READING ACTIVITY:

What is culture?
A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. –
Gandhi

(image from: http://www.swccd.edu/~ssh/Disciplines/index.asp?D654)

Think about these questions and then write your answers…

● What do you think of when you hear the word “culture”? Write your definition
of “culture” here:

When I hear the word "culture", I think of the essence that identifies a group of
people. It includes their way of thinking, acting, and speaking.

● Do you think we learn culture, or is culture innate? Do you think culture is

directly related to a country? If not, where does culture come from?

I think that there are two possibilities, you can be born with the culture and
you can also learn and adapt to it. You can move to another country and learn
the culture of others, therefore, culture comes from a specific place of people
who share the same way of thinking, acting, and limiting some actions.

● What do we learn about

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 ● In most situations, we always see the culture of others from the outside, but in
reality, to know their true culture we have to go into it and live it.
culture from this iceberg.

http://opengecko.com/interculturalism/visualising-the-iceberg-model-of-culture/

While you read the following text “Definitions of ‘culture”, underline the aspects
of culture you identified on the previous page. Please also underline what you
think is a key sentence from each definition and then answer the questions that
follow.

Definitions of Culture
“In 1952, two anthropologists surveyed the work of existing researchers in some 300
studies in an attempt to come up with a unified definition of culture. They failed in
their attempt. Through their investigation, however, they did uncover three general
characteristics of culture: its historical dimension, its interdependency of components,
and its complex nature (Kroeber and Kluckhorn, 1952).

In 1999, the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project issued

standards for foreign language teaching in the United States. This project based its
definition of culture on three interrelated components: products, practices, and
perspectives—which can also be described as artifacts, actions, and meanings
(Morgan 2011: 23). Other researchers define culture as a set of basic ideas, practices,
and experiences that a group of people share. DeCapua and Wintergerst (2004:11)
describe culture as shared beliefs, norms, and attitudes that guide a group of people’s
behavior and help explain their world.

Communication scholar Stella Ting-Toomey (1999:10) defines culture as “a complex

frame of reference that consists of patterns of traditions, beliefs, values, norms,
symbols, and meanings that are shared to varying degrees by interacting members of
a community.” Just like Peterson (2004). Ting Toomey compares culture to an iceberg.
In this analogy, the deeper layers of culture consisting of traditions, beliefs, and values

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are hidden from our view below the surface. Uppermost layers of culture consist of
fashion, trends, and pop music, as well as verbal and nonverbal cues which can be
easily observed.

Cross-cultural communication trainer Robert Kohls (1996:23) offers the following

comprehensive definition.

Culture = an integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are

characteristic of the members of any given society. Culture refers to the
total way of life of particular groups of people. It includes everything
that a group of people thinks, says, does and makes—its systems of
attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and transmitted from
generation to generation.”

(excerpt from: McVeigh, J. & Wintergerst, A. (2011). Tips for Teaching Culture: Practical Approaches to
Intercultural Communication. Pearson Education, Inc: NY, USA. Pp. 3-4).

Cultures are not synonymous with countries. Cultures do not respect political
boundaries. Border cities such as Juá rez, El Paso, Tijuana, and San Diego can develop
cultures that in some ways are not like Mexico or the United States.

[Culture can refer to the following:]

▪ A community or population sufficiently large enough to be self-sustaining, that

is, large enough to produce new generations of members without relying on
outside people.

▪ The totality of that group’s thought, experiences, and patterns of behavior and
its concepts, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how
those evolve with contact with other cultures. Hofstede (1994) classified these
elements of culture into four categories: symbols, rituals, values, and heroes.
Symbols refer to verbal and nonverbal language. Rituals are the socially
essential collective activities within a culture. Values are the feelings not open
for discussion within a culture about what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly,
normal or abnormal, which are present in a majority of the members of a
culture or at least in those who occupy pivotal positions. Heroes are the real or
imaginary people who serve as behavior models within a culture. A culture’s
heroes are expressed in the culture’s myths, which can be the subjects of
novels and other forms of literature (Rushing & Frentz, 1978). Janice Hocker
Rushing (1983) has argued, for example, that an enduring myth in U.S. culture,
as seen in films, is the rugged individualist cowboy of the American West.

▪ The process of social transmission of these thoughts and behaviors from birth
in the family and schools over the course of generations.

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 ▪ Members who consciously identify themselves with that group. Collier and
Thomas (1988) describe this as cultural identity, or the identification with and
perceived acceptance into a group that has a share system of symbols and
meanings as well as norms for conduct. What does knowing an individual’s
cultural identity tell you about that individual? If you assume that that
individual is like everyone else in that culture, you have stereotyped all the
many, various people in that culture into one mould. You know that you are
different from others in your culture. Other cultures are as diverse. The
diversity within cultures probably exceeds the differences between cultures. So
just knowing one person’s cultural identity doesn’t provide complete or
reliable information about that person. Knowing another’s cultural identity
does, however, help you understand the opportunities and challenges that each
individual in that culture had to deal with.

We can have no direct knowledge of a culture other than our own. Our experience
with and knowledge of other cultures is limited by the perceptual bias of our own
culture. An adult Canadian will never fully understand the experience of growing up
an Australian. To begin to understand a culture, you need to understand all the
experiences that guide its individual members through life: such things as language
and gestures; personal appearance and social relationships; religion, philosophy, and
values; courtship, marriage, and family customs; food and recreation; work and
government; education and communication systems; health, transportation and
government systems; and economic systems. Think of culture as everything you
would need to know and do so as not to stand out as a “stranger” in a foreign land.
Culture is not a genetic trait. All these cultural elements are learned through
interaction with others in the culture. (Excerpt from: Jandt, F. (2007) An Introduction to
Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community, p. 104-105. Sage Publications: CA, USA)

Discussion Questions for definitions of culture

1. Figure out the meaning of the following terms from the text by rereading the
sentences surrounding them:
o Frame of reference – The frame of reference is that set of patterns,
symbols, and signs immersed in a cultural context, but which cannot be
seen superficially but intrinsically.
o Perceptual bias – We cannot have a broad knowledge of other cultures
and understand them in the best way because there will always be a
barrier from our own culture that will prevent us from understanding
everything naturally.
o Genetic trait – It is the immersion that exists with other inhabitants of
the culture, in this way the culture is acquired.

2. There is only one right definition of culture. True or False.

3. Culture is…. (Choose all that apply)

a. food, holidays, tourist locations, music, and dancing F
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 b. beliefs, values, ideals V
c. social norms and taboos V
d. behaviours within a larger society and with family and friends V
e. the same everywhere, regardless of country F
f. forms of government & religion F
g. a genetic trait F

4. Go back to your original definition of culture on page 6. Is there anything that

you would change based on what you just read?

I wouldn't change anything at all. My concept of culture agrees with that.

5. “The diversity within cultures probably exceeds the differences between

cultures.” What can we infer from this quote?

I can infer that the differences that exist between cultures create diversity in
each of these. The difference creates diversity.

6. Based on what you have read, define “intercultural communication” and

discuss why you think it is important in today’s world.

Cultural communication is important today because by keeping this aspect in

mind we can have revealing information about the way of thinking, what they like to
do or what can offend another person, and how their behavior is in society.