Defining Culture Essay - 669 Words

Defining Culture Q1. Explain the difference between surface culture and deep culture. Give examples from your own culture. Which do you think is more challenging to cope with as a foreigner? Why? Surface culture is essentially the cultural norms you can easily identify in a foreign country such as food and dressing. On the other hand, deep culture are the cultural norms that are not easily detected unless, you are born and raised in that specific culture, or you spend an extended amount of time in the foreign culture. Examples of deep culture would be rules, attitudes and feelings that are passed down from generation to generation. In my culture, the right hand is preferred for most of the social exchanges like shaking hands,†¦show more content†¦We are taught from young to never transgress another person’s queue and to always respect their personal space while queuing. However, if I were to stay in this culture that does not observe the queue system, I will definitely have to learn to be less defensive of my queue and practise more tolerance to their local behaviour as long as it does not violate my basic ethics. I have to discard the ethnocentric notion that only my cultural standard for behaviour is the best, and I should not pass any judgements as there will inevitably be differences between my vision and those that I meet in my new surroundings. Q3. What do you think will be the greatest benefit for you living and teaching in another culture? What will be the greatest difficulty? How will this be important in your life after returning home? (If you have already taught in another culture, what have been the greatest benefits and challenges for you?) The benefits of teaching abroad are numerous and often highly personal, because people choose to teach abroad for many different reasons. In my opinion, the main benefits of teaching abroad are the opportunities to immerse myself in different cultures, learn new languages, get paid to travel, exchange cross-cultural ideas and experience professional success. The greatest difficulty for me would be to learn how to manage my own nuclear family without the physical support of my extended family. Being in a foreign country willShow MoreRelatedDefining Culture : A Dilemma1856 Words   |  8 PagesDEFINING CULTURE: A dilemma in environmental assessment The variation in which culture is articulated in many studies, even beyond environmental assessments, affirms culture as a hazy concept (Bennett, 2015). Nevertheless, it is broadly defined as a societal way of life (Salzman, 2001). It is on the basis of the complexity of defining, ‘what culture comprises of?’ that make it difficult to evaluate how an occurrence impacts it. The fluidity in the concept has led to several contests between the bearersRead MoreWhen Defining The Term Culture795 Words   |  4 Pagesof difficulty when defining the term culture. Yes I understood what the word meant, but how can I separate and find a purely different culture other than my own. As many of the scholars that have preceded me in delivering a well captured view of the term culture, I was still puzzled on how to separate the cultures of such a blended area. Webster define culture as: a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc. Oxford goes further by def ining culture as: The customs, artsRead MoreDefining Normative And Subjective Culture1743 Words   |  7 Pages We are all defined, and heavily influenced by, the culture in which we have grown and adopted. 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That is what the Deaf community has had to deal with constantly for the past 40 years because of the social unawareness of much of the hearing community. 90% of all deaf children are born to hearing parents who never thought much about the deaf communityRead MoreDefining Culture : A Challenging Task For Academics2631 Words   |  11 PagesDefining culture appears to be a challenging task for academics, this is why there are possibly more than 150 definitions of culture and it is difficult to actually find a universally accepted definition because the word holds different meanings to different people and as a consequence it is open to many interpretations. Even if academics find it hard to define, it is possible to see that different statements have some common patterns. Academics agree on the fact that culture is something that hasRead MoreDefining Culture and Identities1017 Words   |  5 Pagesincomprehension’ between villagers and ethnic minorities. 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