Ethnicity and Culture

Another contributing factor towards my social and personal identity is my ethnicity and culture. Being born in a South Korean background, I have developed a sense of understanding towards different cultures. Having parents and extended family whom all follow traditions and ideas of the Korean culture, makes me biologically connected with the country. For example; on New Years Day we will eat a traditional soup, to start off the year by saying goodbye to our old self and saying hello to the new. Due to my Asian background, it creates a characteristic to my identity and a description in which people can view me by. Like describing me 'the Asian'. It also creates a stereotypical expectation I feel the need to reach. For example it is stereotyped that Asians are smart, play some sort of instrument (piano) or eat rice on a daily. Which is not necessarily true but because of the stereotype that has already been made, people just assume and believe it. It can be considered racist or discrimination and my whole life at least one person has made some sort of joke about my ethnicity and culture. It can be debatable whether it is really a 'joke' or is a pure insult. It also extends my macrosome level by belonging to a certain ethnicity and expanding beyond the local community.