Futbol because
in my home thats what we called it. I once watched Futbol in a small pub called Coachs located
in Palmdale, California with a group of friends and I remember hearing the term soccer for the
first time. This term soccer which was utterly new me made me later researched and learn there
was different names worldwide. Since then depending of the space I would switch from Futbol in
my household to Soccer with all my friends. Once at The Sports Pub here at CSUN a much
larger pub than the small pub in my town with dimmed lighting, multiple televisions on every
wall and sport jerseys to add that energetic feel of a sports bar. I referred the game to soccer and I
was comprehensively judged by others for not correctly calling the sport by its name. They
further explain and said the correct name is Football because they use their feet and Soccer is just
a dumb American term. There explanation was logical and I realized many people felt the same
way towards the term Soccer. I battle now to question what to even call the sport but learned
the importance of space had and could even change the language we use. This is important
because it shows the value of space in my culture and how it affected me to think I was doing my
culture wrong but what I essentially learned is in different spaces the same culture we are apart
of can be approached differently
But being part of American culture I reconcile with saying soccer because thats what it is
actually called here in the U.S. Football in the U.S is whole different sport so it would be
confusing to mention a good soccer match you watch last night to your friend but call it football
and the other person would think you are talking about American football. Soccer is actually a
term made in Britain but us American adopted this term and became to Americanism for British
to stand says, Uri Friedman in his article, Why Americans Call Soccer Soccer. So therefore
me being part of the American culture clashes with my soccer culture by calling the sport

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different from others would. One can decide to call the sport from there liking just depends other
culture such as in Britain culture they prefer to call it Football. What is being referred here is
people dont not understand about the value space and how in different parts of the world the
soccer culture is different, and not everything must the same because different culture in soccer
is what makes the the game beautiful.
We see many different Traditions in soccer throughout the world we could learn a new
one everyday. Here in the U.S we are notorious for painting our faces Red, White and Blue and
wearing a Bald Eagles masks resenting our Nation flag and animal during international games. In
Mexico we tend to see people wear Aztec costumes resenting Mexicos ancient accessorys
would do during battle. But Soccer does not just have international traditions but in Spain, a
soccer club fans Deportivo La Coruna bring garlic cloves and sprinkle the cloves on the fields to
remove bad luck and win their games. The English Premier League is famous for its incredible
atmosphere of thousands of fans singing in unison. These chants which could be a remembrance
of an historic events or menacing the opposition. For example, Arsenals famous We Are the
Arsenal Boys chant has a lyric stating If you are a Tottenham fan, surrender or youll die! We
can see how chant shows the fierce the rivalry can be between two teams. Also there are rituals
done at home for example in my home before the big USA Vs Mexico game we have huge feast
including traditional food from both countries because we are proud of both our American and
Latino Culture. Another ritual I do when I watch a game with my friends we tend to wear our
favorite teams jerseys and scarves and other gear to represent our loyalty to our club. Space does
just can change language in soccer but also rituals that are done all around the world.
Soccer has also impacted the person I am today by learning traits such as team work,
leadership and determination. In soccer, there is 11 men trying to accomplish one objective so

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teamwork is needed to create plays and ultimately score a goal. I apply this to my life for
example in a group project I will communicate with everyone to ensure we are in the same page
and let them know how will take part of the assignment. This leads to the next trait leadership, a
team Capitan in soccer is what holds the team together by either telling them what formation to
switch off to or being e a model for other players. I always tend to be a leader in everyday life by
either help others with the most of my ability. Also a good leader needs to be a good role model
so I try my best to be the better person in any situation. Lastly, what I believe that has changed
my life dramatically due to soccer is learning about determination. Some of the best soccer
players in the world have incredible stories about poverty as a child but by training hard
everyday and pushing themselves to the limit has made them accomplish there dream of playing
soccer at a professional world class level. I was never a great student and to this day I still have
many things to improve on. During high school my bad habits were hurting my grades and the
opportunity for higher education until one day I told myself I will go to college no matter what it
takes. I changed my values and got rid of some of my bad habits and worked hard for my last
two years. It was not easy but extremely stressful, but it was worth it. I as accepted to California
State University of Northridge and nothing felt better than accomplish well worked goal! Now
everyday I try to improve knowledge and become a better student step by step. If wasnt for
soccer I dont know what path I would have been at the moment.
Soccer might just seem a tedious sport that tends to be just grown men kicking a ball
around and about but there is much more. From traditions all around world such as painting your
nation flag on your face or spreading good luck charms all over your clubs team. To how
vocabulary changes at different spaces either calling it soccer or how Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez in
her article "My Hips, My Caderas" explains about switching between two worlds. This relates to

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my own experience because when I want to switch from my American culture to my Latino
culture and I call the game Futbol instead of Soccer depending in the space Im in. But what
ultimately being part of the soccer culture has also taught me significant values I believe in such
as working hard everyday so I get achieve my goals of being successful in life and never give up
although how big my goal seems.

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Works Cited
Faigley, Lester. "Chapter 6 Reflections." Writing: A Guide for College and beyond. New York:
Longman, 2010. 73-75. Print.
Karon, Tony. "What Soccer Means to the World." Time. Time Inc., 21 July 2004. Web. 21 Feb.
2016. <http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,671302,00.html>.
Kurylo, Anastacia. "Culture and Communication." Inter/cultural Communication:
Representation and Construction of Culture. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2013. 1-23. Print.
Uri Friedman. "Why Americans Call Soccer 'Soccer'" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 23
June 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccersoccer/372771/>.
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa. "My Hips, My Caderas." How To Read
Reflections - MSN's Underwire (2000): 73-75. Web.