Culture as it relates to my family and friends

For this assignment, I chose to email my mother, my sister, my two best friends and my great-uncle to get their responses to culture.  The reason I chose these five people is because they are all close to me, but they all have different views and experiences that have happened in their lives that affect their way of thinking.

-My great Uncle Jeff-he has a bachelor's degree-culture is developing something or someone and diversity is different ways of doing something

-Amy (my sister)-she has a Master's degree and lives in Kentucky-

1. Culture: A common behavior or belief in a group of people that would include their values, education, recreation and social opportunities
2. Diversity: Differences within a group of people such as education level, race, age, political view and specific religious beliefs/rituals

-Leann-She has a bachelor's degree in Sociology and she lives in the same town as me-1) Culture to me is the way that people live and I believe to be impacted by their previous and current surroundings. Cultures vary all over the world and are constantly changing or evolving.

2) Diversity to me simply means variety or a difference in something. I think diversity is very much impacted by one's culture or surroundings.

 

 

-Sarah-she has a bachelor's degree in communications and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Culture to me is a person's heritage. Their traditions, beliefs, ideals. A person's culture is how they were raised and they choose to live based on what they've been taught about where they come from.

Diversity is when you have a group of people that all come from different cultures and live in a common place. Whether it's race, religion, or even just the kind of financial background a person has, the differences within that group creates a diversity of lifestyles

 

 

-Mom-no degree-lives in the same town as me and is a social worker minus the title-

1. Diversity - I think it means people from all kinds of backgrounds living together. The differences can be language, ethniticity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political views and I'm sure there is more. But they can all live together fine.

2. Culture - I think this is more about where you live and the differences about you because of where you came from (does this make any sense?). I guess it would be your customs, values and things like that.

 

 

 

The reason's I defined everyone the way I did is because in the responses my sister and my two friends gave me, they all said these questions reminded them of their undergrad experiences and courses they had in college.  Sarah told me living in Denver for a year helped shaped her views on what diversity and culture is, so I felt these titles were important to explain where they were coming from. 

 

After looking over their answers, I can tell, probably because I know all of these people really well, that where they have lived, the experiences they have had in life and their education has helped shaped how they view culture and diversity.  For example, my sister and my two friends were able to answer right away what they thought these meant, but my mom had to call me and ask what kind of answer I wanted, then she still seemed unsure in her answer.  Because my sister and my girlfriends have had to discuss these ideas before, it is an easy question to answer.  I think they also recognize diversity and culture more because it is something they have had to learn about.

 

 

 

I think of all the answers that I had been given, Sarah's is the one that I like the most, not that I don't agree with all of them.  I like how she mentioned culture is a person's heritage because I think this goes into the deep culture we discussed in class this week.  It covers all aspects of how a person's lives and how they were raised, which is a huge part of how a person gets their perceptions on culture and diversity.  I also like how my sister mentioned education, social opportunites and recreation because, again, these all are a part of the deep culture that we discussed this week.  I really believe that a person's education is a huge indication of their undestanding of culture and diversity.  Most educated people have been afforded more experiences in life and usually make more money in their careers, so they are able to go out and experience more of the world.  This is not to say that those that are not educated, do not understand culture and diversity, they may just not have had as many opportunities to experience it.  For example, a friend that I had growing up went on vacations all over the world, China, Japan, Korea, different places in Europe because his father was a professor at a private university and his mom was a teacher.  They could afford to take him to these places growing up because their financial situation allowed it.  I'm sure he learned a little more about the Chinese and Japanese growing up by visiting these places than I ever did just reading about them in a textbook.

 

When everyone discussed diversity, I liked how they mentioned differences in lifestyles because I really feel like this is a large part of diversity.  Diversity is created by many different factors and almost all of the people I asked mentioned financial background, race, age, and political views.  All of these create diversity in people and can also be affected by the culture they come from.

 

What I found the most interesting was that I agreed with all of the answers that everyone gave out.  I think this is because I am close to all of these people in my life and my viewpoints of culture and diversity have been shaped by each one of them.