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UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF FAMILY

ASSIGNMENT NO: 02
NAME: MOFOKENG KEDIMETSE SARA
STUDENT NO: 63225603
GROUP NO: 142T
DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGE, UNISA
AFL1501, LANGUAGE THROUGH AN AFRICAN LENS
INSTRUCTOR: J O NENE
NAME OF TA: MELUSI XABA
DUE DATE: 07 APRIL 2023
63225603@[Link]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. Task 1
1.1. Define family in your own understanding and elaborate on four different types of
families
1.2. Three definitions of the term family with their reference
1.3. Summary of the quotes based on my understanding
1.4. How community shapes a family, and the influence of additional family members in
my family structure.
1.5. Role a family plays in one’s cultural identity
2. Task 2
2.1. Interview with a member with a Christian name
2.2. My short story about how I will name my child.
3. Task 3
3.1. Looking at my nuclear family, “How language reveals one’s cultural identity and its
role in our interactions with others and the world around us
4. Conclusion
5. Reference

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INTRODUCTION
The title of my essay is about understanding the concept of family. Family is the
channel of love amongst people it may be blood or not as long as the connection is
there. My essay is divided in three tasks which are, task 1, task 2 and task 3. In task
one I will be explaining the term family in my own understanding or knowledge after
defining then I’m going to elaborate on the four types of family I know which are, nuclear
family, extended family. step family and single parent. Still continuing on Task 1 I will
make research based on sources to define family in three definitions then I need to
reference that. From the quote I got I will be summarising what I learned from the quote
according to my understanding. I will be discussing the influence of additional members
in my family and the role a family member plays in one’s cultural identity. On task 2 I
will be conducting an interview with my neighbour who is a Christian. She named her
daughter ‘Blessing” so I need to find some answers of what is hidden behind that name.
Based on her interview and the information I got from her I will tell my short story about
how will I go in naming my children. Closing with task 3 is looking at my nuclear family
and my surroundings and discuss how language reveals one identity and the world
around us.

TASK 1
A family consist of two people or more who are related by birth, marriage or blood and
lives together, even if they do not live together but they are related. A family is not only
blood it can also be an adoption, like couples who adopted a child and brings him or
her in their home to be their own and become a family. Pets can also be considered
as a family as it was brought into the family’s house to be their own. Family lays under
one premises which is love and commitment, I’m saying this because one can define
a family as the relatives who share home whilst other can refer their close friends’
neighbours or pets as family.

Types of families
Extended families are families of two or more adults who are related through blood
or marriage and are relatives living together with their children and grand-children. In
this type of family, you will find aunt, niece, uncle living together under the same roof
and sharing everything. Nuclear families consist of two parents who are married or
are in common law which lives together with their biological or adopted children. Here
there are no relatives only married or unmarried couples who are stating together with
Step families
This is when two couples’ come’s with their children and merge to make one family. It
happens in several ways for example it can happen through a divorced couples who
enter their new marriage or relationship with their children and have other children in
the marriage. Single families this one consist of a parent raising his/her children alone
it may be because of divorce, widowed or never married. Most of the time situations
like this you found it if it was only a one-night stand meaning the mother was having
an affair with a married man who later denies the pregnancy and wants to do nothing
with the woman.

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According to the oxford English Dictionary the term family can be defined as a
group consisting of parents and their children living together in a household “for
example my family consists of my parents, siblings and me.
Oxford English Dictionary, oxford University Press, 2021.

The United Nations defines “family” as a group of persons united by ties of marriage,
blood or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in
their respective social role. This definition recognizes the importance of families in
providing social support, caregiving and emotional connections.
“Family and Contemporary Society”, United Nations, 2016

Family, a group of persons united by the ties of marriage blood,

or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their
respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings.
The family group should be distinguished from a household, which may include
boarders and roomers sharing a common residence. It should also
be differentiated from kindred (which also concerns blood lines), because kindred may
be divided into several households.
[Link]

