Free Essay

The Multiple Meanings of Nationality

In: English and Literature

Submitted By NealJ
Words 1315
Pages 6
When it comes to nationality, I feel as though there are a few definitions for this term. There are three big variations of this term in my opinion. One is the literal meaning which is basically where you come from or where your native country is. Another one is your newly adopted nationality or the one I am most closely associated with, which in my case is being an American although it isn’t my country of origin. Finally the third one is a smaller subset similar to a community that defines you more so than your newly adopted nationality. The literal definition of nationality basically states that I am Indian and come from Mumbai, India but this doesn’t say anything about me personally or reveal anything about how I express or show my “nationality”. My newly adopted nationality is me being an American because I was born in America and I being raised to follow a certain American standard. This definition of nationality is closer to my own definition of the phrase. My personal definition is similar to that of Benedict Anderson’s where nationality is also closely linked with community and that almost shapes who you are. When someone asks me what my nationality is, the answer is never so simple as just “Indian”. My answer is normally, “Well, I am Indian, but I was born in America… but I am a very typical New Yorker.” After this short explanation someone’s follow up question is usually, “Where are you from in New York?” and then there is another short explanation of how I lived in Queens as a child and then became a Long Island kid and now I’m going to school in Jamaica, Queens. I think that more specific “nationality” shows who you are as a person more than just the literal definition. In the beginning of the semester we focused on talking a lot about passports and documents like that which just give you straight facts about someone but no insight on those certain facts. For example a passport maybe able to show someone’s name, age, date of birth, and a small headshot of them. This group of information by itself is very straight forward and doesn’t describe one person too well. In my opinion, it is very similar to the literal definition of nationality. If I were to tell you that I am Indian and come from Mumbai, India, it is almost the same as me giving you my passport without saying anything more. With this information alone there is nothing to expand on because I personally am not very close with my Indian background. Being Indian, most people would assume that I can probably speak a different language from where I came from, maybe have different dietary restrictions, and practice a different religion but this is almost all wrong because the literal meaning of nationality doesn’t always mean anything. On top of only being to India a couple times, I can barely understand the language, much-less speak it, and I practically do the opposite of everything my religion says. I know in a lot of cases the literal meaning of nationality is outdated because a lot of people aren’t so in tuned with their origins. I know in my personal group of friends no one takes their literal nationality very seriously as opposed to this new American lifestyle they’ve adopted and then more so the suburban Long Island lifestyle they have been living since they were young children. Keeping this passport analogy going, there is still an important aspect to the passport which is in the back where there are stamps that show where you have traveled. These places and stamps are the only things on this passport that you may be able to expand on and maybe make a couple assumptions as to why someone went to those places, or what those places tell about someone. In this case I’m comparing this to the idea of a newly adopted nationality that so many people in America use now. Many people say that they “are American” which my newly adopted nationality is also, because I do consider myself “an American”. With the term American, it is interesting because there are many subsets of American. There is not just one generic American unlike some other nationalities in my opinion. Americans normally represent freedom and dreams, because we as Americans have learned to think big and are pushed to do anything we set our mind to. Even though my ancestors were born in India and didn’t come to America until my grandparents, I still consider myself a full blown American by simply the way I act, and how my outlook on life is. As Americans we are bred differently and put into our own special subsets depending on our location. The reason why there is not one generic American is because there are so many different subsets. For example, being a New Yorker in itself is a subset, but there are even other subsets within being a New Yorker because if you are from Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Long Island you are also going to be very different. There are tons of these mini subsets all throughout the country and the within the different states too. Unlike a passport, this final variation of nationality is more focused on details and specificity as opposed to straight facts. This last variation is how modern day nationality depends on the community you live in or correlate yourself with. This variation shapes how people think and act, unlike the literal meaning which may or may not be relevant, and the newly adopted one, where this issue is only touched upon but not clearly specified. My personal subset that I fall under in this last community nationality is being a New Yorker who lives in Long Island. I am a strong believer in geographical location affecting your nationality and actions. As a New Yorker I am very fast paced, I live on very little sleep, and I think I am in the most important place on the planet. Although that is my inner New Yorker coming out, the fact that I live in Long Island shows that my school district was very good and safe, I have been protected from a lot of the world, and although I don’t live in the city, I act as though I do. I went to Herricks High School which is a very upscale public school on Long Island and was known for getting extremely high grades and being very good at music. In Long Island, most people are upper-middle class and higher, so most people are very polite and courteous as opposed to the normal rough treating New Yorker. Overall I believe that the only nationality that shapes someone is their community nationality because the other two variations are nowhere near as personal as this one. Out of the three different variations of nationality the literal definition is very limited in expansion and is just a generic title which is used to answer the question “what is your nationality?” The newly adopted variation is used to qualify the nationality that you think you are or that you closely correlate with, and begins to touch the surface of why you act the way you do. Finally the community nationality is the most detailed and informative when it comes to finding out about someone’s personality and mindset. Although I personally believe that community nationality is the one that matters most in trying to learn about another person, newly adopted nationality is useful in trying to identify what nationality someone is, and the literal definition is just the title given to you by a parent or society, the issue of nationality is clearly up to opinion. The definition of nationality doesn’t have to be the place you think it is.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Ethnicity

