📘 Part 3: Different cultures

This episode's vocabulary

Divide (noun) - a difference or separation.

To bind (verb) - to unite people or to make them feel that they share something.

Cultural capital (noun) - the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in a society.

Heritage (noun) - features belonging to the culture of a particular society, such as traditions, languages, or buildings, that were created in the past and still have historical importance.

To bridge (verb) - to make the difference or division between two things smaller or less severe.

Societal (adj.) - relating to or involving society.

Strife (noun) - violent or angry disagreement.

Indigenous (adj.) - used to refer to, or relating to, the people who originally lived in a place, rather than people who moved there from somewhere else.

Prior to something - before a particular time or event.

Invasive (adj.) - moving into all areas of something and difficult to stop.

Tolerant (adj.) - willing to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them.

To impede (verb) - to make it more difficult for something to happen or more difficult for someone to do something.

Prevalence (noun) - the fact that something is very common or happens often.

To assimilate (verb) - to become part of a group, country, society, etc., or to make someone or something become part of a group, country, society, etc.

In a nutshell (idiom) - very briefly, giving only the main points.

Guideline (noun) - information intended to advise people on how something should be done or what something should be.

To unfold (verb) - if a situation or story unfolds, it develops or becomes clear to other people.

Elite (noun) - the richest, most powerful, best-educated, or best-trained group in a society.

Mainstream (noun) - (of beliefs or behaviour) common and shared by most people, or representing such beliefs or behaviour.

To subvert (verb) - to try to destroy or damage something, especially an established political system.

Advent (noun) - the fact of an event happening, an invention being made, or a person arriving.

Baseline (noun) - an imaginary line used as a starting point for making comparisons.

Uniformity (noun) - the quality or fact of being the same, or of not changing or being different in any way.

Metaphysical (adj.) - relating to the part of philosophy that is about understanding existence and knowledge.

Code (noun) - a set of principles that are accepted and used by society or a particular group of people.

Questions and Answers

M: How can people get to know people from different cultures better?

R: Well, talking to them, or at least listening to what they have to say would be a good place to start. I think most people would be pleasantly surprised by how much they have in common with each other despite the cultural divides.

M: What are the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity?

R: It depends on the extent of the divide, and how many values are shared to bind them together. But assuming people have more in common than not, then the advantages would be increased access to cultural capital and heritage, which makes idea generation and problem-solving easier. By contrast, if the gap is too wide to bridge, it could lead to societal strife and collapse if not appropriately addressed.

M: How can traditional culture and other cultures coexist?

R: Well, I'm not sure what you mean by that, to be honest. If you mean the indigenous culture that existed prior to the arrival of others, then that will depend on how invasive and tolerant they are of each other. I mean, if you mean like traditional and more modern cultures, then the same concept applies, actually. I mean, in the British Empire, the imperial rule usually existed largely above and separate from the local cultures. And, well, that was provided that they served or at least didn't impede the Empire's goals.

M: How are past cultures different to those people live in now?

R: They're a lot more open to record and scrutiny with the increased prevalence of technology. You can see what people do and so you can study them and assimilate into their cultures more readily. By contrast, it's difficult to say how ancient Greeks and Romans were with the same accuracy.

M: Where does culture come from?

R: Well, in a nutshell, it comes from not wanting to live in chaos. Without culture, we have no way to decide what's important or even what to do or what counts as moving in any direction. So groups of people get together, decide on what the guidelines are, and follow them as the world unfolds. I imagine the local context also plays a role but people live in a culture and make it.

M: Who shapes culture and how?

R: Ultimately everyone does and all the actions they take, since we're all living in some kind of culture, whether we want to or not, I suppose the influence of elites has greater force in terms of deciding what the mainstream culture does, since they have access to the greatest amounts of power and resources. But there are cultures of resistance which work on local levels to subvert this too.

M: How do you think culture will be different in the future?

R: With the advent of digital technology and internet, I think culture will become more global and more integrated with technology. For example, we will see culture being confined less and less to specific races and geographical areas and more broadly combined across the planet. You can already see that in places like Japan and America. However, because the baseline culture was different to begin with, I doubt we'll see greater uniformity, we'll probably see similar levels of diversity or even more of it.

