Elements of Culture

A major part of culture today is language, communication is essential to how a society functions. America has affected almost all other cultures, English being the most spoken language in the world, but we often overlook is how other cultures affect our own. Some people immigrate to America and bring their culture with them, others come to distance themselves from their own cultures and adopt the American one. There are two people in my life that are examples of both of these, my Grandma, who immigrated here from Germany about thirty years ago, and my close friend Elvisa who came with her family to escape the war.
Elvisa immigrated to America with her mother, father, and brother 10 years ago to escape the war in Bosnia Herzegovina. Elvisa learned English quickly; it was required for her to speak fluently for school. Her parents on the other hand never fully learned to speak English because they never had to. When Elvisa’s family came to America, they joined the large Bosnian community in Arizona that was formed mostly by refugees. These communities are all over America, formed by many different immigrants. Because of these communities, many immigrants, such as Elvisa’s family, do not feel the need to learn English because they live and get jobs within their own community. Because of this, Elvisa has grown up speaking English at school and with her friends, while speaking Bosnian at home with her family.
In contrast to Elvisa’s situation, when my Grandma immigrated to America, there was no German community to belong to. For my Grandma, it was very important for her children to assimilate in to the American culture, so when my mother struggled to learn English, my Grandma stopped speaking German in their home. My Grandma speaks five different languages; she learned two from different parts of Germany, French, English, and Spanish. I myself grew up learning about German and French culture by the languages, through books and songs, without ever speaking either language.
America is a melting pot of all different cultures. Just as America has affected all other cultures, all other cultures have affected America. For example, it is now more useful to speak Spanish as a second language in America. Even within the American culture, language differentiates based on things such as location, family, or ethnicity. Culture is an extremely broad topic, but language is an essential aspect, without language, we would not all communicate differently, and that is what makes our cultures unique.
-shelby