Bi-Cultural in today’s business settings
An opinion Paper by Oliver Largeson
Bi-cultural to my opinion is individual or somebody who has two distinct and equally cultures that he or she can be identified by. Further, the bi-cultural could be individual with more one and different regional backgrounds, ethnicities, languages, and religions. When two of these elements infused together, the bi-cultural is formed. From this perspective, individuals can be called bi-cultural if they share, for example, the language or culture of their native or regions in which their families originated from. Sometimes having friends from the both cultures re-enforce the biculturalism because the environment creates its own bi-cultural according to the cultural behaviors that individual convey and observe from different societies. Therefore, if the environment is bi-cultural, the individuals in that environment would be bi-cultural as well.
City-like San Diego, CA would be a perfect example for the environment that is bi-cultural. I’m sure about most children of immigrants who reside; there are bi-cultural considering their language heritage and Latino backgrounds.
When I migrated into this country in July, 1995 from Sudan, which is my home country. In Sudan, I grew in bi-cultural home. My father is from South Sudan (now South Sudan is an independent country after it separation from Sudan), and my mother is from north Sudan. My father belongs to Dinka ethnic group of Africa, while my mother is from Quraish tribe from Saudi Arabia. Sudan is made up of Africans and Arabs.
Up to now, I share my parent’s culture equally. For example, my father named me after his father. He gave me purely African name (Deng) which means rain or god in Dinka dialect. My mother on another hand, named me after her grandfather. She calls me Idreece, in Arabic. When I visit my relatives from my mother's side of the family, they love to address me as Idreece, while my African relatives they like calling me with an African name. I feel comfortable being a bi-cultural in my country. I never felt like I should disown one of these cultures from my back because of society’s worries; however, I’m proud of being who am without taking side and desert other cultures.
I believe Tiger Woods is bi-cultural because of