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October is usually United Nations (UN) celebration for many schools. I suddenly remembered my first grade UN program, where I was assigned to be Miss India. It was fun to learn the facts about a new country.
When I was 6, I had a kindergarten teacher in Chicago named Mrs. Gerbachi. She was very kind and allowed me to do lots of art. This was my first exposure to American education. From visits to our favorite uncle’s family in New York, I happily saw how Chinese and American culture merged in my cousins. And the list goes on….
Like me, I’m sure a lot of people have been influenced by experiences from overseas friends and relatives, and by our travels. It’s hard for us to be purely of one “nationality” today. I realize today how a multitude of cultures has influenced me as a parent.
Meeting great people is one of the positive things about being able to travel a lot.
Travel is especially hard for me because I’m a typical family person who loves to spend time with my husband and kids. That’s why when I travel, I maximize my learning for work and my learning for character-building and parenting.
I learned from my good Malaysian-Chinese friend how to effectively expose young children to language. This is by having a language point person in the house, where one person speaks to that person only in that language. From my Japanese friends, I learned the value of time consciousness and consistency. From my friends in Germany and the Netherlands, I see the value of traditional toys and nonguided play. I’m very lucky to deal with an Indian family who bears the work culture and personal character that I truly admire. I realized after speaking to one of them that truly admirable people are the quickest to highlight their struggles and not their accomplishments. They always see room for growth and not for self-praise. They operate a family business with utmost cooperation that there’s no time for self-aggrandizement; instead, there’s more of an acknowledgment of roles for the common success of a shared goal. They’ve helped me a lot to learn the ropes of a successful family and work life.
As much as I embrace my Filipino-Chinese heritage, I also find joy in the enrichment I get from multicultures. That’s why my goal for my kids is to have them “rooted in global-ness”. I want them to love and know who they are, but also to know there are also a lot of good things to learn from others.
Through the years, I try to accomplish this through books, toys, travel and a lot of “Did You Know” facts about other countries. There was a period when my reading ritual involved this graphic Atlas with countries and facts. Later on, at around 6, my daughter showed her inclination toward reading almanacs and Discovery Kids books.
For my son, toys are his windows to the world. When we were in Italy, he, 4 at the time, started to collect all versions of Disney Cars’ Italian driver Francesco Bernouli. When he was 6, it was Marvel Avengers’ Iron Man and Captain America. Recently, it was Yokai from Japan. Once my son likes a certain toy, I always use the toy to relate stories about the country’s culture.
Today I see the benefits of raising global children. My favorite result is this external awareness of issues around the world. Last year, I was surprised when my daughter came home from school saying, “The peso is down, mom.” I didn’t even know she had started reading the newspaper in the school library.
Last weekend, I asked her if she was willing to write something about why she loved reading the news. What follows is her brief answer:
“Reading news is exciting because I get to learn more information about what is going on around the world.
“I read the news twice or thrice a week so that I can constantly gain new information every week.
“The top news that I find interesting or important are:
“First, the article in which President Duterte separates from the US and teams up with China, because that change alone will make a huge difference financially and economically.
“Second, the article in which they announced the argument between the South China Sea just because I was confused about who owned who.
“Third, all the articles in which they announce the exchange rate because it is very important to know currency rates all the time.
“Last, I think the articles in which they announce all the cool things about sports, trends and etc. for entertainment purposes are equally as important because it is also important to stay positive and relaxed.”