5 posts tagged “multiculturalism”

Who votes that the next time we shop at New World Thorndon, those of us who are multilingual speak anything but English (in the wake of this news)?
   Or demand we are only served by multilingual staff?

[Cross-posted] Sonia Yee was kind enough to provide me with a preview of Part Three of her series, The Golden Tide (see earlier post here), which appears on Radio New Zealand National each Sunday at 2.30 p.m. from December 28. I’m thrilled with this episode, which airs January 11: she chose some of my better quotes and discarded my non sequiturs, for which I am very grateful. This is required listening: this is not “a Chinese programme” per se. The musical score is outstanding, as is the post work. It is a commentary about cultural identity, and about what it means to be a New Zealander. In a nation where everyone, including the Māori, can trace their roots to another land, we need to understand issues such as pigeon-holing, marginalization, stereotypes, assimilation and identity.

Went to a little party on Friday for a friend’s going-away, and you know that you live in a multicultural society when you wind up speaking English, Swedish, French and Cantonese in the space of four hours. There was even a German lass there, but my German is limited to directions, reading car magazines, screams from Alarm für Cobra 11 and ordering food on Lufthansa. Oh, and swear words which my old school friend Karl Urban (what happened to that guy?) taught me. None of it came in handy, and I am thinking that this is one language I might need to improve on.

Even I, Mr Globalist, thinks this is weird: I had gone out to Lambton Quay, bought myself a Paris Match, and crossed the road to get in my Renault. It struck me that I really am a Francophile. Anyone seeing it may have thought it odd. I like being odd.

It’s so hard finding New Zealand-owned juice at supermarkets. Just back from Pak ’n’ Save and New World in my area, and mostly it was Citrus Tree and Keri (French and American). Fresh-up, Just Juice: also French. New World at least had a few Pam’s three-litre juices left, which I paid $4·85 or thereabouts for—and Pam’s was, once, the poverty brand. Where are the Kiwi juices that are also good value for money?
   Speaking of which, I now buy Hong Kong-made blank CDs and DVDs that appear to be marketed by a domestic firm, and they come in cheaper than the regular brands at Corporate Consumables. What the brand is, I can’t recall. But I will with a few more repeated purchases. (OK, just checked: they’re called Zone. And they are ink-jet safe, and I haven’t experienced any difference in performance between them and the Japanese and Korean branded stuff I normally buy.)
   Interestingly, the checkout girls are getting more multicultural. I had an Indonesian and an Iraqi serve me. The latter joked about being from Baghdad. I said, ‘Must have been a nice looking city when you were a kid.’ Her reply: ‘Not any more.’ But it sure is nice to be an émigrée, I’ll bet, away from the crap going on back home. I feel the same way (but as an émigré).
   Also bought Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War DVD, going for $15. Can’t wait to see what this Kiwi writer–director cooked up. I remember talking to his Dad about it when he was still writing it.