Cultural Diversity Is Not Always a Good Thing.

By TAPTI SEN ’21

At my last debate competition, I debated the statement “This House believes that cultural diversity should be valued over cultural unity.” My partner and I were side opposition, and at the time, we were sure we would lose the debate. After all, how could we ever argue that cultural diversity, touted as one of the best things about America, was a bad thing? Unsurprisingly, we ended up losing that round. Later though, during a discussion about native languages, I realized that cultural diversity is not without flaw.

There is no denying that having a worldwide lingua franca, or a language that is adopted as common between speakers with different native tongues, is important. If not for it, we would not be able to communicate with the billions of people around the world who speak thousands of different languages. Today, English serves as a lingua franca, bringing people together from all over the world. This phenomenon can be observed at Milton as well. The fact that my friends come from all different places gives me the amazing opportunity to learn new things about their cultures with which I am often unfamiliar.

However, there is one major downside to having a common language: it often comes at the sacrifice of your own native language. As someone who was born and raised in Bangladesh for almost half my life, I can speak Bengali fluently. However, my comprehension of Bengali comes nowhere near to my comprehension of English. To this day, I read, write, and speak English much better than my native language.

One can argue that there is a very clear reason for this difference in language proficiency; I have lived in the US for so long that I have gotten used to speaking English. However, my proficiency in English does not just stem from my living in the US. If you live in Bangladesh, you can choose to send your child to two types of schools: English medium schools and Bengali medium schools. The distinction between the two is simple: English medium schools teach the majority of the curriculum in English with one Bengali Literature class, while Bengali medium schools are the opposite. Most parents tend to send their kids to English medium schools so that they can become fluent in English and eventually study abroad.

However, the emphasis on speaking English keeps people from studying their native language. The hours that you should be spending studying your native language go towards English instead. So when you are consuming English content and learning English at school, when do you have time for your native language?

This is not just common for people in Bangladesh as well; my friends from other countries have confirmed that they too find it more comfortable to speak English than their own native language. Is it tragic that learning English comes at the expense of losing a native language? Or that being a part of a diverse community means that you have to give up aspects of who you are? Linguas francas are meant to unify people of different backgrounds. From another perspective, they seem to be another way for people to conform to societal norms that did not even previously exist for them. Cultural diversity can only be truly appreciated in a place where everyone can speak the same language. So, in a way, cultural diversity seems to be taking away from human community.

If I was still at the debate tournament, these are probably the points I would have brought up to opponent. Maybe I would have won the round, maybe not. The point still stands however, that cultural diversity, or pursuit of it at least, may not always be a good thing. In the end, it is great that I can relate to my friends from Korea or Nigeria, but it is important for me to relate to my own people in Bangladesh first. Cultural diversity ceases to exist if you forget your own culture.