Summary of what I learned

I have learned that Family is everything. One would assume, parents are the sole
contributor to the overall development of a child while that may be true, the bond of a
brother, aunts, neighbor or sister can be just as significant. According to the oxford
dictionary a family consist of people living in the same house, meaning a father, mother
and their children. The dictionary only focused on one type of family which is the
nuclear family. I’ve learned that United Nations provide support sharing emotional
connects lead to being a family irrespective of their social role. According to Alan John
when people interact with each other like spouse parents and siblings they are
regarded as a family

How community shapes a family

There are various ways society can influence family life so that it no longer just reflects
individual preferences but also social structure. Two of the most important social
structures in people's daily lives and growth are their families and communities.
Together, they help to establish what we regard to be normal and abnormal, who we
are, determine values in us, and teach us about what is and is not feasible. People
from various social backgrounds and experiences eventually come together as a result
of various social interactions. As strong elements considered advantageous to the
community as a whole are pushed to help all community members, this diversity leads
to development. For an example my neighbour is the one taking care of my sister’s
baby when we all go for work. Our neighbour is like a family to us we help each other
with everything. At home we are Sotho by religion, every December my grandfather
and father host initiation school, which is a traditional school for boys to teach them
how to behave as a Man. I asked my father if they also take boys who are not in the

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same religion as us, he said yes but only those that are Tswana because Xhosa ritual
are far more different that our religion.

A role a family plays in one cultural diversity

Cultural diversity is about appreciating that society is made up of many different groups
with different interests, skills, talents and needs. In our community we accept and
respect each other religion and beliefs. We are all individually unique so, that means
when we create families’ they are also going to be unique. Families can be different in
culture religion and structure. Here in our community, we practice a phrase that says
“sa mogwera ke sagago” which means everything that is for your friend it’s also yours.
This phrase is practiced mostly in taking care of the children if some parents are at
work or out of town the parents left behind are the parents of all children. But nowadays
this has changed because children of today are out of control they don’t respect their
elders anymore. In our time elders were respected, you wouldn’t sit on a chair whilst
an elder is standing, it has all changed now. The community no longer adhere to the
cultural diversity they behave like Western people. The most incredible thing that
happened in my community is that it practiced a South African norm know as a
“rainbow nation” where different religion unites and some even made families out of it
for example Muslim marrying Tswana or Pedi people, Zulu to Ndebele and so forth.

TASK 2
Interview with Sis Gloria Blessing’s mother, a pastor’s wife.

Me: Hello Mama Gloria, like I told you I need to ask you few questions regarding your
daughter’s name?
Interviewee: okay my angel I’m ready to answer every question you have.
Me: okay maa thanks. I want to know why you decided to give your daughter this
name? and what is the meaning behind the name?
Interviewee: We named our daughter Blessing because indeed God has already
blessed us. After getting 3 miscarriage we sit down me and my husband, we fasted
and prayed to God asking for his blessing upon our lives as we were both not working
but running a Ministry thing was very hard, but despite all we didn’t loose the trust we
had in God. Blessing means favour or gift which comes from the Lord, after I got
pregnant after 5 years of hardship and miscarriages God blessed us with a beautiful
baby girl and my husband managed to published his book called ‘The wait” from there
things started working out for us and our Ministry started growing. Blessings was,
knocking in and out our life that is why we named our daughter Blessing.
Me: wooow!!! indeed God works in his appointed time ey’ (smiled)
Interviewee: Yes, he does, you only need to be patient and wait upon him
Me: Noted, so who came with the name is it you or your husband?
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Interviewee: My husband came with the name

Me: Are you practising Christianity lifestyle or you just Luke warm Christians, I mean
those who are not cold nor warm?
Interviewee:In my house we live with prayer, we eat prayer we sleep prayer, prayer is
in our veins, like we are born with it, it gives us grace so we do not have time to play
God because time is not on our side and God can be here any minute from now.
Me: I can see that even your name says it all who named you Gloria if I may ask maa’m.
Interviewee: My mother, she said the Glory of God was with me the very 1st time I was
on earth, because I was wrapped with something white that not every baby comes with
it only the chosen.
Me: so do you think Blessing is also chosen?
Interviewee: I wouldn’t say she is chosen but her name keep doing things in our life
and we will never stop living to the meaning of her name?
Me: thank you so much for your time, Sis Glo’ I learned a lot from your story and my
spirit is filled.
Interviewee: You welcome my angel
(The interview ended?

