Culture is Culture, by Javier Moro
There is something fascinating about the very concept of culture. When I travel from my cabin in Extremadura to eat in Portugal because it's one hour earlier there and the restaurants are still open, I not only cover 20 kilometers in 15 minutes through an unchanged landscape. I head to a place with the same vegetation and climate, populated mostly by Catholic people, who are physically similar to those on this side of the border. There is no fence that forces us to stop when crossing from one country to another. However, it is a different world. Portugal is not Spain. The atmosphere is different, the noise level in public places is considerably lower, and the language is another. Apparently, nothing changes, but everything is different. Because the beliefs, customs, knowledge, and behavioral patterns of the Portuguese - what we call culture - are different from ours.
The cultures that best survive are those that adapt while maintaining their idiosyncrasy. Japan, for example, or Korea are Eastern societies and now also Western. In reality, cultures do not evolve; when they mix, a new one emerges, with traits from the previous ones, but unique in its essence. Modern Korean culture, with K-pop, manga, and cinema, is as far from traditional society as it is from consumerist society. The fact that cultures are in perpetual ebullition and transformation makes traveling always fascinating. It is no longer the archaic that attracts us, which has almost disappeared, but the way in which the modern infiltrates traditional societies. We travel the world seeing how others have assimilated the future, and thus we compare ourselves.
On an individual level, the mix of cultures produces hybrid beings. I am a bicultural individual, raised in Spain by a Spanish father and a French mother. I feel very connected to both of my countries - very proud of both - and it is not always easy because the values are not identical; sometimes they are contradictory. In my case, I navigate well between both worlds; I know that if I am invited to dinner at a house in Paris, I will be in bed sleeping by midnight, and if it's in Madrid, it will be at three in the morning, just to give an example. The curious thing is that personality changes depending on the culture in which one finds themselves. The language and all that comes with it - facial expressions, gestures, idioms - influence the way we think, act, and behave. It's as if we end up developing two personalities.
An Anglo-Spanish friend yells when speaking Spanish and whispers when speaking English. A Hispanic-American friend dresses differently depending on whether she is in the U.S. or in Spain. Same people, different behaviors. And just like cultures, people end up becoming something else. Biculturals don't fully fit in either place; we are always a bit foreign. For some, this is uncomfortable. For others, it seems an advantage because that distance allows us to see the world from several points of view. Furthermore, feeling a bit foreign in your own country gives the impression of always being on a journey.