Aspects of Culture Beyond Language

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Aspects of Culture Beyond Language

                                             
                                                               Culture Beyond Language


Here are a few of the things a bicultural individual experiences from more than one perspective, in addition to language and speech itself:
1. Food


Cultural or “heritage” dishes are generally influenced by the staples that were available wherever that particular culture and language was established.


Dining cross-culturally can be a linguistic experience — most Americans, for example, know that “con arroz” means “with rice” in Spanish, simply from the prevalence of Latin American foods in the United States.


However, it is possible to eat culturally-influenced meals without knowing any of the parent language, and many children do, particularly in households where immigrant parents or grandparents cook, but children are raised speaking the local language.


Some traditions go beyond just the kinds of food used, and affect how they are eaten as well — the difference between using chopsticks and forks, for example, or between eating omelets and other egg dishes for breakfast (United States) and for evening meals (Eastern Europe and parts of Latin America).


One of the advantages of introducing children to bicultural eating as well as language when they’re young is that it becomes less of a culture shock when they travel later in life. They’re already familiar with the traditional foods of their heritage country. And, as an added bonus, it gets them used to the idea of a varied diet in general — a good way to help discourage picky eating habits!
2. Folk Art


The broad category of “folk art” includes music, dance, folklore, and traditional cultural crafts.


Some cultures have very specific and guarded ones — Japanese flower arranging and calligraphy, for example. Others are practiced all over the world in different styles, such as pottery or even things as common as painting and stringed instruments.


Exposing a bilingual child to cultural art as well can be useful in a couple of different ways. Obviously, it gives them something to appreciate that they wouldn’t normally encounter, but it can also open up new vocabulary, and it can be very revealing about a culture as well. Something as simple as listening to a piece of music by a Russian composer and then one by a contemporary German composer gives even a casual observer a good understanding of some of the differences between the two cultures.
3. Celebrations


Children like this one, because it usually means at least twice as many holidays in the household!


Bringing in holidays from other culture is a start to explaining everything from religious plurality to the differences in calendar systems.


It’s also good motivation, especially when you can explain that Russian-speakers have their own Santa, who only brings presents for Russian-speaking children. You’ll be amazed how prolific the Russian use gets around Christmas time…
4. Jokes


Humor is very difficult to translate.


Even after years of living together, bicultural couples can struggle to understand one another’s humor. But don’t let that difficulty scare you away from it — instead, ask to have jokes explained, and work through why they’re funny in their original cultures. If you understand a culture’s humor, you’re very well-immersed!


Introducing children to multicultural humor is surprisingly easy. Most toys, books, and TV shows marketed toward kids is humor-based already. If you want to give them a grounding in another culture’s humor, just let them watch some silly cartoons — the things that culture finds amusing will become apparent very quickly. You may even learn something yourself.
5. Manners


Teaching manners in just one culture can be a challenge.


You may need to wait until children are older to start explaining to them some of the differences between what separate cultures find polite.


It can be important to go over multicultural manners, especially if you travel, however. For example, Americans tend to smile at strangers as their default — if you make eye contact, you smile, and sometimes nod or even speak a greeting. In other parts of the world (including Russia and Ukraine), strangers tend to avoid acknowledging one another except when they actively interact.


Children don’t always understand the differences, and you may need to do some explaining to make sure they aren’t feeling slighted or punished simply by being immersed in a culture that doesn’t interact the way they’re used to.
6. Clothes and Dressing


Apart from “heritage festivals,” most countries have globalized their fashions to at least some degree. We may know what a culture’s traditional clothing used to look like, but the reality is that most Japanese people do not wear kimonos every day, nor do Germans wear lederhosen and dirndls.


That said, even in countries that share a basic wardrobe (such as the Western business dress used in North America and Western Europe), standards and fashions can vary widely. Most Continental Europeans find Americans extremely sloppy in dress, while sharp-dressed Americans tend to see their British counterparts as too stuffy and the Europeans as too fashion-forward.


Children are usually better off when they’re dressed in the dominent costume, rather than in heritage clothing, at least when they go to school. Save other cultural clothing for special occasions, or for travel.
7. Working Schedules


This usually affects the parents more than the children, but different countries and cultures have very different approaches to work schedules.


The United States tends to be early-rising, with a strong urge to end the workday by 5:00 or 6:00 PM, while Europeans often start and end later. Spanish and Latin-influenced countries share the “siesta,” an hour or two of time off in the middle of the day. And nearly every country has better vacation time for workers than the United States — an unfortunate burden for U.S. parents.


Your children will adapt to your schedules, so if you want them to experience bicultural work patterns, you may need one parent to be on one schedule and the other on another. If this is inconvenient or impossible for you, you may not get to include them in that aspect of biculturalism except on vacations and during other travel.

http://bilingualkidsrock.com/bilingualism-vs-biculturalism/