M: What are the key features of culture?

R: I think it depends if we mean physical or metaphysical things. So the things which we see could be codes of dress, or language, or religion, or rituals and games. And the things we feel and experience are things like codes of manners and norms of behaviour such as law and morality, even systems of belief, and art too, even though you know, you can see it, how it's considered plays a part. It's all ultimately some way of organizing the chaos though.

Discussion

M: Right, so we get to know people. So we kind of know people, we get to know them, we find out more things about them. And Rory, you said that they have something in common. So how much people have in common. So we have a lot in common, or people have nothing in common. So common interests, like similar interests, and what's this cultural divide? So the cultural divide.

R: Yeah, that's just when there's a gap between cultures where they have nothing in common. Well, I say it's just, like that can be quite a serious thing if you're not sharing beliefs about a certain thing like, I don't know, the death penalty.

M: So kind of like, despite their cultural differences. Yeah? Or the cultural divide. And also we have this cultural diversity, pretty much means we have different cultures, variety of cultures, and this cultural diversity, what other diversity do we have? Do we have wildlife diversity?

R: You have viewpoint diversity, where people have different ways of seeing things.

M: And then Rory continued with this cultural divide, yeah? So it depends on the extent of the divide. So divide - the cultural divide. So the cultural differences. Something that binds people together, for example, the same culture binds people together. Yeah? Or similar values bind people together.

R: But that just means it connects them together. So they have something in common.

M: And what's this cultural capital? Or cultural heritage?

R: Cultural capital is like something that you spend. So if you've got lots of cultural capital, it means that you can move around in a culture quite freely. But if you don't have much cultural capital, then you can't. So, someone that grew up in a society and in a culture and knows the different parts of it very well, they have a lot of cultural capital, because they understand how the system works. And it can be bent to their will. Whereas if you're maybe an immigrant to a country where you've never been to before, and you don't know many people there, then you don't have much cultural capital. So you can't do as many things as the person with lots of it.

M: Hmm. And cultural heritage is pretty much very similar, yeah? So this like history from the past. So culture from the past, your cultural heritage.

R: Yeah. So where you come from. Everything about where you come from that, well, that you bring with you. For example, like, it could be your language or your history, or certain practices that you have. It's usually not, well, in fact, it's almost always something that you can't see or hear or touch. It's more like a feeling or something that you understand, however, things that, like, artefacts in museums could also be considered parts of people's cultural heritage.

M: Yeah, yeah. So museums, art galleries, like literature, all this like art. This is your cultural heritage. And also, Rory, you've used another term. Societal. You said something like societal strive. Oh my gosh.

R: Societal strife. That just means that people would have difficulties living with each other and difficulty holding a society together.

M: So societal, it's from society. Our society, adjective is societal.

R: Or social.

M: What is strife?

R: Strife is difficulties.

M: Okay. And then Rory goes like, if the gap, the gap between cultures is too wide to bridge. We say bridge the gap bridge, like... I'm thinking of London tube, mind the gap between the train and the platform, mind the gap. So the gap like kind of this wide area. And we to remove the gap, we bridge the gap. Right? So make it less wide.

R: Or make it narrower.

M: Narrow. Yeah, make it narrower. Yeah. So if the gap, the differences between cultures is too wide, it's super wide. So we can't bridge the gap. We can't make it narrow. So this situation can lead to societal strife to difficulties in society. Oh my gosh, this is so sophisticated. Do this now how are you doing? How are you doing with this like the cultural divide? Cultural capital. Then societal strife. Oh, my gosh, this is so band nine, people. And then different cultures and traditions can coexist. This was in the question. So if something coexists together what happens?

R: Well, it means they can be together in the same place and not do any or much damage to each other.

M: And, dear listener, get ready for another one. The indigenous culture. Rory.

R: Do you not know what the word indigenous means?

M: Well, I do know but maybe our listener doesn't know because it's a freaking it's a crazy word. Indigenous.

R: Indigenous.

