MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY “Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear.”-Walter Lippman The planet is divided into 7 continents and has a total of a hundred and ninety-five countries. This division is not only visible in earth’s archipelago but also in the beliefs, traditions and cultures of people. This division gave birth to cultural diversities—each ethnic group enveloped with laws and practices different from the other but are co-existing in a single society. Families have then been dependent of each cultural background and have used the associated systems in raising our parents that they now use in raising us. This “systems” consist of standards and manners that date back to time immemorial and is rooted in the social norm of the ethnic affiliation they are apart of. It is no secret that many aspects of how we perceive things including our personal development have been in many ways affected by our culture, beliefs and customary traditions. Many were lucky enough to have a smooth sail in living and growing within a community you don’t share the same ethnic affiliation with because I personally am part of the less fortunate ones. The dialect I’ve been exposed to from birth to toddler was “Tagalog”. It was the primary medium in our household, my parents as well as our neighbors talked to me in Tagalog. This was because of my father who was originally from Luzon and is a Kalinga. He used to serve the AFP and was deployed to the most chaotic places in Mindanao before but even with this, he wasn’t really able to learn “Bisaya” not until he retired. He also taught us basic Kalinga words but were more comfortable using Tagalog. Going back to my younger years, I spent my two years of kindergarten in Claret School of Tungawan where I learned basic English. I was having no trouble at all because it was the language medium in my classroom environment but, when I got into elementary that was when everything changed. On my first day in Grade-1, I entered the classroom not being able to comprehend what other kids, which were my classmates, were blabbering about. I can recognize the Bisaya dialect but I can’t understand it. Before, I was a very positive kid with no experiences of being bullied by anyone nor knew the concept of bullying. But, my first two years in elementary wasn’t really pleasing just because of how I talked. I was bullied. My male classmates used to make fun of me every time I talk because I spoke in Tagalog all the time. My female classmates, on the other hand, were kind enough to make efforts in speaking with me even when they were also having a hard time. I can still recall how some used MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY to call me “arte”, probably one of the few Bisaya words I could understand that time because it was also a Tagalog word. My whole first-grade went on like that and I didn’t want my secondgrade year to have the same fate. I knew it was I who needed to adapt, and I also wanted to learn the community vernacular so that I could make more friends. My mother and female classmates were of great help to me in getting through that childhood agony. Though I was still bullied in my year two in elementary, it wasn’t that bad unlike the previous year and the succeeding years then became more bearable. It was also blessing for me that as we were progressing to higher years, they were learning to speak in Filipino because of the subject with the same name. There were even times when they actually talked to me not in Tagalog but in Filipino, because they were using formal words and intonations, in a casual manner. I can no longer remember when I was last called arte by my classmates, all I know is that before I graduated in elementary, I was friends with everybody. Shallowly evaluating it, when I was just a toddler it was the “My way is the only way” stage. I knew I was surrounded with people who were Bisaya but I didn’t pay attention and only focused on my ethnic and dialect orientation. When I was a first-grader, it was my and their way but mine was better. Even though I was already being bullied with my manner and medium in conversing, I cared less. “My way and their way” stage began in second-grade and beyond when I finally figured that I need to adapt to not only to the Bisaya but as well as the ethnic groups under Islam because I was getting left behind and I want to be in good terms with everyone. But if I am going to truly and deeply criticize my current stage in the levels of cultural awareness, I’m not yet sure of what level I’m currently in but I know it’s neither of the two lower levels. Yes, I was raised differently from others but along with my parents’ lessons was to treat everybody with equality regardless of their cultural background. I was never disallowed to be friends with Tausugs, Kalibugans, members of the SDA and many more. But there was one tribe that most people I know are very distant of, the Subanens. This is another example of cultural indifference. The Subanens have rich traditions and practices that some other groups consider as improper because it’s not in alliance with their group’s traditional norm. What was normal to the Subanens wasn’t to them. But one thing can never be fully disregarded, it’s the fact that the Subanens have great knowledge when it comes to both aquatic and agricultural livelihood. MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY When I joined the MC Tri-Partite Organization an organization in our school that promotes peace, harmony and solidarity and welcomes students from different ethnic and religious groups, that’s when I had the opportunity to have countless interactions with not only the Subanens but all other fellow students and people with other ethnic and religious affiliations. I got to go places and churches and masjids in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, I got to meet many people and know their practices in camps and seminars, and the most important lesson I got from that not just club but family that up until this day I carry with me, is that cultural diversities add color to the world and I was able to truly understand this when we did the last activity in our way to fully become members of the organization I mentioned earlier. It was an activity that literally mirrored empathy. We were asked who wanted to willingly place our shoes in the center of the hall, those who did including me were asked to make a giant circle, afterwards we were asked to turn our backs not facing each other. The moderator then told us to ask ourselves if we were truly ready to embrace the advocacy of peace and solidarity, and if yes then we are to turn around again. When I did, a pair of unidentical shoes was in front of me and the next task was to find the other identical pair of each shoe. By doing so, different links were created consisting of varying numbers of people. We were literally in other people’s shoes, then within the group we created only by chance and fate, we started sharing our hardest times, misconceptions and wrong impressions of others about us, our ethnic classifications and religions. I became more fully aware of what they have experienced and continue to experience every day, the underlying reasons and origin of their traditions and the purpose and goals of each of their practices. After that day, I always try to become more conscious with the way I treat people and I have respected different groups more. And I realized how I unconsciously wanted empathy from my classmates’ way back in elementary. All these cultural differences may offer difficulties in the first levels but by managing it and by being both aware of the self and cross-culturally, we can then understand that the beliefs, customs and traditions of each ethnicity and religion are diverse in their own ways and should be respected. These cultures carry the histories of the group and have long existed before the modern and post-modern times. There can be some similarities in each group that we tend to always oversee and one of it is that they all share one common goal, to preserve the group’s culture and practices for the succeeding generations. These cultures may not be what entirely makes us, but they are a part of us.
