The Study of Multiculturalism in Richmond Hill Essay Example

Multiculturalism, where a vast assortment of cultures lives amongst each other in a society (Eagan, 2020). Multiculturalism supplies a diverse array of cultures, ethnic groups, and with that, an abundant selection of food and languages. Richmond Hill, a central city in York Region, that is home to almost 200,000 people, is where I was able to diverge in the culture and study its multiculturalism through fieldwork, to ultimately decide if this city is a place possessing such diversity (Government of Canada, 2019). To narrow my focus of study, I decided to investigate the food and languages present in this city. 

To gather information about the food offered in Richmond Hill, I set out to find restaurants and local shops, where I could indulge in the city's food. I was quickly able to observe the plentiful access to restaurants, and the options were seemingly endless. Throughout the city, there were restaurants from many different cultures and ethnic groups, ranging from Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Mediterranean, Indian, and so many more. This provided me with great insight into the cultural means of food within the city. With many certified food reviews online from websites such as “Yelp'', “BlogTo'', and “OpenTable”, Richmond Hill proved its reputation for quality, abundant and diverse cuisine. A few, but not all of the highest-rated restaurants in this city are Aneal’s Taste of the Islands, Love’s Kitchen, Frankie’s Nashville Hot Chicken, Cotolet Premium Cutlet, all having over four-star reviews (Yelp). These high-rated restaurants all display unique forms of multiculturalism, ranging from a variety of cultures. According to Ramcharran (2017), Richmond Hill offers foods from all over the world, with almost everything being a close drive from one another (para. 2). This does attest, as the city is a substantial size, with local restaurants and fast-food chains, all being close to one another, providing many options to eat at. Through my observations on the map, I was able to confirm that many of the restaurants are of close driving distance, and even walking distance from another, providing a wide selection of places to enjoy. As part of my research, I ate at many of the restaurants and tried a variety of foods the city offered, ranging from burgers, pasta, shawarma, sushi, and kebabs. A restaurant in Richmond Hill that is highly praised within my community, is a sushi restaurant called “Kitano Sushi'' in Oak Ridges, Richmond Hill. Many friends and local citizens recommended this restaurant, so as part of my research, I decided to eat here for the first time. Objectively, I enjoyed this restaurant, as the quality was excellent, and was an overall great contribution to the diversity of food in Richmond Hill. The variety of restaurants, greatly reflect the culture and soul within the city, which is a diverse, multicultural, environment. All in all, Richmond Hill presents a great display of food diversity, because it offers many places to eat, with food from all over the world. However, I decided to further investigate the multiculturalism in this city by observing the assortment and use of languages in Richmond Hill.

I endeavored to discover the different languages throughout the city of Richmond Hill through interviews, questionnaires, data research, and my observations. I interviewed many friends and members of this community to collect information about the languages they could speak. From the surveys I carried out, I was able to conclude that people within Richmond Hill could speak languages such as English, Mandarin, Farsi, Arabic, Korean, Russian, French, Hindi, Italian and more. This gave me perspective into the languages present. According to Statistics Canada (2017), over 90% of people in Richmond Hill can speak English, and surprisingly, only just 50% of people speak English as their first language at home, which means that the other 50% speak another language. Interestingly, many people in this city speak English, but about half of the city speaks a different language at home. This shows the presence of more than one culture present in many people, as many residents can speak English, and the language is spoken at home. The many languages spoken in the city show that many of the residents are of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, which is a significant factor in multiculturalism (Brosseau, 2018). As a comparison, I examined another city in York Region, Markham, and observed that there was a prominent language spoken. According to Statistics Canada (2016), almost 40% of the population in Markham, speak a Chinese language (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc). Whereas, in Richmond Hill, the languages spoken within the city show an equal representation of diversity, with the statistics of languages being similar. This further corroborated the multiculturalism of languages in the city. Due to my fieldwork, I was able to recognize the diversity present in the means of language within the city, and how this variety proves that Richmond Hill is a multicultural city.

Throughout my research, I have gained applicable knowledge in many forms, and I have learned how important it is to collect credible and accurate data, to make rational conclusions. This has allowed me to reflect on a big issue when it comes to writing ethnographies: subjectivity. Oftentimes, ethnographers have a difficult time differentiating factual, unbiased, accurate information, and information based on one's own beliefs or opinions (Surbhi, 2017). This can lead to an ethnography leaning in favor of a certain group, culture, or belief, which denotes false, unethical studies. However, I assured that all information and data collected were solely based on facts, and objective observations in the following ways. I was able to conduct many interviews and questionnaires to collect information from an outside perspective, I gathered data from reliable online sources, and reflected on my own biases, to ensure I was displaying objectivity in my research.

I have concluded that the city of Richmond Hill displays a notable representation of many cultures, through its diverse languages and a wide selection of food, making a great contribution to multiculturalism in York Region. I was able to immerse myself in the culture of Richmond Hill, to learn about multiculturalism in this city, through food and language using various research approaches. Additionally, I explored the idea of subjectivity in ethnographies and ensured my personal biases were set aside to produce the most accurate, high-quality ethnography, from a true anthropological standpoint.