Lecture 1: Introduction to Culture

What is culture?

• Is it language, ethnicity, habits of mind, ways of interacting, norms of politeness,

stereotyping, culture shock, notions of personal space, status, authority, respect,
pragmatics?

Examples on page 9-10 (Crossing Cultures)

• “People’s reaction is to identify me as a member of an Asian culture and not as a third-

generation immigrant. People are always saying things like, “What do you eat besides
sushi?” For the record, | don’t like sushi and we didn't eat it growing up because my
family didn’t come from Japan.

• “Mrs. Sana, thank you for being our teacher. We give you this gift from our hearts” | was
deeply touched, took the gift, ooh-ed and ahh-ed, and carefully opened it. The students
stared at me, clearly shocked by my behavior.

• “| got on the escalator and stood on the step right under a woman. She turned and told
me | was standing too close to her”

• Our children left India for jobs in Toronto and Los Angeles; they married there and we
have beautiful grandchildren whom we see often. But | cannot get used to how they are
saying “thank you" so much, we are their grandparents. This constant thanking makes us
feel that there is a barrier, a formality and distance that shouldn't exist between
grandparents and grandchildren.

• The teachers in my school have been complaining about how rude some of the
immigrant students are. They never ask but order, “Teacher, help me; “I want you give
me. ..."

• https://www.youtube.com/watch/57KW6RO8Rcs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Z4zLEX1CQ

Definition of Culture:

• Culture is a very general concept comprised of a complex system of interacting elements.

• Culture is universal, multifaceted and intricate.
• It permeates all aspects of human society; it penetrates into every area of life.
• It influences the way people think, talk and behave.
• Culture is not a characteristic of a single individual.
• It is “a collective mental programming of the people in an environment” (Hosfstede, 42)

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• Culture is a set of fundamental ideas, practices, experiences shared by a group of people.

• Culture refers to a set of shared beliefs, norms and attitudes that are used to guide the
behaviors of a group of people, to explain the world around them, and to solve their
problems.
• It can be defined as “membership in the discourse community that shares a common
social space and history, and common imaginings” (Kramsch 10)
• It can be defined as “the sum of the way of life of any group of people” (Kohls, 26)

How do we identify culture?

• The members of a culture share clearly identifiable traits, patterns of behavior, world-
views, systems of social organizations and similar value systems.
• Generalizations do not apply to all members.
• care must be taken to avoid over-generalizations and stereotyping.
• Cultures are not completely homogeneous but heterogeneous.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSt_op3fQck&list=PLClXiOzJlcPDLTpKpKD0YnIP6F84
WyD12
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBs4iJFzj9I

NOTE: Culture is not static, unchanging, or even homogeneous.

• Cultures are dynamic marked by changes in response to new technology, to encounters

with different cultures, and to new societal and environmental needs and demands.
• Culture change is ongoing and a continuous process.

Examples:

• The US (western countries) in the past were agricultural societies. They have become
highly industrialized in the 21st century.
• China’s one-child-only policy introduced in the 1970s led to significant cultural changes.
The single child (whether male of female) has become the focus of parental attention,
investment and expectation. As opposed to the centuries’ old preference for sons.
• The influence of the media such as television, film, the internet, social media and
technology on world cultures.
• Generation differences due to cultural change as people adapt to cultural changes.

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Enculturation:

• Culture is a teacher.
• It is a subconscious teacher of the beliefs, values, worldviews and patterns of behavior of
its members.
• The process of becoming socialized into one’s culture begins early in life through what is
known as enculturation.
• Enculturation is a collective experience because culture is shared with people who live in
and experience the same social environment.
• It is the process of learning about the customs, conventions and practices of one’s
society.
• This process involves learning cultural patterns through family members and interactions
in social environment such as peer groups, school, and work, through social media and
social networking sites.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPXoKV-Mo-E
• In today’s modern world mass media and access to the wide variety of content on the
Internet are important influences in the in the enculturation process.
• We are generally unaware of the central role that enculturation plays in shaping our
worldview because it is a subconscious learning effort.
• Members of different cultural groups see and interpreter events differently.
• Through enculturation they develop attitudes, beliefs and values that affect how they
interpret the world around them. (a cultural lens)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nN2AR4qk6U

