“GLOBAL PROBLEMS, GLOBAL SOLUTIONS”

Introduction

We all aim for world peace, but to reach it we should understand that the struggles of one of us are the struggles of all of us, and for us meaning the community world. For example, we can not say that the situation that is going through Syria, Israel, Palestine, or any country you could imagine nowadays is an issue of them and only related to them and their bordering countries. It is a problem that involves all of us, because we are all humans and we must understand that helping each other leaving behind all kind of differences like political, racial, cultural, and language is the one and only real solution to achieve world peace.

How ironic is that we get sad and angry because European countries would not let Syrian people stay in there, but we do not do anything to help?

How good global citizens are we if we do not leave our personal comfort and we do not know what is happening in the rest of the countries apart from mine?

How can we aim for world peace if our “world” is only our family and friends?

Pope Francis said “Clearly, indifference is not something new; every period of history has known people who close their hearts to the needs of others, who close their eyes to what is happening around them, who turn aside to avoid encountering other people's problems” and I could not agree more, but I also believe this can change if everyone interested in achieving world peace help in every way possible.

What do I understand for global citizen?

A global citizen is a person that is unique as anyone else. A global citizen is the person that feels that he or she belongs to the world community but still belonging to his or her family, country and culture. It is that one who cares about understanding the problems of the people from all around the world and helping in every way possible.

“It is not enough for education to produce individuals who can read, write and count. Education must be transformative and bring shared values to life. It must cultivate an active care for the world and for those with whom we share it”.

Being a global citizen is having the capability to apply empathy, that is to say being able to open your heart to people you do not know, it is being responsible for your actions but knowing that everyone is a leader in this world, and it is being able to apply equality because it does not matter where you came from, what religion you practice nor the socio economic group you are in, all the human beings deserve the same respect and rights.

Being a global citizen is being that person who is acquainted with global problems, and take responsibility for that, but helps from wherever they are, or in the way they can, but they do something to help, and give everything to achieve world peace. As Barak Obama said “there is not challenge too great for a world that stands as one”.

What is cultural understanding?

It might sound redundant, but cultural understanding is the understanding between the different cultures of the world. It is to understand that different continents, countries, cities and communities coexist in the same world. It is to understand that not all of us give the same importance to the same things and we do not value everything in the same way. While in India the cow is sacred, in Argentina it is the animal which is raised in the largest quantities to be used as food. The cultural understanding is getting to understand that if I am Argentinian and I travel to India not only as a tourist but as a global citizen and I stay with an Indian family I will not be able to eat beef or steak or anything that came from cows because I will be disrespectful with Indian culture.

Understanding each other in cultural terms means accepting the differences and learning to live with them. If suddenly my Argentinian family decided to move to Germany I will have to be able to face reality that in Germany people handshake as a greeting, and they do not kiss each other like Argentinian people do, so I will have to accept it, and get accustom it. The cultural understanding should start from school, “multicultural education means learning about the different cultural groups, delving in cultutal differences and, in the recognition and identification of the cultural similarities” so that people became more open mind from an earlier age.

If all the people in this world understand that we do not think in the same way, it would be a lot less problems and conflicts around the world, and for that we need the commitment of all the global citizens who understands and value all the different cultures in this world.

How multilingualism help to promote the cultural understanding and global citizenship?

When we read the question it seems an obviousness, but it is more complex than just saying that a person who knows different languages understand the culture of the countries where those languages are spoken, and therefore that person is committed to the community world.

Learning one or more languages different from the mother tongue of each one, it does not necessarily mean that we know everything about the people who have those languages as their mother tongue. When we learn a language, we learn vocabulary, grammar, and phonetics; and these subjects has nothing to do with the culture of the language which we are learning.

“Language allows you a window into a different part of the world, a new culture and lifestyle. While learning vocabulary and grammar enables one to listen and speak, true understanding takes personal involvement; it challenges the “lens” one sees through and how one makes sense of the world. The ability to understand a foreign language gives individuals the opportunity to discover the how and why of actions or behavior; in this sense language helps to reduce prejudices, misconceptions and misunderstandings of intent.”

Not because we know British English means we will be able to adapt to the English life style, with its customs and traditions if we get to move to England, but if we know English language it will be for sure easier to do it.

“Language is the best introduction to a new culture. It automatically makes you interested in the cultural traditions that are tied to learning a language. Of course, you can still learn about other cultures, but language learning really allows for a more immersive experience. Most of the time, efforts at translation can’t fully capture the nuances conveyed in different languages. Even movie titles can get lost in translation. But multi-linguals can read new literature without translation, sing along to songs and actually understand the lyrics and watch foreign films without the need for pesky subtitles. With a new language, a whole new world will be open to you.”

A global citizen may know only his or her language, the mother tongue of his or her country and even so travel through a lot of countries with a lot of different cultures and help in every way he or she can. For example, if I am Argentinian and I only speak Spanish I could help in almost every country of Latin-America, Spain and even in Equatorial Guinea if I tend to travel to Africa. If I could help in twenty different countries with its special needs being a committed global citizen that only speaks Spanish, imagine how many countries I could help if I would know just one more language.  

Knowing the language of a different country from the one you belong to and being a worried, responsible, and a helpful global citizen who wants to do best for the community world and the cultural understanding, makes it much nicer and easier, because although the language is not the only means of communication humans being have, it is the one we use the most. We can communicate ourselves through gestures or drawings, but this way is full of misunderstandings, or it would take ages to understand just one sentence.

Multilingualism is one of the best tools that a global citizen may have to bring about his or her responsibilities. Because knowing more than one language help communication between people from different countries, and at the same time different cultures. People with multilingualism capability can explain the situation of his or her country in different languages, so more and more people would understand and offer help.

Multilingualism capability is essential in an increasingly interconnected world. Having the ability and willingness to engage with many different kinds of people who talk different languages can go a long way in better understanding and tackling global challenges like poverty and inequality.

Differences between cultures would not reduce, but it may appear a friendly relationship among them. And in addition to the friendship between cultures the patience, compromise, responsibility and lots of love would lead us to achieve world peace.

Conclusion

Ban- Ki Moon said once “accept the challenge, create your own solutions, be global citizens” and I think this is an advice for all of us who are part of the community world.

We must accept the challenge of traveling around the world, discovering other cultures, facing different realities, leaving behind our comfort and be willing to help in everything we can. We have to accept the challenge of encountering global problems we did not know they existed and face them, and think a solution to that specific problem. We have to accept the challenge. We have to take the challenge to live immersed in another culture to understand the problems and issues they have.

We must create our own solutions, we must have an open mind, we must understand that every culture is different and value things in different ways, so we must be imaginative and creative to come up with a solution for the problem. In this essay I talked about how multilingualism may help to promote cultural understanding, and I think multilingualism itself is one of the solutions. As I said before, knowing more than one language open us a lot of doors to different countries that have different cultures, and of course different problems, so the solutions for each problem has to be different but all the way down to find that solution it will be easier if both people speak the same language although they are from totally different countries, continents, cities.

And we must be global citizens. We have to be well informed about what is happening around the world and we have to take responsibility about that. We should want to participate in voluntary exchanges. We should take part in non-governmental organizations. We have to contribute in every way possible to de community world. We have to help each other as if we were all from the same country.