Whether you’re half Asian, three quarters European, one quarter African, half Hispanic or a fifth Polynesian or all of the above and more – we think you’re awesome! Here are 14 things you’ll relate to if you grew up in a household with multiple cultures, languages and heritages… can you relate?!
1. Food fusion – Christmas dinner consists of turkey, potatoes, veg and plantain with spring rolls and stickyrice 👍🏽
2. Language fusion – Chances are, you can speak more than one language which is always a bonus. Sometimes you even like to combine the two together. Everyone, meet Spanglish: ‘necesito an Ice cream por favor, thankyou.’
3. Double the festivities – According to the religions and cultural traditions in your house, you get to celebrate a whole bunch of national holidays, not just the one! You get Christmas, Eid, and Diwali all in one year, oh and don’t forget Chinese New Year and Hanukkah! Triple the presents (#winning)
4. World domination – Chances are, you’ll have extended family all over the world which means you get to visit your nan in Barbados, uncles in Greece and cousins in Mexico and you’ll always have a free place to stay.
5. Candy – The bumper haul of goodies you bring home after visiting family means candy that your mates have never even seen before! “Gulab Jamun, wtf is that!?!?!”… “I dunno, but I LOVE IT!”
6. “Hovno!” – You can impress your mates by swearing in 5 different languages and you can secretly sas your teachers without them even knowing! 😏
7. You’re an accent chameleon – Which means your accent changes according to who you’re talking to! You can blend in perfectly with your friends when you want to, but all of a sudden you can unleash your inner Jamaican- y’know, just to keep everyone on their toes.
8. When one parent gets angry – They shout in a language you didn’t even know existed, so you can just hold up your hands and say… ‘No entiendo mamá, lo siento?!’
9. School lunches – Making people jealous with your amazing packed lunches. When your Indian dad packs your lunch you get Dosa and chutney (#winning), when your British mum packs your lunch, you get ham sandwiches… (not so great).
In the same vain, you also get teased for your ‘weird’ lunches… (when this happens, just remember that they’re jealous cause’ they probably got ham sandwhiches in their lunchbox… 😂)
10. On the other hand – It’s not always great food combinations and swearing in multiple languages. Sometimes you feel like you don’t quite fit in with the rest of the family…
11. Stupid questions – When people ask if you’re adopted because you don’t look too much like your parents either… 🙄
12. The Guessing Game – People trying to guess your ethnicity… 😒
13. Form issues – Filling in the ethnicity section on forms can sometimes be more confusing than it needs to be…😳
14. But you always know that you’re unique and have a whole wealth of amazing history in your ancestry to keep things interesting. 🙌🏾
Most importantly – don’t let the haters get you down!
Remember that if everyone was the same, things would get pretty boring, pretty quickly! Diversity and difference is what makes us humans amazing, if you’re experiencing negativity towards your race or appearance – talk to us! DTL can help you today. 😍
