Culture - January 2012 Issue

http://rw-3.com/2010/01/culture-defined/

What is culture? Is it our background? Perhaps it’s what defines us, our character, our family, our values, our morals, our virtues, our perceptions. Or maybe, quite simply, it’s all of the above? Recently, I was talking with several of my close friends, and we were discussing the languages we spoke, where we came from, what we had planned for the weekend. It dawned upon me, that at that moment, I was falling behind. It wasn’t just a small jolt, it was a huge epiphany. I didn’t want to be the one that let my culture die, my language fade, my traditions cease. I made a promise to myself at that moment that I would only talk in my native tongue at home so that I would be fluent in it. Until now, I’ve focused mainly on language and tradition, yet culture can also encompass other issues, such as celebrations, holidays, memorials, or even the day-to-day activities that we blissfully ignore.

At this point, I’d like to propose the question: “is our youth losing culture?” Such a simple question, yet it is guaranteed to have polar responses. Some will inevitably state that our youth is; our youth is participating less in cultural events, our youth is losing the language, our youth is avoiding national history. Equally as likely is the retaliation of: No, because our youth is being bombarded with even more information and obligations than the generation prior to ours; our youth today actively participates in the opportunities provided to us, is required to learn a foreign language (in some schools), and even so, still opts to learn about national history. I, like many other Asian students, am a first generation in the United States; my mother and father were both born and raised in India or another Asian nation. However, if we look back at our perceived definition of culture, I feel as though I’m not necessarily falling behind in culture.

Our background: My background is rooted in the United States – no denying that – yet I also have picked up my language, heard my family history, read/picked up on the history of my country, and I even partake in religious and festive practices. Our character: Growing up with parents who themselves had lived in a different environment is difficult, yet I think that it still allows for me to understand the morals and values associated with their upbringing, as well as my own. Lastly, I feel as if it’s important to realize a growing secular outlook towards the world. Globalization, by definition, has brought every country together, thus every culture has some connection with another. Realizing this will also allow you to recognize that culture is ever-expanding and overarching.

I was watching television the other day, when I noticed something that I would have otherwise dismissed. On an Indian show channel, the show was advertising their Christmas special. Now for us living in the United States, this isn’t of much importance; however, it also furthers my point that cultures are growing more and more together. India is recognizing Christmas as a unique and large scale event. Although they may use it for lucrative purposes, it still demonstrates a growing interconnectedness between cultures. Now let us examine the culture debate from the perspective of the parents or previous generation.

They feel as though there is a lack in cultural outlook or participation because, perhaps, it is significantly less than the environment in which the previous generation was reared in. Because the environments are different, the discrepancies in the cultural community are augmented to the point where it seems to be a complete loss of tradition as an entity. This entity, as it seems to parents, has been replaced by the “white-washed” and “westernized” community in which the next generation has been brought up in. Strangely enough, and I may be alone in this radical concept, but this is PERFECTLY NATURAL. People pick up what is around them. If this wasn’t true, then language would never have been transposed across gaps and through the ages, memories would never be recalled, nothing could ever advance.

I’d like to round this month’s article up by summarizing my essential speech. I feel that, although there are two solid sides to this argument, there is a large area of consensus that both “sides” have deemed as uninhabitable territory of compromise. What many people fail to acknowledge is that there isn’t a lack of “culture” as a whole, rather, a lack of culture that one WISHES to see in another. People cannot escape their surroundings, regardless of how hard they try. It’s one of the few things that parents itself to the mind and body throughout life, lethargic to place, time, age, gender, religion, ethnic orientation, etc. On that note, I hope everyone had an engaging break from work and school and I hope everyone has a great rest of the holidays!