...Language and ethnicity Language and ethnicity are known to be closely intertwined (Giles &ump; Coupland 1991). However, prior to analyzing interrelation between language and ethnicity I faced the problem of identifying the concept of ‘ethnicity’ itself. Thus, Fishman (1997: 327) points out that ‘ethnicity’ like other notions it is in a close association with, i.e. ‘race’, ‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘nationality’, is not “an exact scientific term”. Therefore it is not clearly defined and thus is open to interpretations (Ibid). In my search I came across a number of rather vogue explanations, and the most common aggregated dictionary definition of ‘ethnicity’ is ‘a belonging to a particular social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’ (MacMillan Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, etc.). Dictionary of Cultural Literacy does single out and include language into the ethnicity definition saying that it is an “identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language”. However, is language always an inevitable part of one’s ethnicity or the ethnicity of a group? Definitely, the most understandable case of interrelation between language and ethnicity is the one when a person is born and lives on a specific territory which historically had one dominant ethnos and one dominant language, so ethnicity is predetermined by close bound between language and territory (Fishman...

Words: 1357 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Dual Issues

...A Servant of Two Masters (Countries) Although not so prominent, servants can still be seen in our society today. A servant is an individual who is contracted to serve his master; and inclusive of the contract is the loyalty of the servant. A master’s duty is to take care of the social welfare and to protect his servants. While a master may have any number of servants, a servant cannot have more than one master. It would be difficult to imagine a servant having two masters, especially when it comes to a situation when he is needed by both. The situation above can be directly associated with the current condition in the Philippines. Citizens are like the servant, and the Philippines should be their master. The country, as a master, provides natural resources, protection and social welfare for its citizens. On the other hand, as servants, citizens should serve their country by following the state’s government and most of all, by being loyal. What happens when one citizen has to serve two masters at once? Filipino citizenship needs to be strengthened in order to prevent the dilemma of serving two masters. Before tackling any other subject, it seems that there is a need to define citizenship. Normally, dictionaries will define citizenship as a status of being a citizen, or the quality of an individual’s response to membership in a community. According to a law review written in UST, citizenship is the state of being vested with the rights, privileges and duties of a citizen who...

Words: 1582 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Skin Deep

...(African-Americans). They bought them over from Africa as slaves treated them poorly and sold them off as if they were nothing. People today in certain parts of the world African-American people are looked down upon and judged because of the color of their skin. Racism is a very powerful word and it has a disturbing meaning behind it. Of course, everyone interrupts this word differently so there are different meanings. According to the dictionary, racism has three different meanings. The first being, a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various humanraces determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. The second, a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination. And finally, hatred or intolerance of another race or other races. So, all these meaning of the word racism are mostly the same but that was the dictionary’s view on the word not people. One may feel that the word is very an act of harm doing to those of a different nationality or culture. Thus, the word’s definition may different from someone’s personal meaning and the dictionary. Racism was popular in the 1800s and early to mid-1900s. Yes it still exist but not as much as it used to be. As stated earlier back in days the whites use to sell blacks and use them as maids and caregivers for their children. They basically used them as slaves and if the blacks ran away...