Examples:

The anecdote of the elephant and the mouse on p.16 Crossing Cultures

• “One day the elephant and the mouse decided to take a stroll when they came to a
rickety old wooden bridge over the river. As they cross the bridge, it began to rattle and
clatter. Above the racket the mouse shouted, "listen to us jumping together and making
this old bridge bang."
• From the mouse’s point of you, it was contributing as much to the noise as was the much
larger elephant. Like the mouse, people’s cultural lenses is a product of their experiences.
They affect the way they construct and alter their realities.
• Culture also serves as a filter used by members of the group to give meaning to social
roles, contexts, and communicative behaviors and how they perceive, interpret react and
are affected by these.

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The difference between culture with a capital C and culture with a small c:

 Culture with a capital C/ objective culture/ highbrow culture/ observable/ overt:

• It refers to art, literature, drama, classical music, dance or cuisine, aspects associated
with money, education, museums, political and economic systems.
• “institutions that people have created”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woP0v-2nJCU

 Culture written with a small c/ subjective culture/ covert culture:

• It is psychological in nature, it involves people’s attitudes, beliefs and values. It also refers
to the choice of discourse, norms of interaction.
• The most important aspects that distinguish one culture from another are not easily
observable phenomena such as dress, housing, food or table manners but rather the
underlying values, attitudes, beliefs and worldviews that shape how a culture perceives
itself and others.

Activity: p. 8 – 9 Reimann’s Introduction to Culture

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Levels of Culture

• Universal (etic): ideas, behaviors, items that are culture universal, elements hold true
across all cultures and times.
• Cultural Specific (emic): ideas, behaviors, items and concepts that are culture specific.
• Learning to identify what is culture specific (emic) and what is culture universal (etic) is
fundamental to understanding other cultures.
• Recognizing similarities and differences leads to greater cultural awareness and to
behavior that is more culturally appropriate.

Activity: (The Market and Café) Activity D page 43 of Crossing Cultures. (PDF File on BlackBoard)

Examples:
• Motherhood p 19, Marriage p 20.
“Etics refers to those ideas, behaviors, items, and concepts that are
culture universal. Rather than focusing on one culture and making the
discoveries within one system, the etic approach focuses on studies of
more than one culture and from a position outside the system. The idea
is to understand what elements hold true across all cultures and times.
From an etic point of view, for instance, motherhood is a universal
construct. However, how the role of mothers and motherhood is enacted
and viewed will differ among cultures—this, then, is the concern of emics.
Questions that researchers might ask include: What are the
responsibilities of a mother? Is she solely responsible for discipline? If not,
with whom does she share the responsibility? Does being a mother
necessarily entail being the primary caregiver? If not, under what
circumstances does this change? What is the role of women who bear no
children? Are mothers revered, honored, and respected? How is this
manifested within the culture? Such questions help researchers
understand both the emics (differences) and the etics (universals) of
mothers and motherhood.

The concern with the etic approach is that it can lead to stereo- typing
and overgeneralization. Cross-cultural research in various disciplines has
increasingly pointed to the fallacy of applying theories and frameworks
developed in Western, middle-class contexts to very different cultures
and populations (see, e.g., Kim, 2003; Quinn & Mageo, 2013). In addition,
we cannot lose sight of the fact that there are important subcultural
differences, as well as individual differences, in any given culture. On the
other hand, the etic approach does allow us to see general features and
characteristics of particular cultures. Marriage, for instance, is another
universal construct, but who may marry whom, at what age, under what

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type of ceremony or ritual, what roles each partner fulfills within the
marriage, and how each partner is expected to act differs cross-culturally,
with generational, gender, socioeconomic, and individual differences. “

• The etic approach can lead to stereotyping and over-generalization.

