Doing my weekly errands in a mixed race, mixed ethnic neighborhood, I go from the Amigo Laundry, next door to the donut shop run by an Egyptian couple who has been in the US since 1974. As I walk across the parking lot to get groceries at Aldi’s, an Arabic woman in a full chador precedes me.
I am comfortable in this rich mix and am glad I fit in. Although I was raised in the US, in Texas, I am occasionally identified as Latina or Egyptian in various settings.
When I taught pre-school music in a Montessori school in a gated community, several families hired me to teach private lessons in their homes. I loved being welcomed into homes with cultural practices from Lebanon and Pakistan, and various parts of India and China, as well as the US.
I was invited to witness religious and holiday celebrations and felt privileged to do so. I felt elevated by the value many other traditions place on learning the arts, since it is considered to be an important part of the child’s spiritual development.
The celebration of cultures in schools in many large cities allows me to get a glimpse of other tastes and traditions. I hear the different rhythms of languages and am encouraged when I ask how to pronounce people’s names and the names of foods. It is always fun to practice “please” and “thank you” in other languages and I often get a supportive laugh for my efforts.
I asked a couple of my elementary school students to show me how they are learning to write in Arabic and in the dialects from different parts of India. It feels so different as I try to make those shapes with my American-trained hands.
These are the ways I can expand my world view in every day living in the US. They are tiny steps, but they allow a flow of communication across cultures.
© 2018 Kathryn Hardage
www.sharedglobalvision.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment