OGER Virginie
Master 1
18 November 2008

What is culture ?

First, we will explain what the definition of culture is. Second, we will talk about culture in society. Finally, we will deal with stereotypes the lack of understanding which it can involve.
Culture is meaningful. That is why we need to define it first. Globally speaking culture means a way of life in society and in personal life. Culture presents several points of view such as law, beliefs, politics, history, art and language… Each culture has a language, an art, a settlement, a story and so on. The way these elements are combined create the own identity of each culture. A cultured person is said to be well-educated and open-minded, to be able to be at ease whatever the subject. In my opinion, a cultured person doesn’t mean being intelligent.
Culture is very individual. Each human has a different culture since everyone have its own beliefs, education, and personal history.
Some examples are helpful to illustrate my mind.
Concerning law, countries have not the same way of living. We could for instance take a look at how ways of living influence law. Indeed, labour laws are characteristic to each country. In France, our system is governed by a 35 hour week whereas in England there are not any rules of this kind. As a consequence French workers have more free time for hobbies or to go out. However, English workers work as much as their boss needs. They have neither the same mentality nor the same working conditions. In France, we are said to be lazy because we have the right to strike and we allow maternity leave for example. In China, workers have no rights, they are fired as soon as they are away. So we do not have the same approach to work which means that we have not the same culture.

About beliefs, let’s compare Moslem and Catholicism. Muslims have to observe Ramadan. In Contrary to this religion, Catholics do not have this same practice. Moreover, they have to eat kosher meat according to