As individuals, we each go through different thing, we're raised in different households and are exposed to different settings. As people we're all taught various things and beliefs which help us become the people we are, they pave us into who and what we are later in life.

I am girl who grew up in a sotho-speaking household, raised by my pedi mother, tswana father and zulu grandmother. Both my parents and guardians fluently spoke Southern Sesotho, thus leading to me always saying i am sotho, rather than tswana. In my ethnic group and family there are several beliefs i have been taught.

The first belief is "ngoanana ha a je a eme ka maoto". This directly translates to "A girl doesn't eat while standing up". this belief has been instilled by me by my mother, my grandmothers and my great grandmother.  It is a figure of speech. The figurative meaning of this belief would be that if you eat while standing up as a girl, things wont go your way in life, nothing will ever go right. The literal meaning would be that as a girl, do not eat while standing up. While this belief is controversial, argumentative and hard to believe, it has become a part of my normalized behavior. It has become a part of my values as a person, because i now make sure that i always sit down before i eat something, no matter how small that thing is, i will sit down before i eat.

Another belief endogenous to my ethnic group would be that you don't enter the house with your back faced outside (normally) after dark. The meaning behind this belief would be that if you enter the house after dark normally, with your back outside, you are going to enter with dark spirits. In order to avoid this, you are to walk into the house in reverse, with your face facing outside. The reason for this is for one to be "face-to-face" with the dark spirits, which makes them less susceptible to enetering your home.