Constructing Your Own Identity

Survival Techniques for Bilingual Learners

“Speak two Languages to promote peace.” 

In this content, bilingual International school communities play a vital role in a world often divided by conflict. However, the transition to adulthood often exposes a gap in the proper development of bicultural competencies, compelling individuals to navigate their cultural identity through unstructured trial and error.

This presentation seeks to illuminate the avenues through which students can deepen their cross-cultural experiences beyond the classroom, thereby equipping them with the skills necessary to emerge as influential global citizens—individuals who bridge divides and cultivate novel approaches to coexistence.

This presentation will be firmly rooted in practical, real-life scenarios, offering tangible insights into the realistic roles that international school communities can and cannot play. To begin, Shimogori will address the current issues of the world and challenge the prevailing myths associated with bicultural development.

Additionally, Shimogori’s Five Canons of Bicultural Development will be presented for the first time in this context. A key element of this process will be the nurturing of an ability to perceive the world through multiple lenses and to recognize the shared essence that connects all children—the Elusive Child. This concept parallels Carl Jung’s notion of the ego, Viktor Frankl’s logos, Hinduism’s Atman, and Buddhism’s busshin, encapsulating the profound, fundamental characteristics of our being.

As a bilingual educator for over 30 years, in Los Angeles and Tokyo, through much trial and error, I came to understand the beauty of being bilingual and bicultural.  I consider myself as a renaissance individual that incorporates an unabridged integration of the holistic and reductionist views, allocentric and idiocentric  thinking, East and West mindsets, competitive and cooperative actions, to name a few. As the founder and president of SevenSees my mission in life is to offer effective, balanced, savvy, compassionate skills and mindset for bilingual learners to live life with zest and purpose. 

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