Religion

If you were to look at the history of our home island, you would know we were colonized by the European for a time since Christianity was their religion, and it became ours.

I would say that there are different types of Christians on our island, and the way they worship is entirely different from what I've seen here.

Different types of Christains

Pentecostal (Loud when they are worshipping God, same for Canada and the Caribbean)

Baptist (Loud when worshipping, use a bell, wrap their head, wear bead necklaces- True for my island at least) In Canada, from experience; they dress in regular clothes and they are quiet when they praise and pray to God.

Adventist

Evangelist

Methodist

One thing all these Christians have in common is the text they use, which is the Bible.

Halloween

My first Halloween here in Canada was actually fascinating. People found it weird when I said we never celebrated Halloween and that it's not even a public holiday, or is it on our calendars.

The only thing we had close to Halloween was the day of the dead, which was celebrated to some extent in November. This is seen as a day we honour the dead. You would go to the cemetery and clean the graves of your loved one, light candles, and plant flowers or plants on their graves. You would also light candles on the steps of your door or outside on your porch so they could find their way home.

Even though I have been living in Canada for close to 5-6 years, I still don't celebrate Halloween; I don't decorate for or dress up with my brothers to go trick a treat. I think it has to do with the fact I was raised in a Christian home but also the fact that we never celebrated it in the first place.

Humour

Humour can be expressed in many different ways and it is not always accepted by other cultures.

Being a born Vincentian, humour can be seen through different expression. Some are listed down below.

Laughing very loudly

Laughing loudly + hitting a surface

Laughing loudly + hitting the arm or leg of a person

In terms of my third point, when I migrated here and started attending school, I had to be conscious of hitting someone while laughing because it could be seen as me beating someone. I certainly did not want to be seen as a mean person, a bully or someone who loves to inflict pain on others.

Language Acquisition/Cultural Acquisition

During child development, there is a sensitive period in which you can acquire specific skills. Language acquisition has its own sensitive period. Language acquisition is made through interaction within a child's life. It evolves over time with the more exposure a child has to this language.

It's the same with culture; the more exposure a child or individual has to a culture, the more likely they are to identify with it. A key thing one should remember is the plasticity of the brain, meaning that brain development is not fixed; the brain grows with the more exposure and experience an individual has.

Some aspects of culture can be learnt or acquired through exposure, but others take more time and energy to be known. It's the same with language. There is a lot of repetition.

The way we determine what's acceptable or unacceptable about behaviour in terms of how to act in society is by observing others that are from the same cultural group as us.

The only language I heard throughout child development was English, but more specifically, English-based creole. If you really pay close attention, you will realize that we have phrases or broken English words that mean the same or at least something close to it in English. From a cultural perspective, we tend to speak at a fast pace, and at the time, we are loud. So when we migrated here to Canada, I had to slow my pace down, which can sometimes be hard to speak at such a slow pace. I had to also say what I meant in English compared to the phrases or the broken English words I would use when talking to my mom.

However, I think you can tell that my brothers more identify with the English spoken here in Canada than in our birth country; that does not mean they don't understand it, but I think they have lost that aspect of speaking because they are not as exposed to it. I would say moving here has definitely changed the way I speak.

Food

What I eat is greatly influenced by my culture. When we migrated to Canada, it was hard to have variability when it came down to food. Growing up, half of my plate consisted of root vegetables and starch-rich foods such as yam, and sweet potatoes also known as Boniato (which are entirely different here in Canada), plantain etc.

Moving has definitely influenced what I eat; I think now I eat what is available in terms of variety. Now I would go for ice cream and cake as an afternoon snack compared to if I was in my home country. Back home, I would have gone for fruits such as mango, guava, tamarind, papaya, Cherimoya (commonly known as sugar apple), etc.

Parenting Styles

There are many parenting styles, but I think I was raised with a permissive parenting style. Permissive parenting includes the parent being involved in their child's life, and the parent expressing warmth and responsiveness towards their children. These types of parents often put limits and control on their child's behaviour.

I grew up in a single-parent household for the early years of my life. My mom was very involved in my life and still is now to this day but I think now her parenting has changed since we migrated to Canada.

Coming from a Caribbean household as well as a Christian household, I had to conduct myself in a specific way while I was out. While living in the Caribbean, I could not go to parties like other kids, nor could I drink or do drugs. I had to be home at a specific hour, and I couldn't curse just because everybody else was doing it.

I could remember while growing up, whenever I got in trouble and did something bad while out with my mom, all she had to do was give me one look that basically stated I was in trouble and I would be getting a butt whooping when I got home.

After migrating here, I had more freedom to go out; I still couldn't drink or do drugs, not that I wanted to, but I had more freedom.

Now that I am in university, there is a list of things I would not be caught doing because it has been programmed in my brain that my mom would disapprove of it, and I value her opinions about what I do. I want the way people view me to be a depiction of how I was raised by her.

How Am I Bias? What Information Do I Choose To Imitate Or Learn?

From a cultural perspective, I am very biased on how I heal from a common cold. Many remedies were passed down from my grandmother to my mom, which eventually were passed down to me as well.

Two of the remedies that is still used today by my mom as well as myself is:

Boiling a pot of water with mashed ginger on the stovetop. Straining this mixture into a cup with lemon juice, some honey, nutmeg, cinnamon and turmeric and drink it while it's hot twice a day.

On a plate, add rubbing alcohol, grated nutmeg, coconut oil, vapour rub and lard as in the baking ingredient. Set it on fire and use it after the fire dies down to rub you head as well as your chest.

Bias

Cultural Learning

As consumers of products as well as information, we as humans are biased against which products we use to perform a particular task as well as the amount of energy and time that is put into learning new information and using it effectively.

We are biased against who we choose to learn this new information. We often pick individuals respected by others in society, this is known as prestige bias. These individuals could be our parents, grandparents, doctors and even our own peers.

In other cases, we choose who we imitate and learn information based on how similar they are to ourselves. This is known as the similarity bias.