According to Carlson (2008), bilinguals come from diverse environments influenced by

various factors that include family and cultural values. In relation with that, Gao stipulated in
his study in any cross-cultural communication, there is always a potential for culture-induced
language conflicts, which may become even more obvious with the coming of more
opportunities for people from different cultures to meet and to communicate. Similarly, the
results in the study of Donald M. Taylor and Lise M. Simard demonstrated that cross-cultural
communication can be as efficient as within group communication. This efficiency seems to
result because of a reciprocal bilingualism where members of each group have some degree of
fluency in the language of the other.

In a contrary, Asa Palviainen’s article stressed that despite the different settings and socio-
linguistic conditions, the similarities in teachers’ practices and the rationale they gave for
applying flexible bilingual practices were significant. It is more on the teacher’s practices in
which there are more important implications for the bilinguals. However, In Neli Vorobyov’s
study, he stipulated that parental speech has some influences on children’s language
development. The way parents speak with their children is often reflected in the children’s
speech patterns most especially for the bilingual country. Also, Taylor and Simard stipulated
in their study that there is an efficient cross-cultural communication where members of each
group have some degree of fluency in the language of the other. But in Gao’s article he stressed
that in any cross-cultural communication, there is always a potential for culture-induced
language conflicts, which may become even more obvious with the coming of more
opportunities for people from different cultures to meet and to communicate.

In general, bilinguals are trained to face cross-cultural issues by admitting they don’t know
everything, having empathy, not making wrong assumptions, accepting ambiguity and being
open to new ideas and customs. Becoming aware of our cultural dynamics is a difficult task
because culture is not conscious to us. Our experiences, our values and our cultural background
lead us to see and do things in a certain way, generally, our own way. Bilinguals usually deal
with the awareness that there many other perspectives in the world, and they learn to face
diversity, interpret others´ ideas, and also learn from them.

From my readings, I can conclude that our society would have stronger intergroup
relationships, more humane international collaboration and understanding. When two people,
or two nations, do not share a language and have little true understanding of each others'
cultures, it is almost certain there will be misunderstandings. Sometimes those
misunderstandings result in hurt feelings or confusion, other times they feed stereotypes and
distrust, and sometimes they result in violence or dangerous incidents. International relations
are delicate in a nuclear age. Race relations are tense in societies plagued by racism,
discrimination and misperceptions of people from different ethnic and class backgrounds.
Immigrants and newcomers to communities in the United States easily misunderstand and are
misunderstood by those whose neighborhoods they have come to join. Understanding, respect
and appreciation for other cultures and languages comes through learning and speaking the
languages of our ancestors, and from learning other people’s languages. Through this exchange
young people are able to do more than function in the two or more languages they may speak;
they deepen their understanding of themselves and raise their consciousness of how to bridge
relationships with people from different backgrounds. As Americans, we have the opportunity,
the responsibility and the joyful possibility of knowing multiple languages and developing a
respectful consciousness with which to view our neighbors, community, nation and world.
Within a global community, English is a common language that facilitates international
communication, but we also need to learn from the wisdom of cultures and societies outside
the United States. Cultural and linguistic diversity is and will continue to be a great asset to our
country in knitting stronger and more respectful relationships to the world.