Have you ever walked down the street and counted how may different languages you hear? Well if you haven't, you should, because we're lucky that the USA is one of the most diverse countries in the world. The USA's ethnic salad ingredients are a pretty good example of a recipe other parts of the world trying to make a ethnic salad could follow. First, I will tell you the main ingredients of the salad, language, religion, arts, and lifestyle. So make sure you have plenty of these ingredients and there is an even amount of all the different kinds of languages, religions, arts, and lifestyles. So if you've been trying to get a good ethnic salad for a while, but just couldn't find the right recipe, kept making a cultural salad by accident, or kept tasting too much religion when you were done, then you are in the right place... So wash your hands, and put on your apron, because today, we're going to make some USA style ethnic salad!

So first of all, before going any further, you need to make sure you washed your hands... If you've done that, then we'll quickly clarify that this is not going to be a cultural or racial salad. A cultural salad is the blend of different groups by geographical location of people's customs and rituals, and a racial salad is the blend of different groups by geographical origin of people's skin color and biological backgrounds. Sometimes these salads have trouble when they're getting tossed to really blend together because the groups/ingredients are already really selective. Ethnic salad though, is the blend of different languages, religions, arts, and lifestyles with the cultural and racial groups. So ethnic salad tosses really good and really blends together because each group/ingredient is already a mix/blend of different groups/ingredient (including culture and race).

Now the first ingredient, language! Since I don't know how big your country is, I can't give the exact measurement of how much you need, but you want about the same amount of everything. You'll know it's right when you taste it and every single ingredient pops in your mouth and everything is working together to make it the best salad in the world. So language is very important that you get the same, balanced amount of every kind. Start by putting the wavy, "romance" languages in. Some of these are Spanish and Portuguese, native plants from Spain and Portugal in Western Europe, but they were brought over to South America where they now also thrive. French and Italian are native to Europe and mostly stayed there. Then, put in the spice of African tribal languages, that mix together to make more of the African languages. Most of the South Asian languages come from central Asia, but the most common language found in South Asia is Hindi. Chinese is really popular in Asia, and it has spread all over. When you blend them all together, they will have the perfect texture and will be a really good addition to this ethnic salad. In the USA's ethnic salad there's so many different languages that you can almost hear the salad screaming out to you, "¡cómame!", "eat me!", "mangez-moi!", "TABETENE"!

Now that you have put in language, we can add religion. One religion is Christianity, which has many subcategories in it. Christianity started growing in Europe, but it spread all over every continent, with one God (like Islam). Also about a third of the religions in Africa (where you will also find Christianity and Islam) are traditional religions. They usually have one God, but in addition to that god have more, less powerful gods. Buddhism and Hinduism originated in South Asia with a belief that each person will keep coming back to life until they finally live it right. Blend these different religions evenly and they will have the perfect taste and spice from the many differences. The ethnic salad of the USA has a lot of diverse religions in it, and even though there are so many, it shows that almost everybody believes in something.

We're halfway done with the ingredients, and onto arts! There are many different arts found all over the world. Latin America mural making can add a lot of bright colors to your salad! Latin America also has the fast-paced samba dance in Brasil, and African influences that can help you get a good rhythm to toss your salad! Africa has lots of great rhythmic music that will add life to the salad, and when blended, sometimes results in blues, jazz, or hip hop! African cave paintings even depict historical events a lot like the murals in Latin America. In India, brightly colored dances that tell religious stories! Colorful batik cloth making with wax and dye is found mostly in Malaysia and Indonesia, where patterns are made from the dye sticking to the part of the cloth that does not have wax on it! There are also many beautifully constructed temples found throughout Southeast Asia. So many arts coming from all across the world actually turn out to have similarities. When the arts get mixed together, they make the salad bright and colorful and add some extra spice to it!

Finally, onto the last ingredient, lifestyle. The lifestyles coming from all over the world can seem like they will all be so different and not share any similarities, but when you really look at it... they're really not that different. Whether people are from Asia, Africa or Latin America, they all believe in family very much. Whether it's getting together or living together, they share the belief that family is very important. Mix all the types of lifestyles in the world together and you will get the perfect added sense of family which is also a important value in the USA's ethnic salad.

So now that you have all of your ingredients mixed up and ready to go, you can finally dump them in a bowl. You don't need any dressing because each ingredient has the different toppings and spices of many different cultures. Now take two big forks and lightly toss the salad. Since this isn't a "ethnic stew," each ingredient still gets heard for who they are. While you're tossing the salad, you can almost hear all the different languages shouting out to you, "¡HOLA!", "Happy Thanksgiving!", "Ni Hao!", "AKIMASHITEOMEDETO"! Then when everything looks all nice and blended, you can taste it, and see that even though there are ingredients from all across the world, with people from all different cultures, and with all different skin colors, in the end, when you mix it all up with just the right amounts, it all works together to make the perfect ethnic salad! Even though the USA has its flaws, somehow we keep drawing more people in from all over the world. Even though it might seem impossible at first, in the end, when you mix it all up with just the right amounts; we can work together to be the perfect ethnic salad!