• There is a fallacy of applying values and attitudes developed in Western, middle-class
contexts to very different cultures and populations.

Examples:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT0kzF4A-WQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO6N0ha22Mk

Stereotypes (Source: Introduction to Culture) P.15

• The word stereotype originates from early printing presses when the same “type” was
used and reused many different times.
• Being able to generalize like this made printing simpler. Although stereotypes may
appear to make our understanding of other people and cultures easier, they are usually
inaccurate and wrong because every situation, context, culture and individual is unique.
• Although stereotypes are useful for learning, protection and other cognitive processes,
grouping people into simple categories limits our understanding and ability to form a
complete picture. In short stereotypes cause ignorance, which results in prejudice (pre-
judgment) leading to misunderstanding, discrimination, racism and conflict.

Perceptions (Source: Introduction to Culture) P.15

• Perception – Nature or nurture is our worldview innate? Do we develop biological ways

of organizing our sensory experiences which determine how we view the world or do we
learn how to perceive the world through our experiences of it?
• Perceptual Set – We see what we want to see. Often our expectations, beliefs and values
influence how and what we perceive and as a result our reactions and interpretations
may not be accurate. This usually results in ethnocentrism, prejudice, stereotypes, racism
and discrimination. When this happens between people and cultures communication
becomes very difficult or impossible.

Questions

• What do you think shapes a person’s worldview?

• Do you think all people of a culture share exactly the same worldview? Explain.

Activity: p. 16 Reimann’s Introduction to Culture

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Elements of culture:
1. Beliefs
2. Values
3. Norms
4. Taboos
5. Attitudes
6. Language

1- Beliefs: individual’s convictions

Examples:
• Belief in spirits, visions, fortune-telling as sources of knowledge is influenced by cultural
background.
• Gift giving in Japan is a social obligation., not just on special occasions, and the gift must
be returned.
• Time punctuality in the west. Latino cultures are noted for a relaxed approach to time.
• Causation of disease. Some cultures believe evil spirits to be the cause, and cure achieved
by appealing to these spirits.

2- Values: ideals or abstract standards, weather good or bad

Examples:

• Family (communal) values vs. individualistic values

• Cultures that value self-reliance, hard work, and individual effort are more likely to allow
for social and economic flexibility then cultures that value family connections and family
wealth. Cultures that place a high value on communal family goals are noted for their
close-knit families.

3- Norms: fixed behavioral patterns for members of a cultural group.

Examples:
• greetings and patterns of respect

4- Taboos: They specify what is permissible and what is not.

• In their strongest form taboos are universal prohibition such as murder.

• In their weaker form taboo is our culture/religious specific such as restrictions with
respect to eating with the left hand, using the left hand in some cultures is reserved for
body functions and is considered unclean. So, eating with the left-hand is unacceptable
and passing something to another person with the left-hand is insulting.
• Which foods one or may or may not eat.

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5- Attitudes: are emotional reactions to objects ideas and people.

• People learn attitudes within the cultural context

• Opinions, interactions and other behaviors are based in large part on attitudes and
beliefs.

6- Language: Language and culture are intimately linked.

• Culture influences the way speakers perceive the world and how they use language to
communicate.
• Language influences how speakers view the world and the way in which they
communicate.
• Language is an organized learned symbol system used to represent human experiences
within a geographic and cultural group.
• A language encompasses the historical and cultural backgrounds of people. Language is
more than speech it is a means of identification.
• Like culture, language is a lens through which reality is filtered.

Reading Topics:
• Education and Student Life
• Education and Culture

Source:
Interactions 2: Reading Silver Edition.

Sources Consulted:
• Decapua, Andrea et al. Crossing Cultures in the language Classroom
• Interactions 2: Reading Silver Edition.
• Introduction to Culture by Andrew Reimann
• Youtube.com

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