My identity
Identity is a multifaceted, dynamic, abstract concept that plays an integral role in daily communicative interactions and particularly in intercultural communication (Samovar, 2017). The environment sometimes becomes our identity. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, identity is the character or personality that distinguishes a person. There are many variants of identity, it can be gender, religion, cultural identity, profession identity, political, ethnic, nationality, etc. Identity can be seen directly or indirectly. Identity that can be seen directly, for example someone who uses the hijab, he is most likely a Muslim. Another example is someone who wears a dark blue school uniform and a white shirt in Indonesia, maybe that person is a junior high school student. It is different with identities that cannot be seen directly such as professions, someone does not always wear clothes that represent their profession, for example a teacher who is not working and wearing sports clothes.
As a person who grew up in different circumstances, I socialized with different types of people, each unique in their own way. What is taught in my family is different from what is taught in school, in religious communities, neighborhoods, and elsewhere. These various kind of places gave me different kind of identity. Identity is not a single entity. But rather it is a combination of multiple integrated identities that operate in combination based on the social context or situation (Samovar, 2017).For example, i lived and grew up in Indonesia, Indonesia is a huge country that represents many of identity, but we also have things in common, such we eat rice as a staple food, hold a flag ceremony every Monday, speak Indonesian as the national language, we like bakso, we eat KFC chicken with rice, we use batik, we celebrate independent day and there a lot of other things we have in common.
My second identity is as a student, this identity can also be as my current status. As a student of course there are many tasks, I learned to be an adult, more independent from high school, etc. My third identity is the culture where I grew up, my ancestors came from South Sulawesi to be exact. Toraja is a place as well as a tribe and culture. we have some traditions, rituals, characters, appearances and customs, which are different from other cultures. For example, we wear black for funerals, red for weddings, and yellow for celebrations for a new home. We also eat buffalo meat instead of beef, our dialect, skin tone, etc.
Identity is what people unique, because every person has their own identity. Do not judge a person by their identity, because their identity formed by different circumstances than us. Everybody have their own identity whether it is something that can be changed, such as political identity and professional identity, or what cannot be changed, such as ethnicity and race. Learn about culture and history also can help us to more understand our own identity, why we have this identity, and to maintain our own culture.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity
Samovar (2017). Communication Between CultureÂ
