Culture Reflection 1

     In this unit, we talked about many things related to culture. I had read some articles; the content is about culture is learned and shared. Culture is all around us. Culture is what we learned in society and from people. It is not inherited from others. Nowadays, people always talk about culture, but few people think deeply about why that is. People's behavior is related to culture. People from diverse cultural backgrounds will react differently to the same thing. For example, if someone tells me to see you at 5pm, I will arrive at 5pm on time. If you tell another person from Mexican cultural background. That person may be late because they think it is normal to be late. We also discussed how our older generations would view this cultural difference. What is the limit of our acceptance of diverse cultural backgrounds? It is quite interesting because the world is made up of different people. As all we know, America is an immigrant country is like a small world. We can meet all kinds of people here. 

    According to one study, Edward Hall put forward the cultural iceberg theory. This is my Aha moment, I never thought about it. Each different culture is like an independent huge iceberg, which can be divided into two parts: the culture above the waterline and the culture below the waterline. Only 10% of them can be seen. It includes language, gender, race, and behavior etc. The rest is not easy to detect. It includes faith, age, and values etc. You need to dig deeper to discover the real reason. When two people with diverse cultural backgrounds meet, that is what "culture shock" happens. For example, most Chinese parents do not often say love to their children, but American parents often say love to their children. Chinese parents prefer to hide their feelings. I did not know that until I came to America. 

    
    Bumper sticker: “I am” everywhere. 

    I do not know that Americans compare America to a melting pot and salad bowl, and I also do not know its meaning. Many people have different views on this point. After this lesson, I gradually began to understand its meaning. The melting pot means that all people are assimilated into Americans, and there is not much difference between them. Sala bowl means that there are differences between each other. There are all kinds of people in it, and they retain their own cultural characteristics. I think cultural diversity should be preserved, but one of them should not be overemphasized. This is better conducive to cultural integration. The diversity of culture can better express that the United States is a free country and show that it is better to tolerant of cultural differences between individuals. 

    I am happy to choose this course. I think I have learned many things I did not know before. I hope I can learn more interesting things next time.