M: Indigenous culture.

R: But that just means like it either, well, if we talk about culture, then it means it's the culture that's native to the place or it started there a really long time ago and has existed since a very long time ago. So for example, if we think about Native Americans or aborigines in Australia, or people who lived in the rainforest and still continue to live there, then those can be described as indigenous cultures because that's their parts of the first human cultures to emerge there. So they're indigenous to the area.

M: Yeah. And we can also say, indigenous people. So for example, like in Mexico, so like the first Mexicans, indigenous people on this land, right? Or an indigenous language, right? So for example, the first, the initial language. Also in Mexico, for example, the indigenous language. Yeah. A very good word to use. And then another good word is invasive. Invasive.

R: But invasive sounds like something that everybody will be familiar with. Invasive and invasion. So if something is invasive, then well, it just means that it tends to spread into something usually fast, and usually it's not wanted in a place. So it's like too much of something. So if someone is asking invasive questions, they're asking questions about you that you don't want to answer, or if a culture is invasive, then it means that it's getting into places where it's not welcome.

M: Yeah, invasive culture, or people, for example. People could be invasive, and tolerant. Tolerant people.

R: So that's like the opposite then. If you're tolerant, then you can live with or put up with people who are different living close to you, or being around you.

M: When we compare cultures in the past and cultures now, you can say that cultures today are a lot more open. So they're a lot more open to records and scrutiny.

R: To record, yeah. If something's open to record, then it just means that it's open to be recorded. And in the same way open to scrutiny means that it's open to, well, being observed or scrutinized or looked at closely.

M: Or studied, right?

R: Yes.

M: So cultures today are open to record. So we kind of write it down. And cultures today are open to scrutiny. So we study the culture. And also you can mention surely, the prevalence of technology. So cultures today are more open to records with the prevalence of technology. Prevalence - like technology prevails. We have a lot of technology.

R: It is everywhere.

M: Everywhere. Yeah. Like pretty much any question in the IELTS exam could be kind of answered with the ideas about technology or globalization. So if you don't know what to say, talk about technology, or globalization, just to say something. And then a nice verb is assimilate. Right? So different cultures can assimilate in other cultures, right?

R: Well, they can be assimilated into other cultures, and people can assimilate into other cultures as well.

M: Right. People assimilate into other cultures. For example, I'm from Russia, if I go and live in China, so I will need to assimilate into Chinese culture.

R: It's funny, apparently, on the border between Russia and China, there are people with Russian ethnicity that speak Chinese. There was a piece about them on the BBC, I think, and it was the most interesting thing I've ever seen. Because obviously, these people have really different cultural heritages from what you would consider normal for that part of the world.

M: Where does culture come from? Oh, my gosh, what kind of question is this? Where does culture come from? Where does a person come from? Where do we come from? What's the meaning of life? Wow. And Rory goes, in a nutshell. Okay?

R: So, to answer this extremely complicated question I have used in a nutshell.

M: Yeah, dear listener, it's just a crazy question. So in a nutshell, it comes from not wanting to live in chaos. Chaos is this mess. So to kind of get organized, people invented culture? I don't know. You might have another answer. But this is like, really philosophical. And yeah, not to get too deep into this philosophy. Or I don't know. What's the meaning of life? So groups of people get together, people got together and decide on what the guidelines are. Right? So people decided on certain guidelines and followed these guidelines.

R: Yes, but if you follow the guidelines, well, first of all, guidelines aren't like rules. They're like, sets of principles that you try to follow. And then if you're following them, that means that you're trying to obey them or trying to make an effort to obey them.

M: Yeah. And we can say that people make culture, right? So people create culture, or people make culture, right? Yeah. And then like, what is culture? You know, could you define culture? Oh my gosh, what do we mean by culture? Do we mean like art and literature, and all this cultural heritage we have?

R: It's everything around us.

M: Yay. Is our podcast culture?

R: Yes. In fact, it might be several, because there's mine and yours. And then we have our own working culture. And then there's a culture that we promote to the world about being open and wanting to understand people. Obviously, if you're learning a language, that's kind of the point. So there's many oh, we're a cultural factory.

