Identity and Culture - Essay Example

IDENTITY AND CULTURE I understand and can speak three different languages. One of these is English. I am very conversant with this language owing to the fact that I was born and bred in England. I have spent a majority of my life in England and hence I have grown to be a fluent English speaker. It is almost like my primary language. It is what I use for conversations in almost all respects and all the time. My parents are however of In Iranian descent. In that respect, I learned from them how to speak Iranian.

It is quite an interesting language and I spoke it largely as a kid as my parents were old fashioned who believed that children must learn their mother tongue. In Iranian, saying greetings such as the phrase, ‘Hallo, how are you?’ is said as; ‘Dorood, hale shoma chetor ast?’ Most of my friends in England find it a difficult language to speak but it is very simple if one gains interest in learning it. I spent a total of 3 years in Cyprus. This is where I learned how to speak Greek.

This is a very intriguing language especially considering the fact that most scientific words are drawn from Greek vocabulary. I could not resist the temptation to learn the language. This is how they say the phrase ‘Hi, How are you’ in Greek; ‘Ya, pos íste?’ I found the language to be quite fascinating and it is a tool that I use to earn myself a bit of respect whenever I am in a gathering in England among people who have an idea what Greek is all about as they regard it as a lingual jargon for the scholars and scientists.