Introduction Blog

     My name is Lindsey and I am in my third year of the Chid and Youth Worker program at Loyalist College. In this blog I will be talking about and reflecting on my thoughts and learning experiences in the Cultural Issues and Diversity course. I will also be using this blog to identify any challenging areas and future learning possibilities. I will also be using my blog to extend my learning throughout the course.

 I found this picture and felt that it related well to what culture is.

     During our first Cultural Issues and Diversity class last week we spent some time talking about the assignments that we needed to complete. One that stuck in my mind is our first assignment “elements of my culture”. In this assignment we have to write about our personal experience of the cultural beliefs that we were exposed to while growing up. While I was thinking about this assignment it reminded me how we will be having cultural show and tell in our next class. We will each bring in an artifact from our culture to share with the class. I was sitting there thinking about the assignment and the show and tell; I started to think about my culture, and what I would bring in. As I was thinking a few questions started to pop into my mind, like “What is my culture?” “What would be considered a cultural artifact?” “What is my culture made up of?” “Who could I ask about my culture?”. Then the more I thought about it there was one main question that stood out in my mind, “what exactly is culture?” 

   While I was looking up culture I came acrost this fun video and thought that the quotes in it related alot to culture.

      I also found a website online and did some reading about what culture is. I feel more comfortable about it now and have a better understanding of what my own culture is. I believe that culture is our beliefs, values, and traditions that we were exposed to while growing up. That could include where we lived, who we were around, and what traditions were practiced frequently. The website that I was looking at is: http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm This site helped me to better understand culture and its components.