Culture and Diversity at Large

We are beginning Spring Festival vacation this week so had to hustle to catch people before they were off. Everyone responded except one friend who was off home to Poland and didn't have time to respond. Here are the responses in the order received.

Culture

Traditions, people, food

Language, dress, behavior

A big thing including language and history

Everything related with people: language, food, habits, art, music and how they are used. What people carry
    inside to live

Over-arching concept encompassing behavior, mentality, custom that has been established and stabilized by
      by a group of people. Can be an organization a city, a country, an age group, etc. This distinguishes and
      defines this group from others.

Diversity

Other cultures coming in

Culture within a culture, outsiders coming in

Differences

Differences in a community - a good thing

Variations within a category or a big group. There may be commonalities like geography or race but there are
     differences.

Comments

Some of these friends would have researched this subject and given an answer that would have been award material. So I was very careful to ask for only 'off the top of the head' answers.

I think the general idea was that culture was all that is our lives. There was nothing overtly said about dominant and subordinate cultures. However one responder who left her home country when she was 16 uses English exclusively. When I asked her about her mother tongue, she said she would have difficulty interacting with it now. She talks on Skype with her mother because without seeing her mouth and body language she has great difficulty communicating. She said that very early on her  travel, that has been more than 25 years, she  learned that she needs English to survive.

My Chinese  colleague who studied French abroad as a University student, said of differences that is was things like religion. The West has it and the East has no belief. This is an interesting statement and one that I hope I can continue with her after the holiday, because  China has very deep spiritual roots. The dominant culture, of which she is a member has adopted an atheistic platform but there are still many religious beliefs. There were a few years when days to honor the dead were cancelled by the mainland government because of their spiritual affiliation . These days have been put back on the holiday calendar.

A comment that she made that speaks to dominance I think. Is that she thinks it is best to study in the West but the Chinese will not adopt that lifestyle. They can continue to study long hours to meet the competition to go to a good Middle School and then High School. She concedes that it may be best for Chinese to study abroad but they will keep the values of their country of hard work.

Another interesting comment came from a colleague whose Spanish mother immigrated to Ireland and married her father and they moved and raised their family in South Africa. My friend is fluent in the languages of all these countries. When speaking of diversity, her comment was that it is best that they try to become like the main culture. 

I don't know if it is relevant but I also contacted a Canadian friend. She received the email at her office at the start of the week. She didn't know what to say. I know she has close friends from all over the world so I wonder if we could add to her statement that it is just the way we are. Everyone brings their own culture and makes us all that much richer. Or it could just be a Monday morning!

All the other respondents come from my school. As our studies consider how important it is to acknowledge and represent each culture of our students in the classroom,  this is topic we need to look at  more closely in the days to come.