Culture and Language

1.    Why do we need to study communication and culture on our chosen field?

We view communication as the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver. Culture, on the other hand is the summation of one’s beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people.

|Then why, as a teacher, do we need to study it?

As a future educator in the field of Special Education, I do believe that good communication skills is one of the major component on why learning takes place. It paves the way for the information from the book and the experiences to the minds of the students. Without it, the students cannot comprehend what the lesson will be all about especially in my case, because I will be handling exceptional students that need a remarkable amount of skills in communication.

Moreover, knowing one’s own culture is of utmost importance because this is where we belong. Once you are fully adept with your own culture, you now can relate to other culture and understand others, which is a very essential in teaching a multicultural class.

2.    In your own words, how would you define culture?

I see culture as a collation of art, music, literature, humanities, tradition, beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems that a group of people share. It is like a blueprint, etched in their DNA that distinguishes them from other group of people.

3.    How is language interrelated to culture?

Through the use of language, culture does not remain stagnant; it evolves, it can be shared, and learned. And through culture, language progresses.

4.      Explain cultural relativism.

Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual within his own social context. In other words, “right” and “wrong” are culture-specific; what is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality exists, no one has the right to judge another society’s customs.

We related or judge other cultures with our own culture as the basis of what the epitome of culture is. We frown at the idea of divorce, but in other countries, it is widely accepted.