FREE ESSAY ON CULTURE

CULTURE

I think that each person at some stage at his or her lives, wander what culture is all
about. I personally think about that often. In order for a person to appreciate their
family, friends and all the other people around them, one must understand what culture is
all about. Culture is a body in a way of how we behave. In my opinion culture is the way
same people live in a different societies. People, who have different meanings, promise
rules and norms. The most important thing which culture gives us is an identity or an
understanding of which we really are. Things like race is only a physical appearance of a
person, nationality is a citizenship which one has. But if we look inside of each
individual of different culture, we will find that we all the same people. We all have
feelings, understandings and our blood is the same color. Each culture has it's own
opinions and in order for us to communicate with each other, we need to learn other
understandings to life. For example Christianity and Judaism are very different in
certain understandings. Islam's and Hinduism are also very different from each other. But
we all people who try to survive in one way or the other in order to make our lives happy
and love of our close ounce. 
I personally come from Russian-Jewish family were we tried to keep our understandings and
believes. We try to pass it from generation to generation in order not to lose our family
believes and understandings. About fifty or sixty years ago Jewish people could not even
practice or talk about their religion. Why? Because Jewish people were not considered to
be people. People had to hide their nationality or religion in order to survive in that
country. My grandparents had to change their last names because otherwise they would have
to live the country. Jewish person could not get in to a good school or find a good job.
And if one of their closest relatives would live somewhere to find better life, they
would be considered as enemies. When my aunt came here twenty-five years ago, my
grandmother had to live her job because her relative left to United States. The reason
why I' m writing about all that is because I never had a chance to really find out what
my religion was all about. That is the reason why I am here. But one of the biggest
concerns of my country was to have a discipline of how people look at life.
Today my topic is going to be "having children before marriage is not allowed in Russia.
"That was the big concern which every person who as born in Russia knew about. If a young
girl or even an older woman whether she planned to get married or was married at some
point in her life could never have children before the wedding. It was so embarrassing
for the family that sometimes, they would have to live one city and go somewhere else
where nobody knows them. I interviewed few people who are different age, they all came
from Russia at different time and it is funny how they all answered the same .The first
person was my friends great-grandmother. She is ninety years old, when I asked her a
question of "what does she think of having kids before marriage?" She looked at me and
started to laugh. She said this free country spoiled you young lady? So I had to explain
to her why do I need this for .She was embarrassed to talk to me about that, but she
started to talk. She said "if I would come home saying to my mother or father that I had
some kind of kiss with any guy, they would punish me for the rest of the month." So I
said why did you have to say it to your parents if you knew the outcomes .She said that
the time was very different then now. All children (and I do not mean small children, I
am talking about 18-20 years of age) were raised the way to say everything to their
parents, because they were smarter and had more knowledge in life. She said that they
were so naive that they did not even know where the children were coming from and never
asked their parents. So I was curious when they got married and planned to have children
where the knowledge were coming from? She said that it was naturally.
Then I asked my mother, she was always open with me and tried to explain to me everything
as clear as possible. One of the biggest reasons why she was so open with me is because
her mother (who is my grandmother) was always embarrassed to talk to her about all that.
It seemed like my mother was more modern already; she was more open and understanding the
modern life. But from day one, she was telling me how embarrassing it was for a girl to
have a child and not to have a father around him. And not only that she always tells me
how hard it is to raise a baby by yourself financially and physically. The child always
needs two parents to raise him/her. Then that baby grows out to be a normal and smart
human being with the logical common cent. I have a great family where I am unfortunately
the only child, but I always had a mother and a father to be there for me. I never knew
what it is like to grow up in a family where it is fighting all the time or divorce. Of
course I agree different situations in life might occur, but Russian families are very
close. They do not believe in divorce.
The third person who I interviewed was my cousin he is about the same age as me. He looks
at that topic a little different already then my mother, more modern. But even thought he
is a young and popular guy, he said the family must be close and only when you know that
you want to be with a person more or less 100%, then you can plan to have kids. If the
young girl gets pregnant in Russia and she is not married, most of the time guys marry
them and then they have miserable lives.
In conclusion I want to say that this beautiful country gives you freedom to do what ever
you want. Ant I see a lot of young girls who have children first and then decide to get
married or not. I never judge anybody because everybody have it's own opinions of how to
live and make their lives better. But I personally think that because of all that,
children are those who suffer the most. They don't know who their fathers are and
sometimes it makes some people mad. This makes them to go and hurt other people. What I
got from those interviews that people with generations become more educated and of course
I can not tell you that I do not know where children are coming from. But I can tell you
for sure that I will try to teach my kids as best as possible to understand that
everything has to be in order. First love, then marriage, then comes a baby in a
carriage. For me child is something that God gives you, and you have to appreciate every
step of it's being. I hope that every woman who grows up understands those first needs to
be a good husband only then he will be a good father.