Nail Salon

Cultural encounters aren’t too hard to come by living in Brooklyn. I live in Sunset Park, a predominantly Spanish and Chinese neighborhood sandwiched between Bay Ridge, a predominantly Arab area, and Park Slope, a predominantly white area. I am white myself, being that I am nearly one hundred percent Irish, with a little Scottish thrown in. Living in a multi-cultural neighborhood my whole life, I see cultural encounters all the time. An encounter I’ve experienced just the other day is when I was hanging out with two friends of mine. One is my next-door neighbor, Nicole, and the other was a friend Dana. The other day they dragged me to the nail salon with them on the corner of my block. This nail salon is owned by a Chinese woman and there are only Chinese workers in there. But if you walk in, you see these Chinese ladies speaking Chinese to customers who speak Chinese, Spanish to customers that speak Spanish, and English to customers that speak English. There is no language barrier. They’ve adapted to the cultures around them and adjust to these cultures to make sure they can communicate in the easiest and most effective way possible. These women in this salon didn’t limit themselves to one culture and language. They realized that the best way to get their message across and be heard was to accept other languages and become strong, multicultural people.