Cultural shift, loss or enrichment

This idea came to my mind today that how cultures can change, enriched, or get lost, just in one generation.

It was a beautiful day today, blue skies, golden sunshine, and we were at a park in Western Sydney. 

Especially it being the Sunday of a long weekend in winter, the park was full of people; everywhere, there were group picnics, grown ups sitting down, while children were biking, or just running around;  aroma of different types of food, colours of winter flowers, and falling leaves filled my senses, so sitting at our spot on the picnic rug, near a small lake, with the soothing sound of a water fountain, it was a perfect setting to close my eyes, and lie down to soak it all in. 

I heard people sitting close by, a chattering group of 4 or 5 couples, men and women having lunch, joking around laughing, I could catch a few words of English, but couldn't understand their language, it was may be Telugu.  

Then their children arrived from their play, and started running around, speKing to eachother in very Australian English, then they all packed up and were leaving when another group came around. It started taking photos, I closed my eyes again. 

Their language was again a different one, they were sharing some snacks, flasks of tea or coffee going around, while their children were running up and down towards the water, playing, wheel cart jumps, shrieking with laughter and when they came up and were speaking to each other and their parents, I opened my eyes.  

These kids were so different from the kids in the previous group, in looks, but they sounded so similar, speaking exactly in a similar way. A very Australian English.  

I was thinking about all the groups, the parents all over the park, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Middle Easterns, speaking different languages, many were dressed differently too, and all their children, mostly dressed in similar clothes, playing similar games, speaking in English in the same accent using same expressions. 

Not sure in what else way children of these migrant families had changed. But their language and manners had, certainly changed, as they belonged to another cultural group now, enriched or impoverished, not sure. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Being a woman

Contentment

The day a bird followed me home part 5