We live in such a controversial world today: on one hand, we are free to travel, it is easier than ever, and globalisation is reaching its peak. On the other hand though, we are full of hatred and intolerance, and we are rising against liberalism. Is this freedom too much for people? Have we forgotten how the world was before, and how much we can benefit from opening up towards each other? Is the memory of the World Wars fading away, and after our great-grandparents’ generation passed the message to their children, it’s not reaching us vividly and strongly enough?
I have always been raised to be an open and tolerant person, which is perfectly mirrored in my two university degrees: one is in teaching English language and culture and Hungarian as a foreign language, the other one is in international relations. They seem different fields, and in many ways it is true, indeed; however, there are some key points where they meet, and they are in perfect correlation.
The most important is the human-centeredness: being in a school, in a working place, in diplomacy, or in politics, people’s behaviour and decisions are highly influenced by their cultural background. So we need to understand each other’s culture in order to communicate effectively, making partnerships, or to be able to teach effectively.
I’ve seen it proved so many times during my life. I cannot teach Hungarian students and Chinese or Indian students in the same way. I cannot negotiate with the German colleagues in the same way as with the English or the Indian. I cannot make the same jokes in England as I’d do in a Hungarian environment. My usually effective communication wouldn’t work with my Brazilian, English or with my Spanish colleagues. These are none of our faults, these are just simply due to our culture that our languages and customs form. We just need to learn and understand the differences, and respect them.
As I said, I see the world torn at the moment. We need the multinational relations, we want to travel to different countries, we embrace the advantages of the globalised world. At the same time, we build fences on the country borders, and we give power to nationalist politicians, whose campaign and political program is based on hatred towards foreigners, setting immigrants as enemies, and talking about refugees as if they were a cultureless mass, who are simply intruders to our immaculate superior culture.
I’m shocked when people still talk about Africa as one entity, and address its people as “those blacks/negros”. Or when they put equals sign between muslims and terrorism. This makes me realise that history cannot just take a 180 grade turn and forget about everything. Apartheid, holocaust, slavery are strong mementos of the past, but they weren’t that long ago, and cannot be just erased. They are still complex topics, raising controversial questions, and they still have their supporters. Hence it would be irresponsible to take it for granted that dark ages cannot return. Also as we know, history repeats itself.
However, we live in a unique world now, where all the technical innovations are helping connecting people from all over the world. We all know immediately what happens on the other side of the world, we watch videos, we connect on social media, share our thoughts with the whole wide world. So we live the age of connectedness.
Hence now is the right moment, when we have the right tools, and the tear is not too deep yet. We have the appropriate technological background, which is still exponentially evolving, we have the aspirations, we have the demand for breaking the barriers. However, we don’t necessarily have the right knowledge to help to immerse in a world without borders and cultural barriers. This should be cured in first place. Education is always the most powerful weapon. I would do two things: 1) reinforce the cultural aspect of language classes; 2) introducing an international education class from an early age (10-12yrs).
As I mentioned before, I am a teacher of English language and culture, and taught in primary and in high school for a while. Most teachers I knew only taught regular language classes with focus on grammar and vocabulary. However, the lessons were lacking of the most exciting part: the cultural aspect. So I decided to bring it in, and what a surprise, the students enjoyed it! It was not only a dry lesson with a text about Halloween, but games, poems, pictures, customs, history – all in one. And not only Halloween but we also had dedicated British and American culture classes where we learnt about the history of the US flag, the origins of hot dog, the history of holidays – and lots of others.
The idea about cultural, international education classes might already exist in some countries, maybe under a different name. In Hungary, we have a so-called social sciences subject in high school, but it often merges with history classes, and it is more theoretical than hands-on and lively. I would imagine a class which enhances the equality of cultures, that none of them is better than the other, they are just simply different. It could demonstrate how the different cultures emerged, evolved, how they are related, what their main characteristics are, and open a discussion about it, where we could point out the main differences between theirs and ours. Also an important part would be to highlight how the different cultures make an impact on the people, and how their way of life, attitudes, religion, behaviour, etc. are affected.
In my opinion, if children are exposed to such studies from a relatively early age, and it is explained well how cultures make the world colourful and exciting, then they will handle information from the news, from politics with a healthy scepticism. Knowledge is very important, and with it, we can fight against fake campaigns and against hatred. As well as we can make children curious and open to the world.
All in all, we need to act quickly until the tear is too deep. We have the tools, we have the demand, we just need to pour the right knowledge into the heads so people would be able to judge based on facts, rather than fake news, stereotypes, and half-information. With the help of social media, news platforms, and the ease of travelling around, we could really bring nations and cultures together, and embrace globalisation. Instead of being afraid of meeting other cultures, we should appreciate these meetings, as they widen our world and form us, too. Knowledge is the key to break barriers down, and we should leverage the opportunities to gain this knowledge and pass it on to further generations, so they surely won’t repeat previous eras’ mistakes.
I personally love living in such a colourful world, and I like that I can have friends from all over the world, with whom I can connect easily through the Internet or by visiting each other. I’m trying to maintain these connections and friendships as they make me learn more and more. I can always learn about a new holiday and how it’s celebrated, why they celebrate it, and what it means to today’s people, to my friends. Or I can always learn a new recipe from faraway places, and see if I can make it at home. Moreover, I can also teach something about my culture to people who may have never come across with my tiny little country otherwise. So we “everyday” people should also work on representing our culture appropriately, go out, and share it with the world. At least that’s what I do, and hopefully it’ll also contribute to the overall success of breaking barriers.