The route to being a multicultural individual is open to everyone; all you need is to be open to change, adventure and compromise. When I look around my office at the people I spend my weekdays with, I see a Russian who speaks French, German and English in addition to her mother tongue. Next to me is a Berlin raised Indian girl fluent in English who has also spent a year in Shanghai and opposite her is a French boy with a degree in Japanese and English. I myself am Japanese-British, I speak Italian and am learning German. The rest of the team is just as dynamic and we are all in a country to which none of us belong by birth – Switzerland. We all took very different routes to get here and we all know this isn’t the end of our journey.
Throughout my life I have been surrounded by peers from different cultures and I suppose I took it for granted since I never really thought about how each of us have a very interesting explanation as to how we ended up the way we are. It got me thinking about how one day you can be monolingual, monocultural and completely accustomed to your set way of life only to find yourself, by chance, in a completely different setting that will probably change your identity forever.
The earthquake in Japan brought this to my attention. I was frantically checking up on my friends on Facebook to make sure they were safe and what struck me was how heartwarming it was to see so many non-Japanese people reaching out to the victims in Japan; many of them had spent some time in Japan due to their parents’ jobs and felt connected to the country and its people. I remember when a group of new students arrived at our school from the US when I was around 14 years old, they had come to Japan because their parents were involved in the production of Universal Studios Japan. Had these kids’ parents refused to work overseas, they would never have had the chance to live in a foreign country. Had Universal Studios decided to branch out into Germany rather than Japan they would have had a completely different experience and may have lent the tsunami victims a few minutes of their sympathy before moving on to other issues. You really can be transported across to a random part of the world purely by chance, if you let it happen, and the effect of that sojourn may follow you throughout your life.
If you had told me two years ago that upon finishing my degree in literature I would be taking up a job offer in Switzerland and would end up meeting a wonderful German man I would have been very skeptical. I myself was surprised all the while it took shape. All through my studies I simply assumed I would move to London with all my friends, but, of course, if life was that predictable it wouldn't be very exciting and I have been known to appreciate a bit of drama in my life. It took a recession to alter my plans, the job I was expecting to take up after graduation evaporated into thin air leaving me with an empty bank account and a sense of urgency that opened my eyes to new options. It really was a blessing in disguise, as I doubt I would have favoured moving to a German speaking country over the option of moving to London with my throng of university friends without a little push. That first push has prepared me for any number of future pushes and I look forward to each and every one of them.
What I find most appealing about building a multicultural lifestyle is that it’s accessible to anyone – you don’t have to speak more than one language before you set off since immersion is the best teacher anyway. You don’t have to be rich, I certainty wasn’t straight after finishing my degree. My father was far from rich when he decided to venture over to Italy to see what life there would have in store for him. After a pleasant first experience abroad he flew over to Japan with no particular job scope in mind and there he met my mother. Had he not taken the initiative to leave the surroundings he had become so accustomed to, he may never have caught the travel bug and would never have gone to Japan. Of course, this would mean that I wouldn’t exist and he wouldn’t be fluent in Japanese and running a business, which bases its activities on bringing cultures together.
What my father’s journey to becoming a multicultural person proves is that there are no rules, you just need to trust yourself and relish the fact that the experience will pave your way to a myriad of opportunities. So, if we put all the above together into an easy to digest nutshell, what I am trying to say is that if the chance to discover a new culture is presented to you, I urge you to think twice about refusing it based on not wanting to leave your comfort zone. If you have been itching to live in Paris and eat croissants every morning while you go over your French verbs, you shouldn't let anything hold you back. Take a chance and go out and find your path to adding new cultures to your repertoire. After all, isn’t that how the United States of America came to exist in the first place?