Culture is something that has elevated an individual from the level of an animal to the heights of a man. Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality. No child can get human qualities in the absence of a cultural environment. It is the culture which conditions our attitude towards various issues such as religion, morality, marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on. It not only defines but also conditions and determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like friends with, what work we do, what god we worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what poetry we recite and so on. A language is not just a group of spoken words but is a key to someone's culture. It has evolved over thousands of years to reflect what it means to be from a particular place. For example, the Irish language has one of the widest vocabularies in the world and reflects their tradition of storytelling. Despite this, English has become the first language of the Irish, as many feel it makes it easier to communicate with the world. By speaking just a couple of languages, such as English and Chinese, you alienate billions of people throughout the world. English may be common, but it is not the 'lingua franca' many people think it is and it would take generations for everyone to learn it. Countries like Korea and Vietnam have been trying to adopt English as a second language for a long time, but most of their people still can't fully grasp it. However, English has been the language of business for a long time and it should be encouraged to help a country become more economically competitive. Commonly spoken languages may make life more straightforward, but this should not be at the expense of less prevalent languages, in order to avoid the erosion of culture and the alienation of many countries.The disadvantages of urban life are: absence of primary relationships, predominance of individualism, lack of community feeling, absence of family life, low morality; development of one-sided personality, social disorganisation and mechanical life.
However, there is a bright picture too of the city life. There are available distinct facilities of making life joyful and comfortable. The city gives encouragement to new ideas and new inventions. It quickens social movements and enlarges social contacts amongst inhabitants through various specialized agencies.
It provides ample opportunities to ambitious and energetic men to display their talents. It has liberated women from the exclusiveness of domesticity. There is opportunity for personal advancement in cities than in rural areas. The city gives increasing status to its inhabitants and offers superior educational advantages.
Culture has its own characteristics. It is learnt,shared,social,continuous,adaptive and varies. Culture is learnt from elders, culture is not the thing you study or you know it, but it is just the process you pass from one generation to the other. It is inherited in someone's nature. All action we do like eating, dressing wearing ornaments etc is the result of culture we learned. Culture is something that is shared among groups of people. Culture is always transferred through sharing. Culture is social. It originates and grows through social interaction. To distinguish culture we need to compare it with some other, only then we will know about all the aspects of that culture.
Culture is a continuous process. It includes in itself the achievements of the past and present and makes provision for future achievements .It is the result of past and present changes that occur in a society and so is always adaptive. Culture always varies. All the elements of culture like dressing, ways of eating, speaking etc varies from society to society. In every culture changes occur at some interval of time. There are two types of culture, namely, material culture and non-material culture. Material culture includes all those things that people create.
Dressing is an important thing in any culture. Gradually the importance of dressing is disappearing from society. There are many people who adopt foreign culture and forget about their own culture.
According to the Colombia university press "everything having to do with food-its capture, cultivation, preparation, and consumption-represents a cultural act.
Some cultures have big houses while some have small. In certain cultures people don't build houses and live like nomads, wandering from place to place. People from rural areas have big houses while those living in the city have small houses. Non-material culture consists of thoughts and behaviour of people as part of the culture they live in. It includes language, rules, customs, family, religion or beliefs, values, and knowledge.
Language is one of the most important forms of material culture, without language there is no concept of culture. Different cultures have different languages.
Family is one of the most important concept in any culture. Different cultures define family in different ways. Some count only a blood relation as their family member, while others only wife and kids.
Religion plays an important role in a cultural society and so does education. Therefore almost all the cultures gives importance to education. Some cultures give importance only to education of males and not females.
Culture has a great importance in our lives. It is the identity of a nation. An author says about the importance of culture that "culture is the set of transmitted and learned behaviour patterns, beliefs, institutions and all other products of human work and thought that characterize the functioning of particular population, profession, organization or community", so the only representative of a particular community is its culture. It is the root of any community which teaches them the ways of life and how to live in harmony.
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