Study Abroad and Culture

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit. ~Seneca

According to cultural anthropologist Edward T. Hall, culture is communication and communication is culture (1959). It is a culture that teaches us how to communicate, and it is how we communicate that binds us to a culture. People that don’t stay in keeping with cultural communication practices, usually end up excommunicated from the culture in some shape or form. There are countless different cultures in the world and each of us uniquely fits into many that shape and mold our growth.

Culture (or conformity) is the opposite of individualism. Like the Chinese philosophy yin and yang, they oppose but unify each other through their duality. Without culture, there would be no community, and without individualism there would be no change and communities would be stagnant. While each individual is a one-of-a-kind life form, culture is what a group of individuals have in common. It is what make us different from animals and advances the human race.

Some cultures are stronger than others, for various reasons. Nations and religions tend to be strong because they share a common history. There’s something about history that binds a people together in a way that is unlike anything else. Truly, history is the most important ingredient in an unbreakable culture. Cultures are also strengthened by a common set of values and beliefs. When communities are committed with heart and soul, their cultures are tougher because of it.

Culture can be understood only through the lenses of culture. For example, books and media represent social culture within national culture, and shape our understanding of Africans. We all know that Africans are very different from what we read in our books and see in the media, and that all Africans aren’t alike. However, our understanding is limited to what and how we are exposed to the countries and cultures of this massive continent. Depending on the length, quality, and legitimacy of our exposures, we may improve our knowledge, but we will never have a true understanding of all Africans and how they differ from one another.  

On top of the complications we have in tying to understand other continents from the vantage point of our own, there are many subcultures within a continent. Every region (originally divided by race) has its own culture, which houses national and religious cultures, which house countless other forms of culture. For example, Africa is known as the motherland of black people. Within Africa, we have the North, West, East, and South, all different from each other but similar within the larger context. When Europeans invaded Africa, the areas changed, and the area in which we find South Africa changed in ways that other countries did not.

So what is the national culture of South Africa? It depends on who you talk to…a native African from a small, secluded village will see things differently than an immigrant African whose grandparents migrated to Cape Town over 100 years ago. To comprehend the culture is to perceive something different from the cultures within and around it. In the case of South Africa, the culture isn’t a common set of beliefs or values, but rather experiences. For example, everyone from South Africa has experienced the Apartheid in one way or another, and while each of their experiences is different, there are some common bonds they share because of it.

Traveling keys us in to all the intricacies and layers of culture but it often pigeonholes us within the conception of nations. There is no way to pre-determine all the cultural differences that you will encounter. Just because you’re from a particular nation doesn’t mean you’re exactly the same as everyone else that lives there. You may be in South Africa when you meet an English chap who lives and works in the country. You may meet English people who have an appreciation and affinity towards the US. What you can attempt to learn in this cultural encounter is South African and English history, and how it has shaped the two cultures. What is South African culture? What is English culture? Is it really what you learned back home or is it different and more?

Just as mixing water with lemon juice and sugar gives you lemonade; mixing one culture with another can sweeten up your life (to say the least). When you leave your culture and enter into another, you will encounter many similarities, but you will notice many differences. People will think, live, and behave in ways that you are not accustomed to and don’t understand. For example, people may not arrive on time; for you, it’s disrespectful but for them it’s just a normal part of their everyday living that stems from the way they understand time and use it. This is where we find what is commonly referred to as the iceberg effect. Although many differences are visible, there is more that is invisible, or under the water. Communication can be quite hairy under the water.

Let’s imagine your professor is late to your two o’clock class. Through your cultural lenses, you interpret his perpetual lateness as disrespectful and you begin to construe him as lazy, disorganized, and even inconsiderate. In reality, your professor has lunch with his friends everyday and finds it perfectly normal to take his time, finish his meal, and arrive a little late to class. After all, when class is right after lunch, it’s understandable that both the professor and students will be running late. To rush to class and arrive on the hour would be unheard of and unrealistic in a culture that values people and food with such passion. Even if he wanted to arrive on time, it would be unfair to expect the same of all his students.

Culture is an interesting phenomenon. If you take the time to study and understand it, you will be amazed at how it flows throughout your life like water, taking on so many different forms and hiding in so many nooks and crannies. Culture is communication, but it is much more, it is the glue that binds us together as the human race. Culture is something you have but you don’t know that you have until you stand face-to-face with another. Culture is the only thing (other than love itself) which allows us to have individual differences and still come together in community. It is what makes us different from the animal kingdom. Individuals bind culture, and culture binds individuals, and this is what makes the world go around. 

One of my most interesting encounters with culture occurred in Africa, when my mother called a spirit doctor to treat her malaria. A man came to the house, threw out some stones, and examined where they fell. He then pointed to an area in the backyard and told her that the spirit causing the malaria was under the ground. As he started to dig, he located a small object in the hole, and threw it up in the air like a hot potato. Then he started chanting loudly and dancing around. My host mother ordered me to go into the house because she believed white skin was weak and the spirit could easily find its way inside of my body. Later, I was told that the spirit causing the malaria was connected to that object. The witch doctor had essentially cast it away, so that it could not return.

Further Exploration

::Beyond Culture

::Studying Abroad/Learning Abroad: An Abridged Edition of the Whole World Guide to Culture Learning by J. Daniel Hess

::Survival Kit for Overseas Living, Fourth Edition: For Americans Planning to Live and Work Abroad by L. Robert Kohls

::The Glimpse Foundation – A nonprofit organization that fosters cross-cultural understanding and exchange by sharing the experiences of young adults.

::What’s up with Culture? - A cultural training resource that explores cultural differences as they pertain to the study abroad experience.

This is an excerpt from the latest updated edition of Study Abroad 101 by Wendy Williamson