Por /By Diane M Nickerson, MS Ed.
Castle Island Bilingual Montessori
Interculturalism
is Empathy Magnified
Hispanic Heritage Month is as good a time as any to consider culture, the interplay between cultures, and what this can mean for our own interactions with others as globalization affects: education, commerce and even friends and families.
For me, culture is more specific and nuanced than a broad identity, such as being “American” or “Latino.” What I’ve come to know is that culture is who we are in our groups, as a group. And sometimes when we move across groups, we can learn to develop deep empathy – or not.
I believe that living, working, and moving across various cultural experiences has enhanced my empathetic adeptness and has created me into an intercultural person.
It is remarkable how the two qualities are intertwined: interculturalism develops empathy and, empathy
increases one’s ability to become more intercultural.
We form our own cultures among the groups of people within which we co-exist. And the more affinity we have for the people we come to know well in our groups, the more we can relate to them, understand them, and have deep empathy for them. Often when we find ourselves moving within a new group, we notice aspects of language, interactions and responses that surprise us. Here it is important to pay attention to our own reactions: Do we reject what we observe? Do ask questions out of curiosity? Do we seek to understand?