Reflection: Culture

   Culture and Culture Identity

Pop Culture is a hot topic not only for young people, but also for everyone and every age. However, Before we learn or know about pop culture, we have to know what culture truly means. Everyone has different cultures and each culture has their own interesting and belief facts which we should explore and know. 

In Pop culture class, we learn about four things: Read, Think, Seek, and Do. First of all, we learn how to truly read culture by Define American: Reflections on culture identity. Before I did not know that we have two different sides from the past until now in the United States, which are melting pot and salad bowl. Melting pot where everyone simply is an “ American”. The salad bowl contains a mix of ethnicities that complement one another. And in Define American, we also know that there are two factors that influence people's self-image which is biological such as gender and our physical appearance. Another one is culture which is composed of two aspects: the ancestors and the large contemporary culture. I also know how we will get better even though we have different cultures or we are not the same by reading One’s lyric song. It has one sentence in that lyrics which we should learn and do: “ We’re not the same, we get to, carry each other, carry each other, one….life, one”. 

Secondly, we also learn how to think and seek the culture. Before I did not know about the iceberg and how it relates to culture but now we know about it through pop culture class. We were taught the culture was similar to iceberg because we usually just see the surface of the culture like see just see the surface of the iceberg, We have to dive or look under the water so that we can see the whole the iceberg which is like culture we just see the surface because it is visible and easy to see. But we also should care and know more about internal or deep culture which is hidden below the surface. For example, we learn how to truly seek the culture by doing culture shock resources. We did resources about the culture that shocked us because we all  have different cultures. Malaysian and Indian people, we just can see the surface of their behavior and culture by seeing they eat food but their hand because it is visible, but we know how to learn deeper which is hidden below the surface, we know that is their religions, beliefs, and educations which makes me interesting and I really want to know more about their culture. Culture is not only a hot topic, but it is also a difficult topic if we want to know the deep culture. 

Finally, It is Do. My Aha moment was when we did our culture which is Cultural Identity Poster. We need to do a blog about our culture. In this way, I knew more about everyone’s culture in my class. I thought I was on the flight and flew to different kinds of countries to travel and also to learn about their culture. By this blog, we not only know more about our culture by doing a lot of research so that we know deeper about our culture, but we also explore a lot of different kinds of culture in different countries from my classmate. 

I hope we can do like the One song which I mentioned before. “ One love, One blood, One life, With each other, Sister, Brothers, One life, But we’re not the same, we get to, carry each other, carry each other, one….life, one”. With this meaningful lyric, we will be better even though we are in a different culture.  

Bumper sticker: Culture’s trip.