Multiculturalism – Loving, sharing, receiving and giving!

Multiculturalism is defined as how a society deals with cultural diversity, both at the national and the community level according to many sociologists. It is a heterogeneous society in which people coexist but retain at least some of the unique characteristics of their traditional culture. It is the key to achieving a high degree of cultural diversity. Diversity occurs when people of different races, nationalities, religions, ethnicities, and philosophies come together to form a community. A truly diverse society is one that recognizes and values the cultural differences in its people. I live in a flat with other 4 volunteers from Azerbaijan, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. I would like to define us as a mixed salad bowl with different cultures and unique characteristics.

The diversity of cultures and having a chance to live in an international flat broaden my horizons more and more every day. Even body language and signs change from country to a country. For instance, when you bring your fingers together and shake it little forward and backward, it has a bad meaning in Italian culture. However, it means ‘delicious’ in Turkish and ‘wait for me’ in Tunisian culture. We have different dinner time schedules in the flat, when 6 pm is dinner time for me, my Spanish friend gets surprised whereas in his country dinner time is after 10 pm. In that or another way, having multicultural environment is something that a person should discover in her/his life at least once.

I learned so many things in this 5 months from my international friends here. From their cultures, perspective of live and characteristics. I learned have a dinner at late time like a Spanish, eat more spicy food like a Tunisian, be super patient and tolerant like a Portuguese and be motivated all the time like an Azerbaijani and more other things. I still have 5 more months to share, give, have and receive like Joey said in F.R.I.E.N.D.S.!

Gul Ecem Cam – volunteer  in the project BCV - Building communities through volunteering - funded by ERASMUS +