There is one word to describe our team: colorful. Of the four of us adults, four places of birth, three mother tongues, and three nationalities are represented. One of us is white and the other three are considered “people of color.” The common language of the team is the mother tongue of only two of us. The country where we live and work is the birthplace only for my husband’s and my two children, who are themselves mixed-race. The dominant language of this country is the mother tongue for none of us, unless you count my bilingual daughter. Does this sound complicated enough already? There’s more! Most of our work is not with the majority people group in our country of residence; it is with immigrants and refugees.
Because of the colorful makeup of our team and our work, we find ourselves speaking multiple languages and straddling multiple cultures daily: our team culture, the culture of our country of residence, and the culture of those with whom we work primarily. First, we have our team culture. If all of us were the same nationality and spoke the same mother tongue, the team culture would be relatively simple: it would likely be the culture and language of all of our passport countries. However, when three passport countries, three mother tongues, and four places of birth make up our team, our team culture is none of the above. It helps that we have similar values and similar long-term goals in life, like making a difference in the world, raising our children with the same morals, and putting others first. In addition to these shared values, we are intentional to show appreciation and respect for one another’s cultures of origin. We share the food of our birth countries with one another. We celebrate holidays together, including the holidays of our country of residence and the holidays of our teammates’ birth countries. We ask questions about one another’s birth countries in non-threatening ways, because we are genuinely interested in where our teammates are from. This communicates respect, appreciation, and love. Because only two of us speak the language of the team as our mother tongue, we always verify that everyone understands decisions that are being made and has an equal opportunity to contribute to these decisions. We ask open-ended questions and give people adequate time to respond in order to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to share their opinions.
The second culture that we must navigate on a daily basis is the culture of our country of residence. As foreigners living as guests in our host country, we have all worked diligently to learn the local language and make friends with people of the majority people group. This has helped us all to feel more at “home.” It is almost impossible to feel truly at home and comfortable in a country until you can speak enough of the predominant language to navigate daily life: grocery shopping, banking, doctor’s appointments, parent-teacher conferences at your kids’ school, not to mention life-giving conversations with friends and neighbors. My number one tip for acculturation is: learn the local language! Much of the culture is found in the language, and even when nationals speak fluent English, there is still much that is “lost in translation.” In addition to language learning, as a team, we engage with the local culture for life and leisure. Instead of driving our cars everywhere, we mostly take public transportation like locals. We shop mostly at local grocery stores, not international stores. We have enjoyed vacationing in the country, attending local sporting events and even picking a favorite team, eating at local restaurants, visiting museums and tourist attractions, and worshiping at local churches. By experiencing the sites, cuisines, and events that the local culture has to offer, we feel more at “home.”
Finally, our team must navigate the culture of the people with whom we work: immigrants and refugees. Immigrants and refugees are not a monolith, but most immigrant and refugee cultures with which we work tend to be more group-oriented, people/event-oriented, and place a high value on hospitality. The rules of interacting with immigrants and refugees on the basic level are not that much different than basic people skills with everyone in the world: ask polite open-ended questions; do not ask about past trauma; invite people out for coffee or to dine in a local restaurant with you; arrange playdates with their children and yours; take a walk together; tell them about your families and interests and ask about theirs. There are a few differences, at least compared to Western cultures. Immigrants and refugees from the cultures with which we are most familiar are often less time-oriented and more people or event-oriented. We have learned that our immigrant and refugee friends may be “late” to us yet “on time” for them when we invite them to our homes for a meal. They will likely stay late into the night. “On time” in some cultures is considered an hour “late” or less. Whereas a Westerner may arrive promptly at 6:00pm for dinner and leave your home at 8:00pm after dessert, an immigrant or refugee family may not arrive until 7:00pm (even though you asked them to come at 6:00pm) and feel the freedom to visit until 10:00pm or even midnight. Hospitality is an important value to many immigrant and refugee cultures, so when we invite them to our homes, it is not enough to simply serve spaghetti and salad. Instead, we serve soup, salad, a couple of main dishes, several side dishes, plus dessert, fruit, nuts, tea, and coffee. By doing this, we honor our immigrant and refugee friends, exercise their important value of hospitality, and communicate that their friendship is important to us.
How beautiful and diverse are the people of the world! Although relationships with colleagues, friends, and co-workers can be challenging to navigate in multicultural settings, we are grateful to work with a team of diverse people with a variety of gifts and talents. Our lives are enriched deeply by the team’s diversity, multiple perspectives, and the diversity of the cultures that we navigate daily.
Written by "Anonymous"
(due to the nature of their work and where they are located, this author must remain anonymous)
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