Culture

WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture is something that you begin learning from birth. Culture is created when people get together and begin sharing the same things and ideas. These shared things can be the way you dress, your language, your religion, the foods you eat, the holidays you celebrate, and the things which you are important to you – your belief system. Cultures grow and become stronger when similar people teach what they know to other people, especially children.

It is important to be aware of your own culture because it affects the way you see things, process things, and respond to things: your culture affects the way you act with everyone and everything around you.

WHAT'S MY CULTURE?

All of us grew up within a particular culture. Think of your childhood and your teenage years. The way in which you were raised contributed to the person that you are today by helping you to form your own cultural identity. Your identity – who you are – is created from what you experience, who you see, what you hear, and who you talk to. All of the things that you do and believe in are a part of your culture.

Your race and ethnicity also play a role in shaping your own cultural identity. Ethnicity is how we group people depending on where they live and where they originally came from. Different races can share an ethnicity and different ethnicities can share the same race. At the same time, they can all have different cultures.

All of these help to define your own culture, and are things that are special and unique to you. They are things that are important to recognize and appreciate and celebrate.