Reflective Analysis - Aspects of Adolescence Life - Essay Example

In laymans terms, culture can be defined as peoples way of life. It is also passed across generations from one individual to another. It is also important to posit that culture is one of the aspects in the society that connects people and enables them to socialise freely. Cultural values, beliefs, and practices are one of the dynamics of ones life that forms and determines personality. An adolescent who emigrates form Indian to Canada may struggle with her/his identity. This is attributed to the fact that though s/he may be living in Canada, his or her values are dissimilar from those of the Canadians.

After emigrating to a new country such as Canada, one of the things that might happen is acculturation. Acculturation is whereby the culture of the minority group is assimilated by the larger group. Therefore, an adolescent may lose his or her cultural values hence his or her identity is lost (Durham 200-201). After emigrating, teenagers face a lot of struggles in trying to merge the mainstream society in their new country. One of the factors that contributed to these struggles is the fact that parents and community at large try to dictate the lives of teenagers.

This can best be illustrated through an example. Coates, in his article, brings out the problems adolescents from the Asian community go through in trying to fit in. He narrates the story of an adolescent boy by the name Jin who was struggling to become a rapper. Jin and his family lived in a Black neighbourhood where his dad operated a strip-mall. In North America, rapping is largely associated with the Black community. It is important to posit that the relationship between Asian community and the Black community has always been edgy in North America.

In fact Jins father retorts to him that the Blacks are rude and impolite towards Asian-Americans and hence it is only fair if they treated the Blacks with the same resentment. Jins parents were against his rapping habit since