Who on Earth are we 2

Callum: Hello and welcome to Talk about English. Today we have the second in our series on culture, Who on Earth are we? In this programme presenter¹ Marc Beeby tries to answer the difficult question: what is culture? Here’s Mark.
Marc:‘Culture’ is a difficult word to define, but that’s what we’ll be attempting to do today – trying to answer the question: what is culture? More importantly, perhaps, we’ll also be thinking about why culture is so difficult to talk about. But let’s start with a definition. Here’s Rebecca Fong who teaches a course in intercultural communication at the University of the West of England.
Rebecca Fong
When you think about it , culture is really a very difficult thing to define and if you ask yourself the question ' What is culture?' and you try to come up with a definition I think you'll find that all of us will come up with a slightly different type of definition. One very broad definition suggests that culture consists of ideals, values and assumptions about life that are widely shared among people and that guide specific behaviours. So we're talking here about shared assumptions or patterns of behaviour within specific societies.

Eilidh Hamilton
En-shala is a very popular phrase in the Middle East it means 'if it is the will of God' literally². Now it doesn't necessarily have such overt³ religious connotations as we might expect. But what it does reflect is a certain fatalism amongst many people. They feel that life is, to an extent, controlled by external factors. So the concept of the Westerner as someone who is constantly striving to improve themselves and their situation is an anathema⁴ to people there who don't feel that there's very much in a practical way they can do to change that.
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Marc:Eilidh Hamilton with an example of a view of life shared by people in one particular part of the world. But perhaps this idea that culture can be defined by the ideals, values and assumptions that a group of people share is too general. What about art, food, language, sex? Here’s Rajni Baldani from India, Dionne Charmaine from Jamaica and Kyung-ja Yoo from Japan helping⁵ Rebecca Fong with a more detailed⁶ way of thinking about culture.

Rebecca Fong
Quite a practical way of looking at culture is to divide it into three groups : products, behaviours and ideas and in the first group - products -we think about all those things that a culture produces -its architecture （建筑学）and its food, its music and folklore⁷ and literature - those are the visible（可见的） products of a culture.

Rajni Baldani
I would describe my culture, the Indian culture as being extremely vibrant（有活力的）, and diverse, complex, in every aspect - art, literature, folk, the oral tradition. We are really very rich in all aspects.

Rebecca Fong
In the second group we'd find behaviours - that's either verbal behaviours -language - or non-verbal behaviours such as gesture and communication. Also habits, routines, social etiquette（礼仪，礼节）, all of these things would come under the heading of behaviour.

Dionne Charmaine
Silence in Jamaica is a good thing -it's very much a sign of respect and if you're basically being spoken to -especially by someone that's older than you and so on and you raise your voice then that's being disrespectful （无理的，不尊重的）

Rebecca Fong
And then in the third group we'd find ideas or our world view and all the things that go to make up our world view. So in this group we'd be thinking about things like our attitudes and our beliefs and the way that we organise⁸ such things as our societies - are they class based societies, what are the relationships and roles within our societies - between men and women for example. 
 

1 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

2 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

3 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

4 anathema   

n.诅咒；被诅咒的人(物)，十分讨厌的人(物)

参考例句：

• Independence for the Kurds is anathema to Turkey and Iran.库尔德人的独立对土耳其和伊朗来说将是一场梦魇。
• Her views are ( an ) anathema to me.她的观点真叫我讨厌。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

7 folklore   

n.民间信仰，民间传说，民俗

参考例句：

• Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。
• In Chinese folklore the bat is an emblem of good fortune.在中国的民间传说中蝙蝠是好运的象征。

8 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。