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identity may be clearer to some people than it may be to others. Although many
Americans, for example, identify with their Irish, West African, Chinese, or Mexican roots
(among many others), they may still know themselves to be American. In this article, as in the magazine Crossing
Cultures, the issue is more one of the present experience of identity confusion due to
integration into more than one culture and/or language. This is a common
occurrence, but rarely written about. As I have started looking at cultural identity in my
own life, I have been able to discuss this topic with others of mixed cultures and have
found some common ground that has lead to discussions:
1. a feeling of being an outsider
2. a sense of cultural schizophrenia
3. an enhanced cultural perception
4. not knowing for certain where the home country is
Once we haved moved away from the place of
our original culture and begun the process of adapting to another culture, we broaden our
perceptions, noticing things that are done differently or similarly between the
two cultures. We learn a whole new set of culturally and linguistically defined rules and
value systems with the result that our own perception of the culturally induced life
experience is expanded.
After speaking with many people on this topic, I
have found that once people have started to adapt to a second culture, they are
able to adapt more quickly to a third culture and begin to feel more part of a
multicultural construct than citizens of only one culture. Exceptions to this
rule have been found in people who have not yet returned to live in the original country;
the country that they still feel a complete citizen of. If they do go back and stay long
enough, they might notice that they are no longer the same person culturally as they were
when they left originally and they also might notice that people are seeing them as being
influenced by the other culture in some way.
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These
returnees can sometimes feel like outsiders in the country that all along, they may have
felt was home. Atsushi Furuiye the founder of a club that supports Japanese people who
have returned to Japan after living in foreign countries, tells his own experience
of being culturally confused after growing up in Mexico, attending an American school
there, and returning to Japan after many years. This topic actually refers in part to the
phenomenon of reverse
culture shock, another experience shared by those who have felt cultural
confusion. Lastly, the feeling that I like to
refer to as cultural schizophrenia is especially strong among those who
have had to learn a new language along with the new culture. It seems that there is a
feeling attached to speaking one language that is slightly different than that which
is felt when speaking the other. In those who have emigrated while still quite young,
speaking the original language may make one feel more like a child for example.
Unconscious reflexes may be attached to the speaking of one language as well. For example,
I find myself kissing people "goodbye" if I have been speaking French with them,
and hugging them if we have been speaking English and I am often surprised to see that I
might have done this completely unconsciously. Between bilingual people, there is often
the question of which language is primary. Most people can identify which language is the
most dominant, and can say which one they dream in. Some people might dream in whichever
language they have heard during the day. Whether these language experiences are purely
linguistic or whether they are a clue to understanding the complexities surrounding
cultural identity could well be an interesting investigation.
Links to stories (essays and interviews) on
this topic:
"Where Are You
From?"
Drifting
Mitra Dancing Through
Change
Goretti, World Citizen
In Praise of Cultural
Polyamory
Crossing Cultures encourages all discussion
on cultural identity and invites its readers to write with their reflections and input on
this topic. Please write us at:
Crossingcultures@yahoo.com |