Cultural Autobiography: A Study of Brazilian and Romanian Culture

This study explores the cultural dimensions of a Brazilian and a Romanian person, their family structure, daily routine, and the influence of culture on their personality. It also compares and contrasts the two cultures using different frameworks. The Brazilian person grew up in an extended family and was highly influenced by their culture, while the Romanian person grew up in a modest family and saw their father working hard to run the family. Both cultures share similarities in terms of religion, family structure, and discipline.

Cultural
Autobiography

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................................3
Culture Autobiography with identification of major influence on own life.............................................3
Create cultural biography of some deemed person who belong from different cultural background.......4
Compare and Contrast of two profiles using different cultural frameworks............................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................8
Appendices..................................................................................................................................................9
Questionnaire...........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Culture is basically known as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of
people. It includes religion, language, social habits, music which are followed by the members of
a group. It has a profound influence over personality of an individual which remains with a
person lifelong. Each and every culture is different thus the people also behave in different
manner. Their behavior is unique and based on the culture they belong (Steinmetz, 2018). The
present study is an autobiography which includes my cultural dimension. My family background,
nationality, religion, rituals, daily habits are going to discuss the study. Further, it also includes
cultural autobiography of a Romanian person. The assignment covers differences as well as
similarities in the culture of my and one of my Romanian friend. Moreover, the study is based
on different culture dynamics which are crucial to understand the culture of different countries.
Main Body
Culture Autobiography with identification of major influence on own life
Family plays a crucial role in shaping the overall personality of a person. Cultural
insights are given to an individual by family members. In Family, there are a lot of members who
influence in different manner. Fathers are responsible to impart value, ethics to children. With
this, a child gets to know how to behave in society. In extended family, person lives with
grandparents, uncle, aunt and other members. These all members contribute in some or other
way in shaping of career of an individual (Benedict, 2019).
In my case, I have born in Brazil in an Italian family. My family is originated from Italy.
My grandparents are Italian who moved in Brazil in looking of standard and quality life. I am
privilege enough to live with an extended family where I live with my grandparents and parents
as well. I learned a lot from my grandparents. Their experience will help me in facing difficult
situations in upcoming years of my life. My grandmother is a really intelligent, honest and brave
woman. She is the great source of knowledge. I learned a lot from her knowledge and expertise
that is going to help in career enrichment in future period of time

My culture influenced me in a lot of way. We used to wake up early in the morning, have
breakfast, listening religious programs on radio and more. This is my daily routine which I got
from my culture. It makes me discipline as I used to do each and every activity of my daily
routine in systematic way. As per my culture rice, meat, pasta is the part of our daily food. These
food habits keep me healthy and provide me nutrition to perform different activities through the
day. Rather doing party on Sunday, I go to church with my family and friends. I learned it from
my culture that we should show the gratitude through prayers for whatever we have in life.
There is a city called nova Venecia wherein majority of Italian families live there. I live
near downtown. Here, all the essential facilities such as banks, market, hospitals are present
nearby. However, there is no night clubs and cinemas near my locality. Still, I do not feel
dishearten as I have a football playground in nearby. I play football with my friends during
afternoon time. When we exhaust after playing football we sit on bench present in playground.
Here, we use to play acoustic guitar and sing brazil songs. I grew up in a normal background
where I used to spend time with my friends and family. I also got opportunity to get significant
knowledge through quality education.
I completed my initial education from Claudinabarbosa. Then, I enrolled in Veneciano
School. However, I have not completed graduation as I moved to another city which is England.
During my school days, my teacher enlightened me with kind words and pushed me to attain my
goals. I started my first professional work as a delivery man. Later, I found a job of sales man at
the pasta branch where I used to handle market of North of state.
With the above written biography, It is said that I exposed with different culture as my
family originally belong from Italy. However, we were living in Brazil so we used to follow the
culture of Brazil. My habits, personality, daily routine is profoundly affected with the culture I
grew up. I grew up in an extended family where I got love of my parents and grandparents as
well. However, my educational background is not highly strong as I have not completed my
under-graduation. I am elevated with whatever I have and moving from one country to another
gives me exposure of different culture. Inspite of moving in England, I am still attach with my
roots and completely satisfied with whatever I am doing.

Create cultural biography of some deemed person who belong from different cultural
background
The other cultural biography is of a Romanian person who born and brought up in Roman
and then move to Israel for work, Here the cultural background of the person is given below:
The individual born in a small town called Pascani in Romania and grew in a middle
class family of along with three siblings. The family structure of the person is limited where he
lived with parents and two siblings. Their family was not rich and parents used to work hard in
order to fulfill the basic needs. However, he received great love, affection as well as support
while growing up in family. His father was a fisher man and played a significant role in shaping
the career of his and his siblings too. Now, the person has been married and also has kids. He is
looking forwards to pass the values in his kids which he received from his father.
According to the Romanian culture all the family members of Romanian person used to
wake up early in the morning. They used to help each other with full capacity as their father used
to work the whole day for raising the children. The locality is surrounded with churches,
monasteries where ample of tourists visit each and every year.
Romanian person grew up in a middle class family with three siblings. He saw his father
working hard to grow up him and his other siblings. However, his family was not too wealthy
but he received great love, respect and support while growing up. All the family members used
to support each other in their best capacity. Hence, the family background was normal and
helped the person in shape the future career.
Father of Romanian person used to work hard and somehow manage to provide basic
education to his children. After marriage, Romanian person left the country and shift in Israel
where he learned art of fashion. Due to the uncertain circumstances, he had to move England
along with mother and kids. He started to earn a good amount in the country and now really feel
grateful for whatever he has.
With the above mentioned information, it is found that Romanian person faced a lot of
challenges in his life. However, his optimistic attitude helped him to face come out from the
adversities in an efficient manner. He has exposure of different culture due to his diversify
background. While moving from one place to another, he learned gained ample of significant

