Different cultures, one world: Why cultural literacy matters?

We humans, along with our Earth, have evolved significantly in the past few decades, and with increasing globalisation, we have become much more interconnected. Every day we wake up with a piece of news from the West. However, it’s quite conflicting to say we are not truly connected until we understand each other, which is not possible until efforts are made to understand different cultures around the world. As teenagers and adults, we are sometimes ignorant and may not give different cultures that much importance. However, as the melting pot, our world, has made it essential to know it in depth. 

 Culture is the knowledge and traits of a specific group of people that define their religion, language, social habits, arts, music, and cuisine. Learning and understanding a different culture from your own is the first step towards eliminating judgment on someone or something you know nothing about. During my Japan trip, while I was having noodles in a Japanese restaurant, I saw Japanese people slurping, which seemed quite unpleasant and unusual. 

But that’s just one perspective about it; in Japanese culture, slurping noodles is a sign of relishing and savoring the food and is completely acceptable. A lack of awareness about different cultures often leads to misjudgment. Moreover, what is acceptable in one culture may be considered offensive in another. Such as our Indian culture allowed to enter temples with bare feet only, but this is not common in Buddhist shrines or churches.  Knowing about other cultures makes you open-minded. You’ll have an easy time respecting and accepting their differences.  

Furthermore, the culture we grew up in strongly influences the language we use. Culture is language, and language is culture. We in India study in English-medium schools; however, most of us have never mastered English, as we should have during our schooling. On the other hand, if we see the NRIs living in the United States or the United Kingdom, they have way better English than we do, and that’s totally because of the English culture that they are surrounded by.

Besides this, cultural awareness opens up several opportunities and removes the social barriers that we might face in a different place. While shifting countries, we have to look up the kind of lifestyle those citizens have, to adapt to the surroundings, and by doing so, we will eliminate the social barriers. These social barriers restrict us from getting along with the natives easily. To sum up, culture opens us socially and provides many eyes to see the world. Being culturally aware would prevent passing judgments easily and respecting each other’s way of life and opinions. Along with that, our mindset also changes due to cultural influence, and we get the ability to think outside the box.