Post 179: Advantages of Multiculturalism

Post 179: Advantages of Multiculturalism

There are many advantages to learning about other cultures. For me, learning about other cultures opened up my mind to multiple points of view. I find some American students are surprised to learn about how other cultures think about the US or about the exotic foods other countries consume.  There are many advantages to multiculturalism.

1. Be able to interact with people from other countries. And be able to work in an international workspace with people from other countries.

2. Increased creativity as you are open to different ways of approaching the same topic.

3. Diverse food--you increase the variety of foods you eat. You can impress your significant other with your knowledge of all the diverse restaurants in the city. You can pronounce all the food menu items in other languages besides English.

4. Multilingual skills--Speak other languages--when you speak another language, you get a window into another culture and another way of thinking,  Also, after learning another language, it is fun to read a classic in its original language to discover the beauty of the target language. I also loved studying French literature because like learning French, French literature gave me a window into how French people think and experience the world. When I read a classic in its original form, I have more of a contextual understanding of that novel and of that culture than if I read it in its English translation.

5. Get to meet fascinating people from around the world--When I learned French, I found I could learn more about the French people than if I were just the tongue tied monolingual American tourist.

6. Sensitivity to one's own culture--It wasn't until after I visited France that I became aware that other countries could have negative opinions about US food or US culture. Also, after teaching the Asian American Literature class, I became much more aware of the cultural differences between Western culture and Eastern culture.

7. Cultural empathy--You become aware that we are all more similar than we are different. Everybody worries about their children and want a better future for their children for instance. When you develop cultural empathy, you humanize the headlines you see in the mass media about other ethnic groups.

8. Code switching--Once I learned other languages, I was able to code switch from English to French or from Chinese to English.  Sometimes I find French has the word for a specific expression I want to say or even Chinese so being bilingual increases my written and spoken vocabulary.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment of learning other cultures and with living in a multicultural society like the US? Do you think of the US as a melting pot where all immigrants lose their native culture to assimilate into US culture or do you think the US is a salad where each immigrant group can still retain its cultural heritage while still participating in American culture? Should the US be a melting pot or a salad?

Do you think encouraging the 'salad' analogy of multiculturalism encourages the 'disintegration  or disappearance of US Eurepean American culture? Do you think having too many cultures preserve their heritage increases the likelihood of hate crimes or violence? Do you think multiculturalism may or may not benefit the host culture? Does assimilation to US culture preserve US culture, US values and create a more unified nation or not? What has been your experience? What is your opinion?