experience. However, he is still attached with the roots and his place of origin. Also, he is really
thankful for all the success he gained throughout the life.
Compare and Contrast of two profiles using different cultural frameworks
Difference in both cultural frameworks
The two cultures that have been identified in the study are Brazil and Romania. Culture
of both the countries is not same. In Romania, women are not considered as important as men
thus they do not get significant opportunities to demonstrate their talent (Drazin, 2020). On other
side, Brazil believes in equality thus they offer equal opportunities of growth and success to all
individual s regardless the culture. In current situation, it is find the person who live in Brazil
was more extrovert who used to play with friends. They play football in the ground and also used
to sing song together. In addition to this, he was close to the family and used to visit church
along with family and friends. He was living a highly disciplined life where he used to wake up
early, take breakfast and do own work. There is particular time and schedule and he need to
spend time accordingly. On other side, Romanian person was quiet introvert. It is because he
grew up with three siblings and did not get more exposure of outside world. He used to spend
most of the time with family members thus did not have more friends.
Similarities in both cultural frameworks:
In both the culture, it is seen that children respect the elder person of their family whether
they are parents or grandparents. Elder person of family take the responsibility of whole family
which is seen in both scenario whether Brazil or Romania. In both the countries, people believe
in collectivism rather individualism. They live with family and respect each-other. It is analyzed
that main person of family used to work hard in order to run the family. When children grow up
they support their parents. Additionally, individuals respect the value they receive from family
members. The Brazilian person acknowledges that knowledge, support of his grandmother
played a crucial role in his career. Alike, Romanian person also learned value of hard work from
his father. In addition to this, there is great discipline in both the culture. There is a particular
daily routine and all the family members need to follow the routine. In both the countries,
individuals are allowed to leave their place of origin in search of better growth opportunities.
However, they stay attach with their roots and culture in an efficient manner.

Conclusion
It is assessed out of above mentioned details that culture plays a crucial role in affecting
the overall personality of an individual. Culture is the shared pattern of behavior, cognitive
construction as well as understanding that is learned by people while they socialize with each
other. In addition to this, culture includes the buying habits, language, religion and more. There
is discussion of two cultures one is Brazil and the other one is Romanian. It is concluded that I
used to live with extended family and highly influenced with m culture. My habits are
profoundly affected with the culture of my country. Romanian person is brought up in modest
family and seen his father working hard to run the family. It is summarized that both the cultural
framework are different in terms of perception of people but there is great similarities in terms of
religion, family structure and more.

References
Books and Journals
Benedict, R., 2019. Patterns of culture. Routledge.
Davis, D.J., 2018. Avoiding the Dark: Essays on Race and the Forging of National Culture in
Modern Brazil. Routledge.
Drazin, A., 2020. Chasing moths: cleanliness, intimacy and progress in Romania. In Markets and
Moralities (pp. 101-125). Routledge.
Harlow, S., 2019. Recognizing the importance of alternative media: Role perceptions and
journalistic culture in Brazil. Journalism Studies, 20(1), pp.117-135.
Schwartz, T., 2020. 12. Where Is the Culture? Personality as the Distributive Locus of Culture.
In The making of psychological anthropology (pp. 419-441). University of California
Press.
Steinmetz, G., 2018. Introduction: Culture and the state. In State/culture (pp. 1-50). Cornell
University Press.

Appendices
Questionnaire
Question 1) What is your nationality?
Answer:
Own) I born and brought up in Brazil.
Deemed person) Born and grew up in Romania.
Question 2) What is your family structure and does your family include extended
members?
Answer:
Own) I live in a joint family with my parents and grandparents.
Deemed person) Simple family structure with parents and three siblings.
Question 3) What kind of daily routine, rituals followed by you and your family?
Answer:
Own) I wake up early in morning, have breakfast and finish my daily stuff.
Deemed person) Wake up early and spend time with family members.
Question 4) Discuss the environment in which you grew up?
Answer:
Own) I grew up in a normal family background where I have all the necessary things which are
required by a child.
Deemed person) Grew up in modest family where father used to work hard to run the family.
Question 5) Give a concise detail of your educational background and professional work?
Answer:
Own) I completed the initial education from different schools of Brazil. I have not completed the
under graduation and started the job as a deliver man.

Deemed person) Moved to Israel to learn art of fashion and then move to England for career
enhancement.