I asked my friend who is from Mexico about her definition of culture, she mentioned that culture is the origin of the person, the beliefs and the values, the traditions that he inherits from his family.
My French teacher said that culture is how we are taught how to behave in certain situations, the food that we eat, the language that we speak, and the religion that we practice. When I asked my sister in law about culture, the first thing that came to her mind was language and political history of the country she is living in. She also said Culture is norms, social attitudes, and perception of history.
My friend who is purely Lebanese said that culture makes who we are. It is the food that we eat, the religion that we practice are the things that differentiate us from others. It is the culture that tells us what to do and what not to do, how to dress, the way we behave in weddings, in parties, are all parts of cultureMany of the things these people used to define culture and diversity relates to what we have been learning about in this course. I have read in many articles that culture is what makes us who we are. I have also learned that ethnicity, traditions, values, family, beliefs are also related to culture.
All these definitions show that these people defined the surface culture and they didn’t go deep enough on what culture really is. They didn’t for example say that culture is the difference in opinions between people in the same culture; they didn’t also mention that there is dominant culture in every setting or place like schools, communities, between poor and rich. They talked about culture in general.
Learning what others definition regarding diversity and culture was interesting and inspiring. 
Bouthaina:
ReplyDeleteI also found that most of the people I spoke to focused on surface culture. I think this may relate to the idea that much of our culture is unconscious or automatic (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). We do not think about it unless someone else points out how we are different from them. I also wonder how much of it is related to the fact that most Americans are uncomfortable going deeper because of our rocky history with prejudice and racial discrimination?
LouAnn
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in early care and education (5th ed., pp 8-13). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
It is interesting that your sister-in-law said "Culture is norms, social attitudes, and perception of history". In your reflection, you found that the definition of deep culture and diversity is inspiring. I too have found that when asked to define culture and diversity, people do not delve into deep culture such as relationships, roles, connections, and family arrangements, they stay general in their assumptions. Perhaps as a society, we are not teaching our children/ ourselves what deep diversity and culture truly is. It is really so interesting! Great post!
ReplyDeleteBouthaina,
ReplyDeleteIf someone had asked me to define culture and diversity before taking this course I, too, would have mentioned food, traditions, and clothing as part of my definition. I am thankful that through this course I have learned the deeper aspects of culture. Culture is not just the 10% of the iceberg that is obvious above the water...it is the 90% that is under the water that drives us to make the decisions that we do based on how we were raised.
Thank you for sharing the definitions of your friends. It's nice reading other classmate's interpretations of the topics for our blog assignments.
Caitlyn
I totally agree in the aspect that the people we ask about this questions are related to the topic. In this country, our country we have to be aware in whatis surrounding us that is the key!
ReplyDeleteBouthania,
ReplyDeleteI also found that most of my responses focused on surface culture. Know this encourages me to work with teachers to help them understand the importance of getting to know the deeper culture of a child and his/her parents.
Thank you,
Teri
Bouthaina,
ReplyDeleteYes I agree, with the rest of my classmates that it seem like all my friends did dig deep about culture and diversity. But in your post you mention about culture between rich and poor.. Well I would never your income is apart of your culture but from this weeks lesson and classmates post it is- and I know it is apart your social identity. Thanks for your post!
I posted my question on facebook and got numerous responses. This gave many of the people who responded time to think about the question and then answer. Even with knowing the question ahead of time, the answers were surface level at best. A friend of mine is a professor of sociology and her answer was a little deeper but more theory based and not really on a personal level. During my discussions a couple of people were really inspired to look at the deeper culture after realizing how much it impacts us and our interpretations of the world around us. I found that very exciting and inspiring!
ReplyDelete