Theme : What culture means to me?

Theme : What culture means to me?

A personal definition of what a culture is should begin with what defines a human being. A human being is the living person created by God, and the human gender is His Almighty God’s wisdom to make human beings in the image of the different forms through the act of creation. Without the acknowledgement of the existence of God, a human being will be missing the most important aspect about his or her existence. A human being is the most important element about what a personal culture is. What makes a human being a human is that he or she has a culture and something to belong to. From the very first day of any experience I have had with my varying levels of academic schooling, I have learned that what makes the difference between a human being and an animal is that human beings have memories and they are able to remember their histories. For instance, a man or a woman can answer the question about when their date of birth is. They know and understand their identities in ways that other creatures do not. This intelligence is something that cannot be carried out by an animal. 

Therefore, culture means the ability of a human to remember things and to exist both in the past and present. This remembrance of things leads to two things. First, is the ability to remember the things anyone needed at a certain point of time in his or her life. Second, it is the ability to have a vision in relationship to these needs. For instance, I went through different levels of education. I was in kindergarten and my vision at this very early part in my life was to be in first grade. Then, when I was in primary school, I had certain needs and visions of going to the next step which was preparatory school. At this stage, I had certain needs and visions. Later, when in secondary school, I had also certain needs and visions. In college, I feel the same having a number of needs and visions. When I will be going to the field of work after I finish my university education, I will have certain needs and visions too and I will work towards achieving the goals I have established along the way so that I can fulfill that vision. Culture, in this way, becomes the time spent going through all these hopes and dreams. 

Since needs and visions differ from one person to the other, it is fair to say that as God’s creatures, our human existence grants us the value to have a human culture of needs and visions. However, there are many different human needs and cultures. So, human cultures and personal cultures are not similar cultures. This combinations of needs and visions defining what a human culture is give way to the existence of traditions and also the role of institutions in human cultures. Having needs and visions mean and imply that there are traditions. For example, people may have different interests and goals about their educational experience. Still, most, if not all, people want to have good education and place great value of their academic accomplishments. As a result, to have a good education will be the culture among a certain number of people and in order to earn what is considered a respectable education, you have to have the institutions that will make this possible.
At the end, the way culture I personally see culture is in reference to God’s creation of human being as mentally capable living bodies that have history and whose history goes from one point to the other across the years. Their history is what they need and their visions define how their cultures evolve. Traditions make life possible because they are the habits of how people think in general about their needs and visions, while confessing to the factor of human differences. Institutions organize the work of traditions among a specific group of people. Needs, visions, traditions and instructions are the elements of what a human culture are founded on. Of course, culture is something that is defined by groups in different parts around the world and it is important to discover and be exposed to as many when you’re at a young age so you can get to network by connecting with foreign people in work, business and school. The exposure can challenge one’s perspectives and make society more tolerant and multiculturally sensitive. The most important point for me are how people within a culture treat others and I am especially a believe in treating others, no matter what their background, with kindness and understanding, namely those in need of assistance and additional support because of their circumstances. 
My favorite aspect of culture is music, museums, history of art, sports and food. All of these come together to create a unique human experience that varies based on where one goes in the world. At the same time, the aspect of culture that I have the weakest grasp of is language. I only know English and some of the patois based in Italy. I wouldn’t consider myself anywhere close to an expert or master of Italian literacy. I can use it adequately enough to talk about most things with most people who speak the same language as me. Another aspect of culture that I have been heavily immersed in is food, My involvement with food and music has introduced me to lots of different people’s culture. It has also shaped my understanding of human migration and how most cultures are a hybrid of more than one culture and hardly ever has a single ethnic or cultural origin. Moreover, my definition of culture is that it is the culmination of a peoples’ history, environment, and social interaction.
The most important experience in the many fields of humanitarian studies across many academic subjects and as they relate to the value of culture is the topic of nationalism. When someone studies literature and poetry, the focus will often be on the literature of a certain country. Someone will say that, “I am studying English literature.” In the different courses a student takes, the academic assignments can be assignments based on nationalism, ranging from German philosophy, the American political system, the economy in China, and religion in Indonesia, to name a few examples. Nationalism makes things simple and organized. Patriotism, on the other hand, is the culture of showing respect to one’s own sense of nationalism. It is a psychological concept that can be studied. Nationalism means leadership and leadership has its own culture. Nationalism means laws. People go and live in other countries. 
Dig down and answer challenges
The best way to meet the challenges of cultural differences is to make sure that there are things that you share with others who belong to different cultures. It is important to find common ground to build connections. For instance, the foreign student will try to explain to others that there is a universal human culture that rewards hard work, honesty, respect for others, and to be honorable on all the transactions one does in the different aspects of life. You also have to explain to others that most of your activities are not that different from other cultures because you read the newspaper, you watch tv, you listen to the radio, you follow politics and sports, and that you look up the Internet. One of the things that I felt made me close to many people while studying abroad was that I would I go out of my way to express how much I appreciated the events that they celebrate. In America, celebrating Thanksgiving with others made people like me feel a deeper connection to the holiday and what it meant to people who were born in this country. Similarly, congratulating Americans on their Independence Day on the Fourth of July made them like me more because they saw that I was sincerely interested in learning about their traditions and the motivation behind the celebrations In these situations, one’s culture becomes an opportunity for deep connection and unity over universal values. Ultimately, the powerful thing about culture is the ability it has to bring people together and to shed light on the beauty of humanity, multicultural sensitivity, and embracing all walks of life.