Bridging cultural gaps through cultural food

One of many ways to bridge cultural gaps with your children is by introducing your cultural dishes to them.

By introducing the cultural dishes to our children, it is also introducing our cultures to them. These traditional dishes mean remembering who you are, while allowing your children to understand your culture and where their parents and relatives are from.

Understanding culture allows them to establish deeper and more meaningful relationships with their grandparents or relatives back in your homeland.

Your children may be limited by language or may have adopted different lifestyles and attitudes to their relatives back in your home country due to generational gaps, but it does not mean they need to miss out on understanding your culture and your childhood food.

On top of that, when you are having fun with your children, cooking together, sharing your cultural food, and communicating, you are creating room for intimacy, bonding, and connections.

This is a great opportunity to share stories about your childhood, your challenges when growing up, the family rituals, family histories, your aspirations, your disappointments, your thoughts about certain issues, your favourite dishes and who used to cooked them for you. Share with them the family’s heritage, and talk about their relatives that they may not have had the opportunity to meet.

Communicating is two way. Take this opportunity to ask them about their thoughts, aspirations and challenges, their favourite dishes, the dishes that they dislike, their favourite movie etc.

Through these interactions, you are building trust with your children and connecting on a deeper level with them. This is when your children will start to share their inner thoughts, fears and challenges with you.

By being present and connecting on a deeper level, you are opening up the opportunity to bridge both generational as well as cultural gaps with the younger generations.

Save

Save