Benefits And Challenges of Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is the variety of people belonging to various different societies and living in harmony in a specific region. It is not just the people’s nationality that comes from different corners of the world; it is also their respective ideas, knowledge, and experience. Some of the key advantages of cultural diversity are better development and prosperity, vast pool of knowledge and expertise, understanding human values and having a better understanding on different types of cultures and traditions. United Arab Emirates is an example of a country that has cultural diversity. Here majority of the population are expatriate community and with the open mindedness of the rulers and the UAE Nationals, the country has reached a very high position within a very short span of time. Some of the disadvantages of cultural diversity are lack of understanding the sensitive points with each other’s cultures, language barrier, and many other social and cultural related issues at work place which in turn can affect the progress of the development. The issues which took place in the Indian state of Maharashtra regarding the abundance of North Indians in the state is one of the many examples where cultural diversity has failed to prove itself. Cultural diversity is a very essential and effective tool for overall development; however, everything must remain in a limit.

Quiz – What are Multiculturalism, Assimilation and Acculturation?

Quiz – What are Multiculturalism, Assimilation and Acculturation?

True or False? If FALSE, write the TRUE answer.

1.       A Multicultural society can be described as a society with a single set of values.	False, Multiple set of values.
2.       A “salad bowl” represents varied and separate cultures.	True
3.       One aspect of Multiculturalism is respecting different cultures.	True
4.       Cultural Diversity can be represented by a “melting pot”	False, assimilation represent melting pot.
5.       Acculturation means learning the culture of your birth country.	False, it is mean leaving host country.

Define in your own words:

1.       “Melting Pot”: You have to forget about your culture and learn the host country culture.

2.       “Salad Bowl”: Groups of people living together from many culture and ever one keep his own culture

3.       “Assimilation”: Fusing of minority groups in the host country social and forget the original one.

4.       “Acculturation”: adding new culture to your culture but keeping your own.

5.       “Enculturation”: learning about your own birth culture

Complete the sentence with words from the text:

Acculturation often results in changes to ____Culture___________, ____Customs ____________and _____Social institution____________, as well as changes in food, ____Clothing______ and _______language______________.

Give a synonym:

varied	Different	respect	Esteem	dominate	Control
multiple	Many	central	Main	interacting	Co operating
specific	Exact	represents	Shows	adopt	Take on

Give the opposite:

varied	Same	respect	Disrespect	gradually	Sharply
multiple	Single	common	Uncommon	dominant group	Minority group
specific	Random	contrasted with	Compered	adopt	reject

Culture and Personality in Anthropology

Read the section about Culture and Personality in Anthropology. Answer these questions about that section:-

1.       Define “Anthropology” in your own words

a a since about culture diversity

2.       Define “movement” in this context

change in personalty

3.       What do you understand by “socialization of children” Give an example

 make the child socially so he can understand the community for example in schools .

4.       Read this sentence again and give examples of childrearing in different societies and cultures: “socialization creates personality patterns. It helps shape people’s emotions, thoughts, behaviors, cultural values and norms to fit into and function as productive members in the surrounding human society. The study of culture and personality demonstrates that different socialization practices such as childrearing in different societies (cultures) result in different personality types.”

In some poor cultures kids have to start working in earlier age and this will make them Self-reliant. But in other rich cultures kids are spoiled and get everything they want so they don’t have self-reliance.

5.       Read this sentence again and say to what extent you agree: “all humans are the same when born, but childrearing in different societies causes deviations in behavior and personalities from each other.”

 i agree because every body born the same but the change when they grow .

6.       Reflect on the reading above. Can you see a link between your culture and your personality? Think about that in relation to your own culture first, and then think about personality and culture in a different society. Reflect. Give examples.

 yes there is a link between them for example in my culture we should be generous and kind with people.

 

Quiz - What is Cultural Diversity ??

Quiz – What is Cultural Diversity?

Read the UNESCO report. True or False? If FALSE, write the TRUE answer.

1.       At least 6000 different languages exist in the world.	True
2.       Over 200 million people live outside the country where they were born.	False - 175million
3.       One aspect of Human Rights is respecting different cultures.	True
4.       Cultural Diversity means a lack of respect for freedom of thought.	False – means respect
5.       Cultural Diversity can make a society stronger.	True

Vocabulary practice. Define in your own words:

1.       Heterogeneous : A mixture that is not uniform in its composition; the components can be visibly distinguished

2.       Plurality : majority

3.       Migration : Moving From your country to author country

4.       Fundamental : Basic

5.       Collective strength : Group

Now read the rest of the article, and answer these questions by researching on the internet.

1.       The article mentions food as an example of Cultural Diversity. Can you think of something else which could add interest and richness in a culturally diverse country?

Technology – Cloths

2.       Name three ways in which people of different cultures can help a country to function in the new global economy.

Bring language Skills – New ways of thinking – Creative solutions

3.       From the internet, in relation to Cultural Diversity, find a picture and a definition of “Melting pot” and “Garden salad”.

Melting pot: a place where a variety of races, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a cohesive whole.

Garden Salad : concept suggests that the integration of the many different cultures

1.       Britain today is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Look on the internet and find out which nationalities make up the “ethnic minority population of over 4 million”.

Arabs – Indian – Africans – Pakistanis.

Vocabulary practice. Give the opposite:

Varied	Same	Increasingly	decreasingly	Respecting	disrespecting
Strength	weakness	Improving	worsen	Inclusive	exclusive
Majority	minority	Tolerance	intolerance	Equality	inequality

Vocabulary practice. Give a synonym:

Diverse	Varid	Creative	Inventive	Uniqueness	special
Dignity	respect	Integrated	united	Asset	benefit
Global	World wide	Benefit	advantage	Harmony	peace