Intercultural Communications Post 6

The reading from this week dealt with the idea of culture. We have talked much of this idea of culture at the beginning of class. Due to that, I was able to relate to a lot of the topics that we had been reading in class that we have discussed and experienced. Culture was talked about not only as defining the word itself but also as culture and language, community, and language education.  Throughout the article there are many diverse definitions of exactly what culture is. “Although culture is one of the most studied and most used concepts in human history, it has stubbornly defied a clear cut definition of what it exactly is: There is no consensus about what it really is (Green Pippies, 43).  For me, I would always define culture as a group of people that share a common belief, religion, language, and traditions. These could include foods, dances, and music. However, from what I have learned throughout this class, these things do not entirely mean or signify a culture. For many, people like to categorize a certain category of people in to their “culture”. Through this, they expect that this certain group of people are to follow along with these traditions, languages, beliefs, and etc and are not allowed to have aspects from a culture other than theirs. On a very basic level, for example, many people would categorize Mexicans having their own culture where they only eat burritos, tacos, and rice. However, this “culture” incorporates other “culture’s” traditional foods in to their diets. What I have just explained is why people have such a hard time in being able to define what a culture is in black and white. Instead it is in a gray area.  As I have seen and read throughout this article and in this class, people can not be classified as just one “culture”. We are all our own person and have aspects from each of our experiences that define us. Although our family history and traditions make up part of where we come from, we can not define a culture and the way people are supposed to act, feel, and think based on that. In regards to culture and language, community and language education, these cultures are based off and separated in these groups. As a future educator I will be in a diverse classroom working with students from many different cultures. Not only will I introduce and familiarize my students with the diversity of other cultures, I will also be sure to enlighten them in the idea that just because someone is from a “culture” does not mean that that culture defines them. I will hopefully be able to let my students have the understanding of what culture really means and that their knowledge and understanding will help for a better a future of seeing people as individuals. Also, it will hopefully help with the decrease of separation of the culture of languages, communities, and language learning.  In what ways can we help create a more unified world?