Cultural Identity, Christian Reflections

After being in an international student setting for some time, I notice two general types of international identifications, those who come from a single predominant cultural background and those who are considered third-culture backgrounds.

1) By a single predominant cultural background, I am alluding to a person who was raised within a dominant social/linguistic/ethnic culture and they have not had significant exposure to another culture. These people maintain close relationships with people of their cultural background in higher proportion than those people not of their cultural background.

2) By a third-culture background, I refer to a person who has been exposed to several cultures during their lives. They do not necessarily identify wholly with a single cultural background but weave themselves with an individuality that is uniquely diverse due to their multiple experiences.

I think it is rather fascinating to observe the differences in interaction between these types of people. There are certainly exceptions to my generalizations but here are some thoughts.

1) People who come from a singular cultural background have a tendency to remain within their comfortable cultures. While many of these people remain in those comfort zones, some of these people remove themselves from the culture homogeneity after a period of time once they are consistently exposed to a different cultural environment. What are possible causes of this change? Several things come to mind. I notice it can be due to a shift in expectations. Some of these people who remove themselves from cultural comforts because they expect such new experiences to be of value to them in the future. They do not intend on completely submersing themselves in the culture from which they came and so they adapt themselves to a culture that is of value to them for future possibilities. Some of these people have a genuine change in preference because they find a new culture makes them feel more comfortable than the culture they came from. Or perhaps some of these people find they no longer hold such high preferences for their culture of origin. Lastly, some of these people just add another culture to their identity, not necessarily giving up a cultural preference but adding to their cultural experience.

2) People who come from third-culture backgrounds have a tendency to maintain a diversity of relationships, especially with people of third-culture backgrounds. However, some of these third-culture people have difficulty maintain any close relationships due to a unique individual experience others cannot personally identify with. Third-culture people seem to be more comfortable at flowing in and out of different cultural contexts instantaneously and relating with people of different backgrounds. But they seem to have a tendency to find difficulty finding meaningful relationships with people who are from single-cultural backgrounds unless there is a common interest of some sort that widens the cultural bridge. While they are comfortable building relationships with single-cultural background people, those relationships do not seem to be of as substance as single-cultural background people relating with other single-cultural background people unless a common experience prepares a fertile soil for such relationships to deepen.

Why am I reflecting on these observations? Because I think it's telling of why people do what they do and why they behave the way they behave. Also, it's worth examining why I do what I do while considering my background.

For instance, I am perfectly capable of holding a basic conversation in Korean. But why do I feel uncomfortable speaking Korean in certain contexts? More than anything else, it has to do with denying people the satisfaction of hearing me speak it after so much expectation that has built up a reputation. But underlying the situation, I find something uncomfortable with reinforcing a Korean cultural perception about myself. While it seems irrelevant for those who want me to be comfortable with speaking my native tongue and those who I already know well, I value my cultural flexibility where I demonstrate as little cultural preference such that there are no hindrances, at least on my side, to get people to be more open and comfortable around me.

Overall, I do not enjoy flaunting an unhealthy amount of cultural pride or preference because I have seen it hinder people from feeling welcome and comfortable. Being in an international student ministry, I'm realizing how important it is to tamper down cultural dominance especially when it comes to language and food. I have spent enough time in Global Access to not give much care when a language I do not understand is spoken in my presence. But I can imagine how big of a turn-off it would be if a new person had to endure it. English is safe (since almost everyone can communicate with it) so I will keep the Korean away.

I've grown to love the foods international students enjoy. I do not remember another time in my life when I've had such a diversity of foods. I've gone through a period of time when I despised Korean food because I had too much of it. I still love it and I hope to expose people to Korean food who have never explored it. However, I am unwilling to go as far as pronouncing Korean food as the best in the world. Korean is one of many types of foods and qualifying it as the best would be unnecessarily rude and a turn-off. Flaunting my opinion is not as important as being considerate to other people. Again, it's about making people feel comfortable and welcomed in any Christ-centered environment. Similarly, I love American food and I hope everyone gets to enjoy the best of it. However, on the other hand, remarks that disparage another cultural experience require restraint and possibly repentance. No culture is better than another in any way because God loves every culture, he created them!

In concluding, I've been asked why I am in Global Access frequently these days. I grew up in the US almost all my life but I find myself more comfortable relating with international students. I never fully identified myself as an American because I have always felt different in the American culture I grew up in, an immigrant at heart. It was never a culture I completely accepted because I always had one hand permanently grasping my Korean heritage no matter how much Americanization I underwent. While I've certainly adopted a majority of my social and political values from America, I have always appreciated and continue to retain my Korean values. Furthermore, I've come to appreciate a certain amount of cultural ambiguity, not because I have some major identity issues, but for the sake of the Gospel. My identity as belonging to Jesus Christ has risen to be of the highest priority. While far from perfect, God continues to work in me to make it true.

Being around international students has been quite an experience and it has been teaching me a lot of biblical lessons on what it means to be like Jesus across cultures.