By Imma Martinez Leger
A friend of mine can’t learn or recall new chemistry concepts unless she explains them out loud in the Indian accent she grew up speaking. As much as her accent has changed from going to international schools, she still has to revert back to her original one when she thinks about complex topics.
Once, I told a classmate the story of how my parents met while studying overseas, and she got so excited that she told everyone around her. I’d never considered it until then, but of course, this story is not ordinary. Many people around the world will never travel further than the big city closest to their town or leave the state they live in, let alone fall in love in another country, entirely. The thing is, when something has always been part of your truth, you get used to it, and don’t realize that it’s remarkable at all. Like the story of how my parents met, or any of the funny little experiences I often live out, in my multicultural environment.
CIS, being an international school, represents people from a wide variety of places. Not only that, but many of the individuals at the school are part of more than a single culture. The fusion of expression and language that results is so peculiar that it can not be reduced back to a single origin. It is not exactly Singaporean, like the country it takes place in. Nor is it entirely Canadian, like our school could be if its atmosphere were based only on its name. It is something that can only be described as the “international school culture”: a set of rules for interaction that we all collectively learn as we continue to go to school, even if we don’t realize it. We have to learn to be tolerant and curious about our differences because it’s the only way for us all to share a learning environment.
In primary school, sometimes I’d bring in lunch from home, and my tablemates would all be very confused about how my parents cooked at home since we were all from different countries. They found my food odd, and I found their food odd. Back then, I remember getting so uncomfortable having to think about all this, and I didn’t like bringing in packed lunch. But, as time went on, I learned that many of the friends I’d made had similar experiences, and it’s something we get used to. Memories of trying new food and bringing in dishes to share quickly replaced my old worries about what others would think.
Every year, going to an international school, we are forced to interact with things that are not native to our own culture, from food to languages, to entire behaviors. We do it so much that we stop noticing it. Recently, I found myself having to explain to a friend what the United Nations week was about because she was new to the school. I was initially surprised that she wouldn’t know it, but then I realized that these activities that take place every year at CIS are particular to international schools, and not every school would have a week to celebrate cultural diversity.
Although the anecdotes mentioned are only from my life, everyone will have their own version of these cultural fusion “happenings”. Of course, there are big, important, beautiful displays of tolerance and cultural crossover around us all the time. But, I’d say, especially as someone who’s been in this kind of environment for a long time, that what we often overlook are the simple, funny little displays of cultural synthesis that are easy to miss. So here’s a little reminder to pause and notice it, the next time you’re in a silly situation that could only unfold because of the exact unique set of cultural circumstances you have the privilege of living in.