My short story
I always believed that naming a child is just a simply normal thing I didn’t know that the
name you give to your child can affect his/her entire future in Tswana they normal says
“leina lebe seromo” meaning a name can influence or happen exactly the way it means.
a name—first and last—has been essential to society and civilisation throughout
history and is present in all societies where language is used. The ability to identify
people is not the only benefit names provide. meanings, among others, reveal a
person's nationality, ethnicity, tribal tribe, or position within the family or village. For
example, the name Omar would suggest that a person is male and of Muslim ancestry,
while the Setswana name Gofejane, which means "last," would indicate that a person
is the youngest child in a family. (City-Data, 2012). The purpose of this article is to
analyse the value or status of names in society.

The interview with Maa’m Gloria really opened my eyes. I decided that I am going to
name my second born Mohau which means favour, because I want the favour of God
to be in our lives for the rest of our life. My mother named my 1st born Rethabile
meaning “we are happy” behind this name is just happiness because my son brought
happiness to the 2 families I didn’t know that naming your child you need to be sure
about the meaning but I will also say that naming him Rethabile it wasn’t a mistake at
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all it’s very important to understand the meaning of the name you give to your children.
According to Blessing’s mother since she gave her daughter that name, blessing has
been knocking now and then in their lives.

Conclusion
To sum up, "language is fundamental to how culture is expressed. It serves a crucial
social purpose by conveying ideas, beliefs, and rituals and strengthens a sense of
group identity. (Racism No Way, 2015). The Sotho name Rethabile goes under the
meaning of laughter, happiness, or peace. Since neither of my parents or my
boyfriend’s parent had a grand-son they were both so happy to have a boy grandson.
My parents thought they were fortunate to have a boy grandson as we are only girls at
home and my sisters having girls as their children.

TASK 3
Nuclear family is a family of parents living with their biological or adopted children
under the same roof without any extended member of the family. I come from a nuclear
family of four girls. My mother is Tswana and my father is Sotho. They got married and
had only four girls. We learned to speak Sotho because of our father but we were
staying in a community where Tswana was the main language, so we learned to know
both languages and we accommodated my father’s family when they visited us
because they only talked Sotho, so because of my father at home we spoke Sotho and
we were used to that we grew up knowing two languages. In the street where I was
living there was a coloured family who just moved in, so their children were speaking
Afrikaans we used to laugh at them every time when they spoke I think because we
were still young we thought only white people spoke Afrikaans but were wrong. We
later learned the language from them because their mother was a Sotho woman, she
always translated for us until we knew few words.

Here is the structure of my family it is no longer a nuclear family as we are staying with
our children.

Father Mother
TLHORISO KELEKAETSWE

LEBO TSHIDI KEDI TSHOLO

3 kids 2 kids 1 kid

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CONCLUSION
I have learned that family is important and also culture. Family is not only blood but
every one close to your who share some commitment and emotional help whenever
you need assistant. I learned about different types of families and how they interact
with each other. I’m closing with sentences that says in God’s face we are all the same
regardless of our skin colour we are all important and we need to accept and respect
each other based on our religion.

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References

Barnard, Alan John. “family’. Enclopedia Britannica, 2 Dec 2022

[Link]
Accessed 6 April 2023

RacismNoWay. 2015. The importance of culture, language and identity. NSW

Government.
[Link]
racism/the-importance-of-culture-language-and-identity/ (Accessed: 2023-04-.06).

Scottish Government, Scottish Government, Edinburgh (27 April 2006). "Family

Matters – Couples – Cohabitation". [Link]. Archived from the original on 24
October 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2017

ThoughtCo. 2020. Defining Culture and Why It Matters To Sociologists. [online]

Available at: [Link]
[Accessed 6 April 2023]
[Link]

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