Going on a Culture Expedition
What are some of the language features that come to mind when you think of a language classroom? Grammar? Vocabulary? Have you ever considered that learning about culture could be just as important as these other components of language? Cultures (and sub-cultures) can shape how people speak to and interact with one another. In this section, we will begin to take a look at a few of the factors that can contribute to this difference.
Culture as an Iceberg
You might be familiar with how we see icebergs. Though we can see the surface, this only captures about 10% of what is there. Similarly, culture can be seen as an iceberg. There are parts of cultures that are easy to see and are talked about often such as language, art, food, or fashion. However, these topics only begin to scrape the surface of culture.
There are also subjects such as how to behave in business settings, or the symbolism of certain gestures, that are talked about less frequently as they are just part of everyday life.
Then, there are subjects and behaviors discussed even more infrequently. This is because to those who grew up in the culture, most of these are so deeply embedded in them that they occur as thoughtlessly as breathing. This might include norms between genders or ages, how the culture values personal space, or even what is seen as “good” or “bad.”
Being aware that a culture we are interacting with may have some norms that are below the surface reminds us to keep our eyes, ears, and minds open. It allows us to dive deeper into an unfamiliar culture and get to know the people behind it more deeply in a respectful manner as well.
What is Culture Shock?
When we begin to explore a new culture or sub-culture, and especially as we start to get lower in the iceberg, we can experience something called “culture shock”. This experience isn’t a linear process and can feel a bit like a roller coaster. Please feel free to explore this LinkedIn article about culture shock where you can also see the “roller coaster” represented in an illustration.
Culture shock can be big or small. Sometimes you’ll learn something new about a culture that changes your entire perspective, and sometimes you’ll learn something new that might be just a bit of an inconvenience to get used to. You can even experience culture shock across sub-cultures. There will be times when you like what you learn, and there will be times when you don’t like what you learn. All of these are normal and valid feelings when encountering a new culture, so feel free to embrace those feelings as they come and go.
Considering Complex Culture
The Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC) can give us an idea of what to expect when encountering unfamiliar cultural concepts and can tell us a bit more about the process we often go through when we experience culture shock. Please follow this link to learn about and interact with the IDC. Feel free to follow along with the various stages of the continuum and compare them with the author’s experience.
Author’s Perspective:
When I studied abroad in Japan, one bit of culture shock I encountered was how strictly rules were enforced and adhered to. In most schools across Japan, you are generally not allowed to use phones on campus (even if classes are not being conducted).
Do you remember the “iceberg of culture” we took a look at above? Try to place some of these cultural values/behaviors on the iceberg in terms of how “close to the surface” they are.
- “Let’s put it into practice.” Culture “exchange” game H5P