Another Look on Cultural Identity By Misha Goussev, September 1998
Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA (This essay was written as an assignment for a Non-Fiction Writing class. The class took place in the above mentioned house, which a part of the University of Pennsylvania campus).	There have been multiple discussions regarding the preservation of the cultural identity of various minority and immigrant groups. Many of those discussions seem to address the issue of protecting the minority culture from the influence of and submergence into the mass American culture. But how does the minority culture itself seem to be responding to the challenge of survival in a foreign environment? There is a devastating trend of unwillingness in young generations of various minority cultures to affiliate themselves with a cultural background of their ancestors for the sake of full assimilation into the new surrounding cultural environment. In my opinion, such an attitude is beneficial neither for the society nor for the individuals themselves, since the gift of being truly bicultural should be considered to be one of their greatest assets. Being bicultural expands your intellectual horizons. How many people would argue against the benefits of speaking multiple languages? One philosopher once said that each foreign language a person masters could account for a separate lifetime the person has lived. How many of you have tried to read prose and poetry in original form only to be greatly disappointed when reading it in translated form later? There is a lot to be said about the uniqueness of a language and its connection with the customs and habits of a culture, as well as the religious rituals and beliefs. As a person who had been raised in Russia I came to experience a feeling of frustration when I try to translate original Russian jokes, anecdotes, or short stories into English for my American friends. Many times I promised myself I would never do it again, but every time my conscience would be deceived by the desire to share something funny and appropriate to the moment. Most of the time my only reward would be the puzzled facial expressions of my audience. After a while I acquired a reputation of telling jokes which are never funny. Some things just don’t make sense while being taken out of the cultural and lingual context. Would not it be just great to be able sometimes to read a book in the original or to speak to somebody in his native tong? You’ll get so much more out of it. Being bicultural gives you the sense of unique identity and cultural authenticity. We say that we belong to a particular culture, but what is culture? Why do we identify ourselves with it? In my opinion, any culture is a product created by many generations of people over a long period of time. A culture is a collection of landmarks left by the best minds that have ever lived and identified themselves with this particular culture. A culture is a unique synthesis of the highest achievements, which a country or a nation has to contribute to the world and to the civilization in general. It’s that simple, you just automatically become a part of it, affiliated with the very best that your culture has to offer! And it is unique, as unique and your place in it. A culture is like your parents’ home – regardless where you end up in your life after you leave it - you always come back to it whether in reality or in your memories. That feeling gives us stability and firmness that never fails, regardless of the obstacles your life might take you through. What is our relationship with a culture? To me, any culture is a teacher. Culture can help you find inspiration. Culture will open for you the archives of wisdom of the past generations which might help you find answers to many questions you might have. We all have something to learn from each other and from other cultures as well. Many artists got their inspiration by getting in touch with other cultures. Picasso’s Cubism, which encompasses some of his most famous works, was born when he came across a collection of African primitive art. Nearly all-famous American Impressionists of the beginning of the century went to Europe to study works of the renown masters of all times such as Degas, Monet, Manet, Cézanne, only to come back and establish their own schools. Many famous writers traveled around the world and lived in other countries, later creating masterpieces written in their native language, but read by the entire intellectual world. A friend of mine, a Professor of Eastern Philosophies by occupation and a Russian poet by passion, wrote a number of short poems in Russian, which were greatly influenced by her knowledge of and exposure to the Chinese and Japanese cultures. According to one of the highly recognized authorities on contemporary literature, Iosiph Brodsky, Nobel Prize winner for his contribution to world literature, her poetry added a truly new dimension and meaning to Russian literature unknown until now. A culture is a teacher. The more you stay with your teacher, the more you learn about yourself. I collect all these examples to show what a significant influence an exposure to a different culture can have on our creativity and perception of the world. Of course, an argument can be made that not everybody was born to be an artist or a writer, but don’t we all aspire to be creative and tap into that irrational part of ourselves once in a while? If that is the case, the gift of multiculturalism can only help to develop that faculty of our beings. On a more practical side, the benefits of being proficient in multiple cultures are vast and especially apparent in the contemporary world. If sixty years ago it would take close to two weeks to cross the Atlantic while some destinations were unreachable at all, nowadays some people, due to the nature of their work, manage to have lunch in Paris and come back to New York City by dinnertime. On a more realistic scale, business travelling became a life style for millions of people. In the era of multinational corporations being bicultural is often not a plus, but a requirement. For example, one of the Admission requirements to get into the Lauder School of Multinational business is the applicant’s ability to be fully proficient in at least one foreign language. The graduates of this program generally occupy high-level managing positions in world leading multinational firms. Needless to say that such skill as a foreign language takes years to master and polish. Unless, of course, you just happened to grow up bilingual… Is it possible to be bicultural, we might ask? To answer this question I will turn to an example. My aunt left Russia with her family at the age of four. Until the age of twelve, she lived in various European countries, while her mother, a famous violinist, was touring across the world performing concerts. Later, the entire family moved to the United States. An amazing part about my aunt, besides the fact that she had a very interesting and eventful life, is that despite being taken out of the country as a little child she managed to continue speaking perfect Russian and maintained a remarkable touch with the culture itself. Over the years she has worked and finished multiple translations of prose and poetry from Russian to English and vice versa, participated in multiple cultural events that have taken place in America, helped many newly arrived immigrant families from Russia to settle down in the Land of Opportunity. To a large extent, my personal life took a sharp turn and changed forever because of my aunt’s love for her native culture. But, one might wonder, what are the reasons that seem to outweigh such obvious benefits of preserving one’s cultural identity? Why does the youth seem to rather assimilate and forget about its cultural roots than not? In my opinion, one of the driving factors is the fear of being mocked and made fun of, the fear of not being like everybody else around. There is one thing that these young boys and girls forget or simply don’t know – by getting rid of this feeling and merging with the rest of the crowd we loose the sense of self, which is the only thing which can get you anywhere later on in life. If you don’t stick for your inner identity now, will you stick for it later? I don’t want to make the impression that I am trying to argue against assimilation with American culture. One of the fundamental ideas of America was to provide every individual with freedom of choice, a variety of opportunities in order to stimulate personal growth and achievement, a spirit of individuality and freedom. Multiculturalism was and is at the very foundation of the American political system. The very fact of mixing multiple cultures gave birth to that unique entity, which we now call American culture. But by no means was American culture created in order to suppress and deface its parent subcultures. To do this, in my opinion, would undermine the very foundation of the existing cultural balance in contemporary America. Contrary, being bicultural only contributes to the well being of this unique and incredible country. A native culture, as many other things in your life, is not a matter of personal choice, but rather fate. Your culture is always unique, as is your place in it. The opportunity to grow up in multiple cultures, though, is a gift. Like with any other gift, you are free to choose whether you want to accept or reject it. The love of culture can not exist in a vacuum. It has to be developed, fostered, explored, and cherished. The inner spark of cultural identity has to be carefully preserved like the burning coals when there are no more matches left, so one is able to start a fire when the cold nights come. This is a gift to you! Take it! ▪
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