Naturally, my surroundings, including social interaction, tend to influence my identity and me as a person in general. For instance, my neighborhood and the people I befriended there impact my judgment, character traits, and opinions on a daily basis. In addition, my cultural background and its aspects like traditions, mentality, and religion were of detrimental significance for me while growing up in an Egyptian family.
As I have already mentioned, Egyptian culture has dramatically impacted my self-development and maturity process. However, as I live in a multicultural neighborhood and communicate with people of different nations, I am also unconsciously influenced by their culture. As a matter of fact, I have American, Canadian, and French acquaintances who share their beliefs and opinions with me, which, in turn, impact my judgment and identity. That is why I find their cultural background significant to me, as I value them as individuals and respect their traditions and beliefs.
Furthermore, being in multicultural surroundings, I sometimes face challenges related to public assumptions about my culture that ultimately influence their opinions about me as an individual. I am used to such situations, and I understand that people who have not encountered members of particular cultural communities may not realize that stereotypes about them are absurd. Thus, I tend to tolerate hostile attitudes and try to make a genuine impression on them so that people do not negatively assume me.
Unfortunately, I also experienced such challenges in my learning environment when unreasonable cultural stereotypes clouded educators’ judgments. Therefore, it is safe to claim that such attitudes negatively impact the learning experience as teachers may feel hostile towards minority pupils and not provide them with a high-quality education. In addition, they may discriminate against them in front of their classmates, were the students make mistakes.