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