by Gabrielle Bolzan da Silva
Defining culture is such a hard task! We usually think that culture is just related to music, movies, books or TV shows, but it’s so much more than that. In my college, I had the opportunity to know a little bit about different cultures and it really opened my mind. After the semester in English II and all the texts that we discussed in class, as well as the interviews with PPE (Programa de Português para Estrangeiros - in English “Portuguese for Foreigners Program”-, an extension program from UFRGS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, that promotes Portuguese courses for native speakers of other languages) students, I’ve learned that culture is everything that surrounds us. But we are surrounded by so many distinct things, right? That’s the “magic” about culture!
Culture is, actually, a mix of all cultures and subcultures around the world. Each one receives influences from location, language varieties, historical and social contexts, economy and many other aspects, as we learned in the book Language and Culture, by Claire Kramsh (1998). Therefore, to say that someone has no culture is such a terrible mistake, because we all have different types of culture (thankfully!). People say this because they think of the arbitrary concept of culture, which is defined as what the ruling classes recognized as culture.
The main issue about culture and globalization is that people usually think that one specific culture is better than another. That’s what separates us from each other, the fact that even with all the knowledge and technologies we know, we cannot understand and respect other cultures. The media market controls the idea that we have about culture, and from that we validate specific cultures as superiors or inferiors.
Considering these facts, we created the stereotypes. Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer, said something like that at her conference: “take one specific situation about some place, repeat over and over and then you will have a
stereotype”. Through this stereotype, just a single story is told. We are used to focusing on just a single part about a whole country, a whole culture, a whole nation. That’s what separates us from each other.
To exemplify the situation, it is known that foreign people think that in Brazil we “make out” very often and start dating very young. Also, they believe that most Brazilians are flirty and passionate like they watch on TV. I don’t blame them, it’s common for this to happen here, but it’s not with everybody, it’s not a “rule”. A lot of Brazilians are shy and reserved, but this is not what the media propagates. Our diversity is not as shown as our carnival, beaches or samba, but I wish I could have more contact with foreigners to show them the Brazilian diversity.
So, after the contact with PPE students, I’ve changed my whole idea about China. I used to think that all Chinese are very quiet and even uncompanionable, but I had the opportunity to realize that they are very friendly. I’m so grateful for that interview, I believe everyone should talk to a foreigner someday. Now I follow some girls of PPE on Instagram and I can learn more about their amazing culture. After meeting them, I’ve become more curious about other countries and other cultures. This meeting was very important to me because it approaches our cultures, and this is extremely valuable.
Defining culture is such a hard task! We usually think that culture is just related to music, movies, books or TV shows, but it’s so much more than that. In my college, I had the opportunity to know a little bit about different cultures and it really opened my mind. After the semester in English II and all the texts that we discussed in class, as well as the interviews with PPE (Programa de Português para Estrangeiros - in English “Portuguese for Foreigners Program”-, an extension program from UFRGS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, that promotes Portuguese courses for native speakers of other languages) students, I’ve learned that culture is everything that surrounds us. But we are surrounded by so many distinct things, right? That’s the “magic” about culture!
Culture is, actually, a mix of all cultures and subcultures around the world. Each one receives influences from location, language varieties, historical and social contexts, economy and many other aspects, as we learned in the book Language and Culture, by Claire Kramsh (1998). Therefore, to say that someone has no culture is such a terrible mistake, because we all have different types of culture (thankfully!). People say this because they think of the arbitrary concept of culture, which is defined as what the ruling classes recognized as culture.
The main issue about culture and globalization is that people usually think that one specific culture is better than another. That’s what separates us from each other, the fact that even with all the knowledge and technologies we know, we cannot understand and respect other cultures. The media market controls the idea that we have about culture, and from that we validate specific cultures as superiors or inferiors.
Considering these facts, we created the stereotypes. Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer, said something like that at her conference: “take one specific situation about some place, repeat over and over and then you will have a
stereotype”. Through this stereotype, just a single story is told. We are used to focusing on just a single part about a whole country, a whole culture, a whole nation. That’s what separates us from each other.
To exemplify the situation, it is known that foreign people think that in Brazil we “make out” very often and start dating very young. Also, they believe that most Brazilians are flirty and passionate like they watch on TV. I don’t blame them, it’s common for this to happen here, but it’s not with everybody, it’s not a “rule”. A lot of Brazilians are shy and reserved, but this is not what the media propagates. Our diversity is not as shown as our carnival, beaches or samba, but I wish I could have more contact with foreigners to show them the Brazilian diversity.
So, after the contact with PPE students, I’ve changed my whole idea about China. I used to think that all Chinese are very quiet and even uncompanionable, but I had the opportunity to realize that they are very friendly. I’m so grateful for that interview, I believe everyone should talk to a foreigner someday. Now I follow some girls of PPE on Instagram and I can learn more about their amazing culture. After meeting them, I’ve become more curious about other countries and other cultures. This meeting was very important to me because it approaches our cultures, and this is extremely valuable.