Stella Ting-Toomey: Understanding Culture, Communication, And Language

Imagine walking down the street of a busy city and stopping each person to shake their hands and ask their favorite food. How each person reacts and their response is the result of culture. Every single person has a deep, complex culture whether it is visible to them or not. The word “culture” is so broad and overused. What is culture? To put it simply, culture is the behaviors and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. Our culture shapes the way we see and interact with the world on a huge scale. Our culture affects our personality and our actions. Education develops and molds one's culture. Culture forces reason behind having to assimilate and change due to a new environment filled with different cultures. Each individual

The concept culture have some difficult meanings. One of them is culture as in music, preforming, theatre and so. The other meaning of it is culture as in Peoples Identity. It tells something about who you are, where you come from, and what you believe in, in this way, we can see that People

Culture refers to the behaviors and interactions of a people and the representative structures in which give such behavior meaning. Human nature, history, and environment have impacted and resulted in the many differences and similarities amongst the various cultures that exist today. A culture is inclusive of shared language or system of communication, beliefs,

A culture can be defined as a way of life of a group of people- their behaviors, beliefs, values that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. It also includes the customs, arts, literature, morals/values and traditions of a particular society or group (Virginia Encyclopedia). Culture can also be considered as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in places or organizations. This topic is of huge importance to our society mainly in the state of

According to West, Richard, and Lynn H. Turner in the book Interpersonal Communication culture is learned, multileveled, and creates a community.

Culture has its important in comprehending communication since culture is figurative communication, and the connotations of the symbols can be learned and continued through establishments of a specific society.

In the textbook , “An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in Global Community,” by Fred E. Jandt, the author defines culture as the, “sum total of ways of living, including behavioral norms, linguistic expression, styles of communication, patterns of thinking, and beliefs and values of a group large enough to be self-sustaining and transmitted over the course of generations.” In a culture

Culture can be defined as behavioral norms, meanings, and the values used by members of a particular society as its reference point for the construction of their view of the world and ascertain their identity in their way. Traditions, language, values, religious beliefs are all part of culture. There is lots of need to understand the cultural manifestation

Society embraces the systems and symbols created to communicate in the search of belonging. The systems and symbols are used to convey information and assigns meaning and values to our lives. Often culture is defined as the symbols society uses to express themselves as individuals or groups. Culture is the practice that allows individuals to either agree or disagree with the values and ideas that are portrayed and communication helps to circulate these values.

Culture is a convenient way of describing the ways members of a group understand each other and communicate that understanding “Culture is not only race or ethnicity; it includes gender, sexual orientation, education and literacy level, profession, hobby, or life experience that may include violence, trauma, or disease. Each of these cultures has their own language or slang, and group behavior and beliefs”

The term culture was defined over time by different scholars and writers. Though each one of them had his/her own dimensions and criteria in order to explain the word culture. Hofstede claimed in 1994: “[Culture] is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.”( Spencer-Oatey 3). He considers culture as an aspect that distinguishes groups from others. Indeed, Matsumoto and Hofstede agreed that culture is a distinctive of a group of people. Matsumoto confirmed that : “ ... the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.” (Spencer-Oatey 3). Also, Matsumoto added to what Hofstede has claimed, that even if culture is a common among a community, it is distinctive for each singular among the same community. All in all, what I wanted to explain is that a

Culture directs human actions and the way person present themselves in the society in order to remain in the culture boundaries and accepted by the common community as a respected member of the society. According to David (2001) “Culture is often used to refer to ideas, beliefs, representation, behaviour pattern, practices, artifacts and so forth that are transmitted socially across generations within a group, resulting in pattern of within-group similarity and between group differences”. Moreover, culture is transmitted on an unconscious level from generation to generation, influencing day-to-day behavior and ensuring a people 's survival (Norma, 2001).

One universal aspect of the human condition is communication. Finding some way to convey the abstract concepts of our minds in such a way they can be understood by others is a fundamental necessity of being a human in culture as we understand it. It is with this understanding that the question has been asked; if language is the medium through which our perceptions are channeled, how much are our perceptions distorted by language? How much is our language distorted by our perceptions? Is this relationship something that could be manipulated, and how effective would it be? Thankfully, these are questions that

The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.

Culture can be defined in many ways due to the fact that everyone can have their own distinct and traditional beliefs and values. “ Culture is fluid, it is not a static entity which one takes out of the box on occasion. It is with us daily” (Cultural Handout). Someone’s culture is set as the characteristics of the group practices in language, religion, types of food, social traits and habits, and the distinct arts and music. There are a variety of different cultures for example, Western Culture, Eastern Culture, Latin Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and African Culture. All of these different cultures have their own ideas, values, and individualism, laws that are implied, civil rights, and even technology. In our, “ Culture Handout” culture is defined as the tool of the mind, “ it is an individual’s way seeing and interacting within the world. It encompasses one’s values systems, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around them. Race, socio-economic class gender, sexual orientation, ability, geographic location, age, religion language, etc. all impact the formation of culture, but these various context are not culture” (Cultural Handout).