Cultural Autobiography: A Comparison of Romanian and Italian Culture

Project 2: Cultural
Autobiography

Table of Contents
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................3
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................4
3. Introduction............................................................................................................................5
4. Cultural patterns.....................................................................................................................5
4.1. Beliefs.............................................................................................................................5
4.2. Values..............................................................................................................................6
4.3. Norms..............................................................................................................................6
4.4. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s theory................................................................................6
4.5. Hall Edward theory (High and low context)...................................................................6
4.6. Confucian’s theory..........................................................................................................7
5. Trompenaars F. and Hampden-Turner’s theory.....................................................................7
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................10
Books and Journals:.............................................................................................................10

Appendix 1
My autobiography
My culture is from Romania as I was born in Bucharest, Romania. My parents were
also born in Romania. I am very happy that I am Romanian as I like the culture of Romania.
Due to the similar culture of my parents, I was not felt any problem in order to understand the
culture of Romania. It was very easy for me and my sister to understand the culture and its
value in our life as my parents are very well explained the culture in detail manner. When we
are in young age, my parents also told a story at every night which reflects us to the
importance of Romanian culture. With the help of that story, I got to know that Romania was
firstly used in three regions that are Walachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania. By growing
every day, I got to know about more facts and figures in my school books. I found that in
Romania about 90% people are from ethnic Romanian and following Romanian Eastern
Orthodox Church. During my study, I identified that Romania has a long history of foreign
occupation. There are some regions which were ruled by different people such as Ottoman,
Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires. Due to this, the country was divided into three
parts. Every part has their own culture which I studied in my books. It includes east, west and
south part. In the east part, the Moldova is situated in the centre. In western part, there is
Transylvania and adjacent regions are situated (Wagner-Egelhaaf, 2019). In the end,
Muntenia at the centre is situated in the south part. These are geographical parts which I
learned from my studies.
I got deep knowledge with my daily lifestyles as my parents always guided me about
the traditions and customs of culture. I found that in my culture that Romanians are generally
guided by the religious tradition as they adhere. That’s why the ethnic Romanians are
following the practices of eastern orthodoxy and because of that they are participate in
ceremonies and customs during holy week (Wang, 2021). I and my parents are belonged from
ethnic Romanians and I founded that there are two more communities are found in Romania
such as Hungarian and German community. Generally, I found that Hungarian and German
communities have some traditional folk dress both for women and men which is found to be
distinguished from ethnic Romanians. The folk costume of ethnic Romanian has been
tenaciously retained in rural areas. They are generally like to wear silk and local folk
costumes which are richly embroidered blouses and scarves. If I am talking about the

marriages of Romanians, then I am not wrong that in traditional marriages it were arranged
by the couple's parent. I analyse from my parents’ marriage that the bride's family was
expected to provide a dowry which was consists of embroidery and linen. My parents also
provided me information that in traditional ruler weddings, there were large festivals in which
the entire village was invited for celebrate the happiness. So that's why, my parents wedding
included not only the couple and their parents but also god parents, grandparents, attendants,
the matchmaker, cooks, speakers and other people. I identified that Romania is found to be
more influenced by orthodox Christianity religion. I also found that Romanian food is one of
the most attractive and interesting aspect in the culture. I found that Romanians are known for
their warm, hospitable, opinionated and animated with a good sense of humour. I also found
that Romanian culture offers variety of forms of folk arts. I also identified that Romanian
culture is very popular because of their arts such as wood carvings, skilfully woven carpets,
brightly ornamented costumes, pottery, and other elements. In the higher education studies, I
got to know that the Romanian Ministry of Culture is responsible for encouragement and
support of cultural institutions and cultural life.
Appendix 2
Person X’s autobiography
There is another student who belongs from Italy so he better understand the culture of
Italy. Italian is found to be closely related to Romanian culture but still it is crucial to
understand the difference between both cultures (Jobson and et.al., 2018). For that purpose,
firstly it is crucial to understand the Italian culture. So there was a questionnaire in which
students get questions which assists in identifying and analysing the Italian culture.
I was born in a small town of Italy. I analysed from my daily experiences that Italian
culture is associated with food, arts and music. Italian culture is the homeland of Roman
Empire. In the comparison with world’s population size, I found that it comes on the 23rd
position in terms of population size. In my knowledge, I analysed that about 93% of people
are speaking Italian language as it is the native language. I found that in Italian culture,
people are providing a great importance to family. In the Italian culture, I analyse that people
are more focused on extended family rather than on nuclear family. In my family, I got to
know that they are always considering frequent family gatherings so that they are able to
enjoy and spend time with other family members. This is the main reason that I am close to