In one sense, merely speaking a language to a child conveys culture to that child. Embedded in the meanings of words and phrases is always a culture. Through language, a child learns a whole way of life, ways of perceiving and organizing experience, ways of anticipating the world, forms of social relationship, rules and conventions about behaviour, moral values and ideals, the culture of technology and science as well as poetry, music and history. Culture is reproduced in the child through the fertilization and growth of language.
Many adults and children who are bilingual do not belong to two language cultures as a monolingual belongs to a one language culture. A person who speaks English and French, for example, may partly share and identify with English language culture, and partly identify with French language culture. Being bicultural is different from being two monoculturals glued together. A bilingual tends to be bicultural in a unique sense. There is a complex but integrated combination of both cultures inside one person. It is like the overlapping of two circles rather than two circles side by side.
With considerable differences from person to person, and considerable changes over a time within a person, an individual may feel more French or more English but neither to the exclusion of the other. In this hyphenated variety, there is a separation of cultures and integration, distinct French and English varieties yet also a unique combination.
Through meeting speakers of their two languages, visiting a variety of cultural events -from markets to sports matches, from religious meetings to rustic festivals - parents can introduce their children to the cultures that surround each language. Where first hand experience is not possible, television and video tapes allow second-hand experience. Introduction to the broadest range of cultures that goes with each language will potentially broaden the horizons of the child, open up more and new opportunities, and give a world view where there are fewer barriers and more bridges.