Am I ruining my child by raising them as an expat in Switzerland? (and understanding what monkeys have got to do with this!)
If I showed you two pictures of monkeys, you’d likely say they look identical.
But did you know that babies, in their first year, can spot even the smallest differences between them? This "super-vision" ability fades after the first year as babies’ eyes become more accustomed to seeing what they encounter most—our human race and, more specifically, their own race. Just as babies are born with the potential to learn any language, develop any movement (babies born to families of flamenco dancers naturally take on flamenco moves when learning to walk!) they also have an incredible ability to perceive details adults often miss.
As time passes, this "super-vision" ability becomes more specialized, a process known as "perceptual narrowing."
Our brains focus on efficiency and what’s familiar—our own race, culture, and language.
This is why, as Dr. Kang Lee explains, many people become somewhat "blind" to racial differences, seeing those from unfamiliar cultures as looking the same...
Dr. Lee’s research shows that these developments are not hardwired into our biology but are largely shaped by the cultural and environmental context in which a child is raised. This means that children exposed to a diverse range of faces from different racial backgrounds may keep that broader ability to recognize and distinguish between different races.
Why does this matter for your child?
In our interconnected world, exposing children to a variety of races, languages, cultures and ways of thinking helps them understand and appreciate diversity. This understanding will help them adapt and thrive in any environment they chose to pave their future in.
And raising kids in Switzerland is a great opportunity for this. With its rich diversity, we are giving our kids the chance to learn from others right from the start: In Zurich 32% of the city's population is made up of non-Swiss from a total of 172 different countries, all of whom help to make up Zürich's multi-cultural character (and I heard it from a visiting British teacher we were working with during the summer "I cannot believe how seamlessly expat children in Zurich are able to switch between languages and are fearless when traveling and discovering the world").
At Academicus alone, we welcomed visitors and participants from 15 different nationalities just last week!
Isn't that just remarkable exposure to diversity of cultures and languages? By raising our kids here, we truly are giving them the best start to life!
You’ve totally got this!
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