In the beginning of the school year I had a conversation with one of my classmates we introduced oursleves and then he asked me my race. I told him that I was Guyanese and he sid he had some friends who were also guyanese and he knew a little bit about the culture. I was happy that I did not have to explain what Guyanese meant becuase it seems like i always have to give a geography lesson when i talk about my ethnicity. He went on to tell me a funny story about his confusion with Ghanaian and Guyanese. When he was younger his friend asked him what his race was. He replied by saying that parents were from Ghana. His friend said "oh so your Guyanese" and he replied "Yeah I guess". When he got older he realized that Guyanese refered to people in Guyana which is a country on South America, North of Brazil. This is a common mistake and since Guyana is a small country not many people know about it.
They say that ingorance is bliss, but intelligence is power. If people took the time to learn about other countries then we would all be aware of our surroundings which includes people, cultures, languages and religions places. To be uninformed about others is the reason for war, misunderstandings, prejudice and racism. It would help to learn more about eachother and our world, which connect us all. It is our job to be knowledgeable and we need to educate eachother so that people of different backgrounds can be known and heard. School may not teach children about many countries other than the usual Spain, England, France, and India, but that does not mean that they have to stay in the dark. Children can learn outside of the class if they are provided with programs and activites. Our future lies in the hand of the new generation and if they are able to learn about others they will probably help out with many issues we face in society today. By learning about others people can communicate and work together becuase they will be able go work out differences. We can create a better world with one simple thing, an open mind. It will take time but as the years go by people have become more accepting of change.
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I agree that people need to know more about other cultures. Most only know about the ones that are taught in school, which isn't a good thing. The problem is that there are so many different cultures that it may be hard for someone to learn about all of them. Maybe it will take some explaining about what being Guyanese is, but wouldn't someone asking you to explain and be involved be another way for them to learn about the cultures they didn't know about? I think this is a great topic to discuss because it is so true how many people don't learn about other cultures outside their own.
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