Words: 618 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Music

...Dynasty (11th century-256 B.C.). A large number of orchestras or ensembles started to occur during that time. Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) was the most influential time in terms of musical culture. It had viewed as one of the best in the world and greatly influence on the development of music in other countries such as Korea and Japan. In general, there are five categories for Chinese music and each of the categories has various types, styles and forms which they are are song, ballad-singing music, Chinese Opera music, instrumental music and dancing-and-singing music. Song can also be divided into two categories which are ancient art songs and folk songs. Folk songs can be subdivided into mountain airs, labor songs, epic songs, songs with multiple sounds of voices, and ditties. In addition, due to the different regions with different national minorities, the mountain sough could be so different in style. There are many different types and styles in the musical cultural in China. Another good example is Chinese instruments. In the Zhou Dynasty (two thousand years ago), there were already more than seventy kinds of instruments and following the evolution and the changing of the cultural, there are more than two hundred kinds of instruments are in used in China. The instruments in China now can be categorized into four groups: bowed string instruments, plucked string instruments, percussion...

Words: 1161 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Citizenship Obligation

...the rights and protection of that country. That includes the right to vote, work and live in the country and the right to return to the country, besides other rights. A citizen may also be subject to certain duties, such as a duty to uphold law and to serve in the military. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless. He is endowed with legal rights by, and duties to, the country of which one is a citizen. Citizens are the people who owe allegiance to a government and are entitled to be protected by this government. They are the nationals of a city, state and country. They can be inhabitants or in diaspora. Citizens are entitled to be protected, by the government in which they owe allegiance, in terms of security, safety and against molestation by any individual, group, organisation or country. Nationality is often used as a synonym for citizenship in English – notably in international law – although the term is sometimes understood as denoting a person's membership of a nation. In some countries, e.g. the United States, Israel, Philippines and the United Kingdom, "nationality" and "citizenship" have different meanings. Thus, a Nigeria citizen is someone who is allowed to vote in Nigeria state and federal elections, to serve in the Nigeria armed forces, to pass that citizenship on to their spouse and/or children, is entitled to state and federal social services, and who must file state and federal taxes....

Words: 1422 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Psy 610

...related to the concept were seen as too speculative and not readily amenable to empirical inquiry (Pepitone, 2000). Culture has re-emerged as a significant construct in the past few decades. In current psychological discourse, our definitions and conceptualizations of culture come primarily from cultural anthropology where culture is generally understood to refer to that part of our environment that is constructed by human beings to embody shared learning. Definitions and Common Themes An early definition, in 1891, presents culture as the incorporation of all socially acquired habits and knowledge (see Mio, Trimble, Arredondo, Cheatham & Sue, 1999). More than a century later, the core of this definition remains the same, despite multiple variations on the basic theme. Baldwin, Faulkner, Hecht, and Lindsley (2006) refer to the definition of culture as a “moving target” and devote an entire book to its discussion, providing an appendix of 300 variations. Nevertheless, for the purpose of the present text, I focus on what seems to be the essence of common agreement. In this common agreement within social science, culture is understood to represent...

Words: 2243 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Citizenship, Diversity and Associated Terminology

...Lara Barradas P1: Explain the range of meanings attached to citizenship, diversity and associated terminology. Glossary: Apartheid: Apartheid was the policy of racial segregation in South Africa that ended in 1990. It was used to keep the black and white populations separate. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. British citizen: A British citizen is someone that gained British nationality because they are connected with the UK. British dependent territories citizens: People who live in dependent British colonies like Gibraltar and British Virgin Islands. British Overseas citizens: Groups of people who have a connection with the UK because they lived in a former British colony that is now independent. British Nationals (Overseas): People from Hong Kong were given the chance to acquire this status as many were unhappy at the thought of losing British nationality when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. British protected persons: Individuals who had a connection with a former British Protectorate. This is an overseas territory that Britain used to protect, such as the country of Brunei. British subjects: It refers in British nationality law, to a limited class of people defined by Part IV of the British Nationality Act 1981. Under that Act, two groups of people became "British subjects"; the first were people from the Republic...

