Writing to Evaluate - Essay Example

of the of the Concerned English 10 May Multiculturalism- A Celebration of Differences There is no denying the fact that attending USI could turn out to be a remarkable experience. Getting the opportunity to be a member of a diverse group not only facilitates one with a platform to share one’s thoughts, ideas and knowledge, but could take an individual’s understanding to new heights. The opportunity to locate the common factors between cultures and individuals, furnishes a much better chance to understand the varied aspects of human behavior and human interactions.

The most important question is, why one should celebrate differences? Also, what happens when people with diverse cultural backgrounds interact with each other? Varied ethnicities and social mores have a lot in common, especially in the current times. Men and women do behave differently in every culture. For instance the American women enjoy more freedom than their counterparts in any other part of the world. For an individual from a more restrained culture at USI, the opportunity to play soccer with females and being pushed or tackled by a woman could turn out to be really amazing.

The girls may not have the sportsmen like skills, but they do have the right to share a soccer field with males, without cowering to any considerations regarding varied gender issues. While in many Asian countries, it’s the family that takes the important decisions regarding a girl’s life; in America women do have the right to choose their partners and to freely live their lives as they want to. In that context, a person visiting Hong Kong for the first time may be shocked at finding dog and cat meat dishes in the regular menus at the local restaurants (Ingrams 134).

Yet, for a Chinese it could mean just one other culinary delight or a dietary preference. Indeed food is one major difference between varied cultures. Also, food could turn out to be a unique experience in the US, because it is imported from almost every nation and it gets really difficult to tell, which a foreign food is and which a traditional American food is. For instance, most of the people in the Middle East do not eat pork, just like the Jewish people from Israel. It gets really funny to notice that the Arabs and the Israelis can share their dietary preferences, but they cannot share the land.

In the US, fast food and gas stations are almost ubiquitous, while in the Middle East, one could find barber shops and laundries almost everywhere. Indeed, the human needs do tend to differ from one culture to other. The way people dress up in the Arab nations is unique. Some people there wear Thowb, which is also sometimes called Dishdash. Yet, many a times one comes across Westerners visiting Arab nations who prefer to wear the traditional Arab clothes as a mark of respect for the local people.

On the contrary, such individuals simply do not know that this friendly gesture on their part could be rather misunderstood by the local Arabs. This is because for Arabs their traditional dress is not just a piece of clothing but rather an integral part of their identity (Al-Rasheed 78). The other big thing that divides culture is the difference between the way men and women dress up. Like, in Arab nations, the women dress differently as compared to the men. This gives way to cultural clashes as the Western media projects it as a symbol of discrimination against women in Arab countries.

They do not realize that by dressing so, the Arab women are simply following their tradition and this has nothing to do with religion. Again, in France the women are not allowed to cover their face with a veil, while anthropologists have discovered tribes in Papua New Guinea, who wear nothing except for covering their privates with banana leaves. They do so because the climate they live in is very different and hence wearing clothes may harm their health. The crux of the matter is that it will be boring if all humans follow the same way of living and it will be even more boring if all humans have the same life.

Sometimes, it gets really hard for people to grasp the concept of cultural diversity, even when the IT revolution has turned the world into a global village. Still, the best option will be to celebrate the world and celebrate the cultural differences. Works CitedAl-Rasheed. Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print. Ingrams, Harold. Hong Kong. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1952. Print.