{"id":746,"date":"2015-08-01T13:33:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T13:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=746"},"modified":"2015-08-06T13:37:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T13:37:37","slug":"a-bangladesh-australian-is-helping-to-bridge-the-cultural-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"A Bangladesh-Australian is helping to bridge the cultural divide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AShr\"<\/a>Bangladesh-born, he decided to settle in Albion after falling in love with Melbourne\u2019s west.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was love at first sight. Albion and Sunshine are what my Australia is,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the mix of many different cultures and languages here. I love a walk down the trail near Kororoit Creek, playing with my kids in the Selwyn Park, or a visit to the Sunshine library or the leisure centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy twin boys go to Albion Primary School. I truly feel at home here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Mr Alam is using his skills as a professional interpreter and translator to help the Bangladeshi community connect and integrate into Australia\u2019s social fabric.<\/p>\n

\u201cMigration is a difficult journey, and there are many issues in those communities that are direct corollary to this paradigm shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning to coexist with others is also an issue. Leadership can help these communities tackle these issues and make Australia a better place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe understanding that diversity is an asset rather than a liability, and differences must be celebrated instead of just tolerated, is crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all can bring the best from our own culture and enrich Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Alam was one of 27 people who successfully graduated from Leadership Victoria\u2019s New and Emerging Communities Leadership Program which develops leaders in emerging communities.<\/p>\n

He has also co-founded the Victorian Bangla Mobile Library which is connected to the Western Region Bangali School, to help Bangladeshi families keep their language alive and also teach their children to speak in Bangla and English.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids as well as adults can borrow Bangla books from there, and parents can read to their kids to grow interest in another language, which will not only help them to learn their forefathers\u2019 language, but also help them to appreciate the multicultural environment they live in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Bangla speaking community of Bangladeshi Australians, we have a few ethnic language schools in Melbourne. However, we still had the need for Bangla books as a physical presence of our language in our new homeland \u2014 both for kids and adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Herald Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bangladesh-born, he decided to settle in Albion after falling in love with Melbourne\u2019s west. \u201cIt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[9,30,33],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",650,366,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",640,360,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",650,366,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",650,366,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",650,366,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",650,366,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/AShr.png",480,270,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}