Words: 1558 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Citezinship

...Definition of Diversity It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along. the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. P1 Racism First of all racism is a criminal offence that is extremely offensive and can be taken up for some serious jail time, racism is where someone has a form of hatred towards someone for the colour of their skin, they can show this by all kinds of ways. One of the many ways that people use nowadays is by telling jokes, although some people might find these quite ‘funny’ people can take extreme offence to this, they have a right to. Also they could assault someone because of their race, some are singled out, bullied because of it, which also leading the person to think they have something wrong with them and they could see themselves as different, therefore if they see themselves as different they’re whole family. Racist Getting off the subject of Racism, although Racism sounds quite similar to the word Racist they are quite different. A racist is someone who uses racism fairly often, if someone was a racist you would know about it, a racist isn’t someone who tells a racist joke every now and then a racist would probably have tattoo’s to show what they think they are superior against, such as someone who uses Racist words in most sentences. However the...

Words: 2982 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Global Leadership Mindset

...The Global Leadership Mindset BY EILEEN M. ROGERS The integration of multiple geographies, cultures, nationalities, ages and styles in enterprises around the world is having an enormous impact on business relationships. Leaders today need a new, specialized set of skills if they are to be successful. 18 Chief Learning Officer • June 2010 • www.clomedia.com ueled by social networks and technology, universal collaboration is becoming a daily business reality. Global data and knowledge are now accessed on devices that people can hold in the palms of their hands. Jim Kouzes, renowned leadership expert, recently described this shift by stating that “while the content of leadership has remained the same over the past 20 years, the context has not.” Leaders striving for success today must be able to master three new levels of competence: • Global business acumen: The new financial, industry, functional and technical skills needed to navigate a market characterized by rapid evolution of business models, markets, products, and mergers and acquisitions. • Global mindset: The capacity to engage in a boundaryless and synthesizing cognitive process that identifies opportunity and innovation in complexity. • Global citizenship: A potent combination of geographic, political, economic, governmental, legal, cultural, technological and environmental savvy that informs business strategy formulation and execution. Global Mindset vs. Global Citizenship A global mindset includes the ability...

Words: 1923 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Human Geography

...Dr Mariusz Czepczyński Katedra Geografii Ekonomicznej Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego Economic Geography Department Human Geography Research methodologies in human geography Discursive studies Discursive approaches – a social framework of intelligibility within which all practices are communicated, negotiated or challenged (Michel Foucault, 1926-1984) In social sciences - an institutionalised way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic Power relations are immanent to discourses, the discourse is conceived as the ideological superstructure. ‘Polymorphic tactics’ of discourses: specific discourses are not tied to the subject, rather the subject is a social construction of the discourse. Search for objectivity/ legitimating Plato’s and Socrates debates: what is real and how do we know what we infer about the real is true? Empirical evidence based upon observations and experimentation in the physical world is conducive to the verification of scientific judgments, and adherence to the rules of deduction and the process of inductive reasoning implements the determination of the validity and soundness of scientific arguments and conclusions. Whether independent propositions exist as do the objects of objectivism, or as the timeless truths concerning an object once it has become the intended object of a mental act, their reason for being would appear to be essential only to the process of discovery. Taking an objective...

Words: 816 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Influence Of American Identity

...Whether you believe it or not you are shaping something right now. In the midst of all the confusion and hardships we as people are shaping something. Some people choose to ignore it, on the flip side many decide to embrace it. It is called our American Identity. It shapes who we are as people in what we believe in. It also defines our ability as “outcast citizens” to ban as one together against a common enemy if needed. This ability to shape our own government and to take pride in our nation is a special thing that only we as American citizens are able to grasp. We are a nation of loose ends that ship here from miles away to be tied together in one shoe. This shoe of loose ends of the broken ties of the world is a special place on Earth where...