M: Wow. So there we go. Culture from Boston University, alright? So culture, from the Latin "cultura", stemming from something like cultivate. Oh, so we cultivate. Generally refers to patterns of human activity, and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance or importance. Oh my God.

R: Everything around us that creates meaning. There we go.

M: So pretty much yeah, the definition in Google. Okay? Culture is the arts and other manifestations. So kind of activities of human intellectual achievement. Oh, wow.

R: Things around us that give meaning.

M: Yeah. Right. Who shapes culture? So who shapes like pretty much who creates culture? And Rory says, everyone does, right? So, everyone creates culture, in all the actions they take. Yeah? Because we are living in some kind of culture. So everybody's living in some kind of culture. And we are all creating it, hey. And the influence of how do you pronounce this word, elite? Elite?

R: The elite, yeah.

M: Elite. The elite. And then we can say, so like modern culture, ancient culture, the mainstream culture. So the mainstream culture like popular culture for everybody, yeah? When you talk about culture in the future, surely you should talk about digital technology, yeah? So we talked about the prevalence of technology in our culture today. And you can say, with the advent of digital technology, with the advent of the Internet. Advent? The invention of. So with the advent of the internet, I think culture will become more global, culture will become more integrated with technology, right? So culture will become digitalized. Digital culture forever. Yeah, you see, so we talk about globalization and technology together in the same answer. And then you can give an example. Rory goes, for example. Your example was about culture being like more global. Not kind of confined to a specific area. But just like across the planets, yeah? So we'll have one global culture. Really? You really think so?

R: Well, I don't think we will have one global culture, I think we'll see the things that people make culture from be less confined to these areas, and used around the world by people who are not from these places. So it won't be one global culture. No, it's just the exchange of culture will increase hugely. Think about the number of people like from different countries that absolutely love Japanese culture.

M: And then you said like the baseline culture. So did you mean like, the initial culture? I don't know, the culture that was...

R: The culture that's there now. Yeah. The culture that's like there already. I wouldn't say indigenous, because it might not be. The people there might have colonized that place from somewhere else, for example.

M: And then the question is, what are the key features of culture? Oh, my gosh, yeah. And then like, okay, culture could be physical and also metaphysical.

R: Beyond physical.

M: Yeah, something like you can touch. Right? And something that you can't touch, like intellectual property, right? That can't be touched. Ideas, right? Philosophy. And then Rory says that, it depends if we mean physical or metaphysical. So if we mean objects, cultural objects that we can touch or that we can't touch and then you talked about codes of dress, so clothes, language, religion, rituals, so religious rituals, yeah?

R: Well, not necessarily religious ones. You can have things that people do just because.

M: And then Rory talked about codes of manners, because behaviour, how people act, how people behave, is also part of culture. Right? So codes of manners, our manners. Are we polite, not polite? Norms of behaviour. Also law, morality. Okay? Systems of belief. Oh gosh, wow, such a question. Oh my gosh. Also, art is part of culture. Oh, my God, dear listener, how are you doing? Yeah? I find it quite, you know, a tricky topic.

R: You think?

M: I think so. If you're not into culture, or if you just don't think about it, some questions are quite, you know, deep. What is culture? Where does culture come from? Oh, my God, what kind of question is this?

R: But now we know.

M: Now we know. Yep. So feel free to copy some of Rory's or all Rory's ideas, right? And if you're still confused what culture is, please just Google it. So do some research. Do some reading, unfortunately, it's needed just for you to give educated answers. Yeah, but again, like to get a six or a seven your ideas might be very silly. And there is no need to come up with something very smart. And super sophisticated, for a six or a seven. For an eight or a nine? Yes. Yeah, you need to, you know, give direct answers and be on the ball.

R: And we were certainly on the ball here.

M: Yeah. Thank you very much for listening!

R: Hopefully, we've helped with your cultural answers.

M: Now you're a culture vulture, a culture vulture. Yeah? Like a person who enjoys going to the museums, to art galleries. Yeah. Rory is not a culture vulture.

R: I am lazy.

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

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