Culture gap for the young 'uns

[Talal]

I guess people like me who came to canada-US during their teen years were yet able to find some sort of equilibrium between the culture within the house and the culture outside these boundaries..but then i see my lil brothers growing up here and them having never seen that part of the society, i see them alienated from the culture and everything but parents expect them to know everything and follow everything and that gives rise to mega conflict..its similar story in most of the households, i dont know if you guys have experienced the same thing

but yeah thoughts ? opeenions ?

[tor_khan]

You've got to have strong culture to hang on to in the first place. The other truth is that when two cultures meet, change occurs. The culture of Generation 1 is not the same as Generation 2, though there are those 1.5s somewhere in between.

In the due course of time however most will be absorbed into the new culture with all it's positives/ills. That's a prickly issue that few are happy to admit.

[Admin Khan]

You just have to keep on reminding them of their roots, and try conversing strictly in your native language. Although to be honest, even that doesn't help in it's entirety. It's all a matter of their upbringing, and the values that are taught to them.

[kakargirl]

It all depends on your family how strong your culture and values are, my brothers uncles sons were born in uk all now in thier late 30s nearly 40s and the culture in them couldn't be any stronger than it is, Pahktun khwa people again born bread in UK some even in their 50s but again strong in culture, and a very good example would be pashtuns who are my age nearly 20 or under 16 good strong culture in all of them you wouldn't be able to tell if they were raised in UK you would only be able to tell one way when they spoke English with a solid English accent or when they spoke pashto it might have that slight English accent in it nothing else, if a community works together they can preserve any culture any where in the world, same gos for girls you can raise them strict it just means people work harder to preserve that, i get commented for bringing up schools but it was to preserve our culture pashtuns didn't want their daughters in mix schools so the community worked together and managed to open schools open bus services that picked and dropped off the girls to these schools they managed to preserve it nothing can be preserved if your not willing to sacrifice.

[Shayesta]

Talal, if I am not mistaken, don't you speak Punjabi/Urdu as your first language? I think you had mentioned before that you can't speak Pukhto properly, no?

[Talal]

Talal, if I am not mistaken, don't you speak Punjabi/Urdu as your first language? I think you had mentioned before that you can't speak Pukhto properly, no?

not punjabi our familia doesn't speak punjabi, i got family in karachi & Lahore but i got raised up in islamabad so we are kinda all over the place..

but nah i usually try and speak urdu at home..I tried to learn a bit of pashto from friends and stuff but then got distracted with university and stuff, but i do plan on learning it one day

anyways the problem i think is that the parents cant really talk to the kids on their level..and kids have this notion that their folks will never be able to understand them either and thats where the gap is..for people who have experienced a bit of both cultures, i think they stand a better chances of keeping peace.

@Tor_Khan I totally agree with that last bit you said, eventually the "home" culture no matter how strong does fade away..i think thats the price we pay for globalization where cultures eat each other up