The Importance of Biculturalism

when i was in elementary school

my mom forced me every day to read short

stories to her in two indian languages

i was six i would much rather have been

doing

anything else than waste precious

playtime reading short stories

in foreign languages it was basically

worse than doing homework because i

couldn’t pull the classic

sorry my dog ate my homework excuse

because well

the teacher was in my house and she knew

i didn’t have a dog

so what did i do to avoid my misery i

remember

skimming through the entire book picking

out the shortest stories

and just reading those same five stories

again and again

on top of that if i had to read for

let’s say

10 minutes i would just read those

stories

very very slowly

needless to say this was not my favorite

thing to do

and i drove my mom crazy

but now years later i proudly say i can

speak

six languages have a diploma an indian

classical dance and most importantly

talk to my extended family in india not

just small talk but i can

really connect to them on a level i

could not have if i did not know much

about my culture

growing up in the us we’re already

exposed to american culture

whether it be through school social

media extracurriculars or friends

we grew up watching the fourth of july

fireworks going door to door

practically begging for candy on

halloween and looking forward to every

super bowl halftime show

but in a multicultural world like ours

we have the opportunity of being exposed

to other cultures

of course staying connected to another

culture will take more effort

but developing cultural awareness will

ignite the light within you

and ultimately society i will be

covering

three main topics today what is cultural

awareness

what are its benefits and how can we

develop it

america as we know is the land of

opportunities making it a hub for

immigrants and a melting pot for various

ethnicities and cultures

cultural awareness is much more than

knowing just

how people dress or what they eat i like

to think of culture

as a tree with the leaves being

attributes that you can see

such as language attire celebrations and

behavior

and the roots being values traditions

customs and beliefs

once you understand both the leaves and

the roots of the culture tree

you have cultural awareness

but why is this important

i asked myself the same question years

ago when sitting at my kitchen table

reading those short stories

why should someone go through the

efforts of being

and staying culturally aware well

years later i know why cultural

awareness

ignites delight personally

professionally and for society

i have known my friend since first grade

to protect her privacy let’s call her

michelle

both of michelle’s parents were born and

brought up in china

and later immigrated to america just a

couple years before she was born

ever since first grade michelle would

tell me about her occasional visits to

china

while talking to her a couple weeks ago

i noticed a pattern in all of her

stories

she would be extremely glad to be back

home in california

not only because she missed her friends

but because she felt like a complete

outsider the entire time she was there

as i wrote this speech i reached out to

her again to ask her a couple questions

she said that while she was decently

fluent in mandarin

she would have felt more at home if she

knew more about her culture and her

roots

since her last visit to china michelle

has been able to rediscover her roots

and become more open-minded through

taking an ap chinese course in her

school

now whenever she calls her family in

china

she’s able to better connect and better

relate to them

which ultimately strengthens a sense of

support and connection

whenever she’s around them so obviously

there are personal benefits such as

developing a deeper connection with your

family and friends

and having a wider social network those

who are bi-cultural

can often speak more than one language

and past research has already shown the

correlation between multilingualism

and high cognitive power and emotional

and social skills

but it turns out that a lot of other

benefits stem from having different

perspectives

that are developed when being deeply

grounded within two cultures that you

identify with

these perspectives ignite creativity and

innovation

and influence the way we think and

behave

three researchers from tel aviv

university in israel

northwestern university in the u.s and

inseed in europe

recently conducted three studies on both

bicultural

and monocultural students in the first

study with the group of

mba students in europe they found out

that biculturals

were more fluent flexible and novel

which means that they generated a

greater number of ideas that were more

unique

and more creative in the second study

with the group of mba students in the

u.s

they found out that biculturals had more

patents for products and services than

monocultural students

the researchers noted that the reason

biculturals exhibited high creativity

is because they had a high integrative

complexity

in simple english that means that their

thought processes combine various

different possibilities and perspectives

for

any given situation specifically

biculturals are able to view a situation

from two different lenses

giving them a more holistic view on how

to approach it

their ability to think outside the box

ignites creativity within them

which automatically sets them apart from

others

this creativity carries through

professionally as well

the three researchers from before

conducted a third study

this time with a group of israeli

professionals working in the silicon

valley

they found out that biculturalism led to

a higher promotion rate

and a better managerial reputation with

businesses going global

it’s crucial not to underestimate the

effect that

cultural differences may have

the reason is the israeli professionals

were so successful

is because awareness of your own culture

translates to cultural sensitivity

which again is increasingly important in

a diversified workplace

through cultural sensitivity people are

able to

combat dealing with conflict and

hierarchy through different perspectives

this results in an increased

communication between co-workers

and a greater compatibility within a

team

but this is not only about the

individual

cultural awareness can prevent cultural

appropriation within society

let’s go back to the culture tree that i

was talking about

simply put cultural appropriation is

when people from one culture

carefully and conveniently pluck the

leaves off the culture tree of a

different culture while completely

disregarding the roots

an example of this happened last year

with the recent production of the lion

king

now i know what you’re thinking the lion

king has been the children’s classic for

the past quarter century

so what could have possibly arisen

well it turns out that disney had

trademarked one of the most popular

phrases in the movie

hakuna matata meaning no worries

however this understandably outraged

many swahili speakers

how can a business trademark a part of a

language a part of a culture

just to make more profit such an outrage

could have been avoided through cultural

awareness

and cultural sensitivity

if we want to ignite the light within

society and bring everyone together

we have to start igniting the light

through cultural awareness within

ourselves

which brings me to my last point how can

we develop

cultural awareness

the biggest thing that we can do at any

age is to be observant of the different

cultures

especially the ones around us the issues

that arise from

not being culturally aware often stem

from ignorance

and addressing that is well within our

control

everybody can start learning a language

that they’re interested in

younger children can talk to their

extended family about

various traditional holidays and

festivals

high school students and college

students can take part in exchange

programs

to broaden their understanding about

different countries and different

cultures

in the workplace professionals can

celebrate holidays and festivals

such as diwali chinese new year hanukkah

and more however it’s important to do

this carefully

because if not done properly cultural

appreciation can quickly turn into

cultural appropriation

to avoid this we need to give due credit

to the cultures that we’re inspired by

while also being aware of their

boundaries

so to conclude if i could go back in

time and tell my six-year-old self one

thing it would be to appreciate those

short stories instead of challenging

them

because those short stories helped me

embrace my culture

enhanced my language and ultimately

brought me closer to myself

on a global level cultural awareness

allows people to be more appreciative

of each other’s differences therefore

developing cultural awareness will

ignite the light within you

and ultimately society thank you