Words: 705 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Here to Help

...A VERY INCOMPLETE GLOSSARY OF TERMS Rhetoric: All of the methods by which meanings are communicated Rhetor: The source of the communication—writer, speaker, filmmaker, photographer, etc. Euphemism: An alternative word choice that alters (usually softens) the rhetorical effect (“die” vs. “pass away” vs. “in a better place”). Different choices of language signal different implications and underlying philosophies. Euphemisms tend to distance the audience from the subject, using more vague and imprecise language (“collateral damage” vs. “unintended killings,” “got the better end of the deal,” vs. “swindled the other guy”). Paraphrase: An alternative phrasing of an author’s original language. Don’t paraphrase simply to pretend an author’s arguments or content are your ideas, or to avoid accusations of plagiarism. Instead, paraphrase in order to reveal something that wasn’t obvious in the author’s original words. Effective paraphrases make the implicit explicit (“What she’s saying here is...”) Always give credit to your sources, even when you paraphrase. Summary: Similar to paraphrase (in that you choose your own words to describe an author’s argument), except in a summary, you compress large portions of text into a much smaller space. You’ll need to choose specific things to focus on in a summary. You aren’t trying to restate every claim and every piece of evidence. Instead, choose smaller parts of the text that are relevant to your work and explain how you want your reader...

Words: 1328 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Diversity

...Essay #1 Compare and contrast the perspectives of diverse peoples/populations. Diversity can be defined as people coming together from different races, nationalities, religions and sexes to form a group, organization or community. A community that is diverse is a community that values different types of people. It is aware that people with different types of backgrounds, skills, attitudes and experiences bring different ideas and perceptions to the table. Most people view diversity as a good thing because it gives the chance to experience different things outside of what they normally accustomed to. Diversity in this country is openly viewed as a beneficial bacterium, so many backgrounds and not knowing which ones are good and which ones are bad. Studies show that the lack of unity between races, sexes and cultures is due to mistrust, stereotyping, are more within culture conversation and language problems. Being cultural aware provides an opportunity to stand back and consider that there are certain backgrounds, personal values, beliefs and upbringing that shape the things we all do. Something that is considered inappropriate behavior in one culture may be perfectly appropriate in another. The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult and the key to understand the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When we as human are brought together to solve problems in groups, diversity plays a big part because we would...

Words: 1056 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Essy

...practice or policy of territorial or economic expansion. Imperial overreach is a hypothesis which suggests that an empire can extend itself beyond its ability to maintain or expand its military and economic commitments. Hard power is the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies. Soft power is a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence. Mutually assured destruction is a US doctrine of reciprocal deterrence resting on the US and Soviet Union each being able to inflict unacceptable damage on the other in retaliation for a nuclear attack. Inter-governmentalism is a political science term with multiple meanings. The first refers to a theory of regional integration. The second treats states and the national government as the primary factors for integration. Super power is a state with a dominant...

Words: 804 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Sex Addiction

...thousands who suffer From it. Although it is not as common there are meetings for sex addicts that are run similar to the Meetings for alcoholics anonymous. They have the same twelve step program as A. A. and it is what they call a safe place meaning whatever is said in the meeting stays there and goes no further than that group of people in the meeting. The twelve steps are similar except where you change a few words to represent sex addition. Meetings for Sex addicts are few and far between. There are not as many meetings for sex addicts as there are for alcoholics. You have to really do your research to find meetings close to your area and they are similar groups there A.A. They meet once or twice a week on any given day of the week. S.A.A. meetings are funded the same way A.A. is funded which is by donations given by attendees of the meetings. There are pamphlets as well as books to read to help you better understand S.A.A. is all about and there are stories of past members who have gone through the twelve steps and give inspiration and guidance on how to overcome sex additions. Sex addiction is not prejudice condition it can happen to anyone anywhere in the world. It affects people of all races and nationalities. It can affect anyone anywhere. Meetings have people from walks of life. It can affect single people, married people, and professional people, blue collar workers. It can affect both males and females. The clinical community has been treating...

Words: 851 - Pages: 4