Students talk about their experiences in culture and diversity. If you have any interesting stories to tell, send us your thoughts! E-mail them to isf@slu.edu
Being culturally aware of your surroundings is an important aspect of living among fellow peers. It displays a desire to learn about other people of different backgrounds, to understand how they grew up and in return gain some knowledge about their culture.
Having studied in Madrid, Spain for about a year and a half, I was given the opportunity of meeting new international students from all parts of the globe. There were students from Spain, then others from Bulgaria, India, Kenya, and even as far as Japan.
Born and raised in the Midwest, it was the first time I met new people from other countries. The experience broadened my views and opinions regarding world politics, entertainment, news, and the latest trends. I grew to appreciate not only what I have but also what I could change about myself towards others. I knew I couldn’t be enclosed in a shell forever, absent from what was going on in the world. So I explored different cultures and met people with different traditions.
I was very fortunate to have friends who taught me things they do back home. I remain in touch with those that really affected my stay in Spain, in hopes that later I can see them again in their home country, immersing myself with what they had told me in their past stories.
Carlos is a senior studying mechanical engineering.
One day, while looking at the seashore, it struck me how diverse sea life is. Creatures of enormously different sizes, colors, and shapes roamed the rocks scattered at that sea front. Why all this diversity? Wouldn’t it be OK if we just had a dozen or so sea creatures? Can God just create diversity merely on the seashore? What about the diversity in forests, deserts, mountains and just about every piece of earth? I don’t know the answer. But I know for sure that all this diversity needs to be preserved in order for life to continue. If this diversity disappears then nature’s balance is disrupted.
Like the diversity of nature, humans are diverse. And just as nature’s survival is preserved when all its diversity is maintained, human diversity must be kept to maintain harmony in the world. This makes understanding other cultures and experiencing them a must for all of us. We must practice maintaining harmony among human beings by taking the extra mile to understand other cultures.
Deeni is an MBA student and former ISF Senator ('02-'03).
I was born in Brazil, but my last name is Japanese. How can a Latin-looking boy be “half-Japanese,” you ask? Although my father was born in Brazil, he is Japanese in origin. His family moved to Brazil at a time when it held much promise. Many people from Japan, Italy, Germany and other nations joined in this process of expansion that makes Brazil the melting pot that it is today. My mother is what can be called a typical Brazilian. But her family is a mix of native Indians, Dutch and Portuguese people, which complicates the ethnicity of my family even more.
Listening to stories of my family lineage really opened my mind to different cultures. In fact, it exposed me to different cultures so much that there is not one specific culture that I completely associate myself with. Although I lived in Germany for a year and adapted to my “German life,” there are certain things about me that still are “extremely Brazilian”— and that includes our Brazilian national soccer team. Any prejudiced comment that is made about any culture deeply hurts me.
Today, I feel extremely accepted by this wonderful country that in a way represents what I am. America has always been a nation that I admire.
America is not white, not black, nor yellow. Like America, I don't feel like I am only Brazilian, or Latin, or Japanese. All these cultures have something that fascinates me, but the more I open my self to all of them, I realize that I am not a citizen of one nation. I am a citizen of this world and I am proud of it.
Thiago is a sophomore studying Economics and German. He is also a former ISF Senator ('02-'03).
After watching the NBC preview of American Dreams, I immediately realized that my family's dreams were nothing like what I saw on television. My parents have never experienced American Band Stand, and they have never heard of the popular dance move known as the "twist." They only knew of America as this land of opportunity—a place where, with enough hard work—their dreams might soon become a reality.
These ideas were very common but naive of my parents. They never thought hostility to Asians grew because of the stereotype that Asians were taking away many jobs from Americans. My parents have also never heard of a man known as Vincent Chin, a man mistaken for a Japanese person and killed by people who took their anger physically on him for losing their jobs in the automobile industry. My mother and father were involuntary immigrants, otherwise known as refugees escaping the atrocities that occurred because of political turmoil in Vietnam during the mid 1970s. My father fled to the United States with my mother (his fiancée at the time) and his younger brother. Because he had worked in the American Embassy as a translator for the South Vietnamese Army, he had the privilege of coming to the United States earlier than millions of other Southeast Asian refugees.
After moving from Little Rock, Arkansas where their refugee camp was, and starting from scratch in Los Angeles, they finally settled in St. Louis, Missouri where they started the small fast food Chinese restaurant business. After 23 years in business, they may not have achieved dreams for themselves, but they certainly were able to fund my way through high school and college. They were also to support my paternal grandparents during their retirement, purchase a car for me to drive to and from work and school, and fund my little brother through 6 years of primary school.
Of course, following this American dream did not come without a cost. Especially during my adolescence, my parents and I disagreed about almost everything—from issues about privacy, independence, family values, dating, and educational endeavors. Until I learned that it is because of our cultural and generational gap, I learned to accept that I must live with the difficulty of balancing two worlds.
Although I am always faced with adversity in either culture—not being viewed completely Chinese and not being viewed completely American in my own homeland—I chose to view myself as being bicultural not as a curse but now as a blessing.
I would not trade places with anyone else in the world if I had the chance. I am proud to say that I am not only Chinese or American. I am proud of being Chinese American—without the hyphen. I realize that the gift of being bicultural has linked two seemingly clashing worlds together, and it has made my family's living standards easier for them to adapt. Most of all, being able to unlock the mysteries between both worlds has given me a greater sense of awareness that intercultural communication is very important if any progress is to be made on a global scale.
Janet graduated with a degree in psychology. She was former Director of Fundraising and Alumni Relations for A.S.I.A.