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    Week 3 - Your Own Culture

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    aryan seth
    The document discusses culture and cultural differences. It begins by explaining that culture shapes a person's worldview and how understanding one's own culture and different cultures is important for interacting with others in school, work and life. It defines culture and discusses how a person belongs to multiple cultural groups that can influence them, like family, friends and school. Recognizing elements of one's own culture and that of others helps people understand different perspectives and improves how they deal with cultural differences.

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    Week 3 - Your Own Culture

    Uploaded by

    aryan seth
    10 views3 pages
    The document discusses culture and cultural differences. It begins by explaining that culture shapes a person's worldview and how understanding one's own culture and different cultures is important for interacting with others in school, work and life. It defines culture and discusses how a person belongs to multiple cultural groups that can influence them, like family, friends and school. Recognizing elements of one's own culture and that of others helps people understand different perspectives and improves how they deal with cultural differences.

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    Important exercise.

    Original Title

    Week 3_Your own culture (2)

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    The document discusses culture and cultural differences. It begins by explaining that culture shapes a person's worldview and how understanding one's own culture and different cultures is important for interacting with others in school, work and life. It defines culture and discusses how a person belongs to multiple cultural groups that can influence them, like family, friends and school. Recognizing elements of one's own culture and that of others helps people understand different perspectives and improves how they deal with cultural differences.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    10 views3 pages

    Week 3 - Your Own Culture

    Uploaded by

    aryan seth
    The document discusses culture and cultural differences. It begins by explaining that culture shapes a person's worldview and how understanding one's own culture and different cultures is important for interacting with others in school, work and life. It defines culture and discusses how a person belongs to multiple cultural groups that can influence them, like family, friends and school. Recognizing elements of one's own culture and that of others helps people understand different perspectives and improves how they deal with cultural differences.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    YOUR OWN CULTURE

    Introduction

    The culture you grew up in and are living in is an important part of who you are. A lot is written
    about culture. But this section is not aimed at discussing different cultures in depth.

    In this section, we will consider what you take out of your culture, how it has shaped you and
    how you can gain insight into other people from a different culture.

    So, why is that important?

    • By looking at your own culture, you learn more about yourself.


    • Culture determines how you view the world.
    • People from many different cultures live in Canada, for instance, with whom you’ll live,
    study and work. Through knowledge and understanding of their culture, you’ll be better
    equipped to understanding them and that can improve your interactions with people.
    • In your future job you’ll be working with clients, patients, etc., from different cultures.
    • You might spend a part of your study program or work abroad.
    • You might later end up working for a foreign company.

    What is culture?

    Renowned culture researcher Geert Hofstede describes culture as ‘the collective programming
    of the spirit that distinguishes one group of people from another’. According to Hofstede &
    Hofstede2 culture is something in people’s minds, and their opinions and behaviours together
    determine and shape their culture. The culture of an organization is: the opinions and
    behaviours of people who work for the same company or institution. We’ll come back to the
    culture of an organization in the module Explore your possibilities.

    2Geert Hofstede & Gert Jan Hofstede, Allemaal andersdenkenden, omgaan met
    cultuurverschillen, 2010

    The purpose of this section:

    • Recognizing elements from your own culture


    • Becoming aware that you’ll be studying and working with people from different cultures
    • Giving you the tools necessary to work with people from different cultures
    • You are shaped by the different culture of the various groups you are a part of.
    • It might be difficult sometimes, but cultural difference can be very enriching.
    • Dealing with a different culture requires you to be able to change perspectives, or in
    other words: to do your best to try to see something from someone else’s point of view,
    as if you would trade places.
    • The more you know about your own culture, about others and about cultural
    differences, the better you’ll be able to deal with them.
    • Don’t judge too quickly. Watch out for stereotypes and generalizations. this section are:

    Question to consider: What do you think of when you hear the word culture?
    Differences in cultures

    Nowadays you hear a lot about culture and the differences between cultures. This might limit
    your idea of what culture and different cultures are.

    Cultural differences are definitely not only about the differences between:

    • Western and non-western people;


    • Nationals and people from abroad;
    • Natives and immigrants;
    • Ethnic group A and ethnic group B.

    Cultural differences are much broader than that and are found everywhere. Consider, for
    instance, the differences between:

    • A city and a village;


    • Religious people and non-religious people;
    • A company like Google and a company like Microsoft;
    • Business administration students and social work students;
    • Culture at the school even between the different programs being delivered at Durham
    College and Ontario Tech University;

    Also, you deal with cultural differences in your everyday life:

    • What is handed down to you from your parents? How do you behave at home?
    • How are you shaped by your friends? How do you act around them?
    • What do you learn at school? How do you act there?
    You are a part of different groups. And in every group other things are considered important;
    different values and conventions apply in each group.

    The rules of the different groups might interfere with each other. For instance, at home you are
    taught to eat healthy food and include a lot of different vegetables in your diet. Yet when you
    are out with friends you would rather eat fast food. Or maybe you observe the Ramadan, but
    your classmates in your group eat during a meeting.

    Assignment Part A:
    What cultures do you belong to?

    1. Which groups are you a part of (family, religion, school, sport club, friends)? Name two and
    elaborate.
    2. What are the (unwritten) rules of the first group? How do you act there? What is considered
    normal?
    3. What are the (unwritten) rules of the second group? How do you act there? What is
    considered normal?
    4. What are the differences?
    5. What would you do in one group that you would never do in the other?

    Explore some of the values that you hold. What purpose do they serve for you and in your
    connection with others? How are the values different from the countries that you have visited
    and potentially want to visit in the future?

    Submit a clear overview of what your culture is all about and what cultural elements have
    shaped your personality and behavior. We are not looking for a long summary, cut to the chase
    and provide us with an overview that explain who you are and why you feel that is connect to
    your cultural elements?

    Assignment Part B:

    Remember our assignment from last week? Review that list of questions and bring that list
    down to the 3 most important questions on that list? Explain to us why those questions are
    so important to you and how think you will be able to answer those questions in the future?

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