First, watch this video by the University of Alberta International until 1:55 minutes.
Culture = learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms (rules), and social practices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people
Identity is also closely related to culture. Culture can come from collective identities such as nationality, religion, race, but also sub-cultures from groups like fans of Rap, students of a certain university, or employees at Google. Culture shapes our thoughts, actions and practices in a way that is so ingrained, we often do not even realize it. You may not know why you do something or why it has always been done that way. This affects the way we dress, what and how we eat, what movies we watch, and most of all what a person considers “normal”. It is what is “expected” of us.
One way to think about culture is as an iceberg. The part above the surface is what you can easily observe, taste, hear etc. (language, foods, dress, arts and more), while the part below is not easily seen (communication styles, concepts of respect, friendship, modesty etc.) and can go so deep that the person themselves may not be aware of the values and beliefs that shape their identity.
Image sourced from https://www.celestialpeach.com/blog/cultural-iceberg-cultural-appreciation
Image sourced from https://learn.rumie.org/jR/bytes/what-are-cultural-assumptions-and-how-do-i-address-them/
Reflection 5: Try to map out your own cultural identity using the iceberg model!
While members of a culture share many things in common, beliefs and practices always vary by individual and are also dependent on many other factors like gender, age, social status and contexts etc.
Finally, culture is not static – meaning it can be shaped by external factors and changes over time!