Week 4 Discussion

Culture has many different aspects. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics specifies some of the aspects of culture. "[R]ace, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, and mental or physical ability" all make up social diversity and cultural competence (NASW, 2021). As social workers, we need to be aware of our own culture if we are going to engage in a Dialectic and Uniqueness Awareness approach as described by Alvarez-Hernandez & Choi (2017). Some aspects of my culture include my experiences as a refugee from Iran to the United States and the many countries I lived I have lived in during my life, mostly as a consequence of fleeing war and persecution.

My first memory of cultural difference is related to the time that my sister and I spent as refugees petitioning for asylum in Turkey and Italy. We spoke Farsi, which was our native language. In Turkey we had to learn some Turkish and in Italy we learned some Italian. Three countries which were possible destinations included the United States which speaks English, Israel where Hebrew is the dominant language and Austria where German is spoken. My mother anticipated that English would be the most useful as it is an international language and we were most likely to join family here in California. My sister and I were trying to learn the English alphabet and some English words from materials available to us among our refugees seeking asylum. We were also exposed to media in different cultures. We were young children confronting the difficulty of translating concepts, learning to communicate and even recognizing which language people were speaking in.

Culture is an important aspect of ethically and effectively delivering services to any population. "Culturally responsive social workers include culture as part of their biopsychosocial assessments" (Barsky, 2018, p.5). Language is a large component of that. It is impossible to communicate effectively if we do not share a common language. Spanish language is a strong component of culture for many people in California. In my work with the Hispanic population, I have found my knowledge of Spanish to be essential in both receiving information from members of the community and conveying necessary information to those members. It would be impossible to even begin to address the needs of many people without a shared language. Even with a shared language, it can be almost impossible to communicate effectively without knowing the native language of the other person. The case of the Hernandez family demonstrates clearly the various ways that language proficiency affects the provision of services. Jonathan's experience in school was very similar in certain respects to my own when I came to the United States (Alvarez-Hernandez & Choi, 2017).