We have been asked the question of "What is your 'culture' and how does this influence your interpersonal communication skills?" In trying to define the scope of this question I thought that it would be best to first look at the definition of culture itself to discover the main points that it was concerned with. If you were to look in an old dictionary (around 1960) you are likely to find a definition of culture that looks something like this: "1. The cultivation of soil. 2. The raising, improvement, or development of some plant, animal or product" (Friend and Guralnik 1958)1. The word culture arises from the ancient Latin word cultura, "cultivation" or "tending," and its entry into the English language began around the year 1430. However not long after 1960 another meaning of the word culture was beginning to take over the old Latin denotation; culture was coming to mean "the training, development, and refinement of mind, tastes, and manners.
English: The Kuala Lumpur Tower in Kuala Lumpur, M...
Photo of the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Old Market Square (Medan Pasar) in central Kuala L...culture : 1. the ideas, customs, and art of a particular society.2.a particular civilization at a particular period. 3. a developed understanding of the arts.4 development or improvement by special attention or training. 2 (Collins English Dictionary)
However as well as this dictionary definition there are also a great number of other things to be taken into consideration before one can even begin to describe ones culture. Many qualities of human life are given to an individual genetically trough their parents, however culture is something which is learned. It governs society and the way in which people behave in that society, and this is passed on from generation to generation. If the process of learning is an essential characteristic of culture, then the way culture is taught is also a crucial characteristic. The way culture is taught and reproduced...