1. Focus Questions
1. Why is it important for you to understand another country’s culture?
2. Why is it important for you to understand the major cultures of Western Europe?

2. Elements of Culture

3. Culture
The way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs

4. Examples of American Culture
Jeans
Baseball
Video games
Rap Music

5. Symbols Something that stands for something else
Anything that has been given representational meaning by the members of a cultural group

6. Symbols
Flag of Great Britain

7. Language Ways people communicate with each other.
This includes slang, stories, myths, legends, jokes, histories

8. Language English Poetry Sign Language Chinese Swahili Spanish Ebonics
Japanese
Sign Language
Chinese
Swahili
Arabic
Poetry

9. Values
Cultural standards or judgments of what is right, good, or desirable
Society decides what is right and wrong and these are their values

10. Values

11. Norms
The rules of a culture that tell the members of a culture how they are expected to behave in a given situation

12. Norms

13. Artifacts
The physical things that the members of a society make when they apply their technology to the physical environment

14. Artifacts

15. Other Parts of Culture
Rituals
Religion

16. Rituals Shaking hands when you meet someone new
A formal and customarily repeated act or series of acts
Shaking hands when you meet someone new

17. Religion
Buddhism
Christianity