Culture

Watch this short video where Malcolm Gladwell answers the question, "What is the one thing people need to know about how cultural differences cause planes to crash?"  Then discuss it with your teacher, or write about it using the discussion questions below.

Perhaps you've heard of the so-called trolley problem, also known as the train problem. The old philosophical question goes like this:

Atlas Obscura, a publication about travel and culture, notes that a pub has always been more than just a place that sells beer for the British. The pub has brought communities together for centuries, and the tavern tradition of spending the evening with your peers continues to this day. Few know, however, that pubs became popular following the plague known as the Black Death of the 14th century.

National Geographic answers the question: what is forest bathing? The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku. It can mean “forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”. The purpose was to offer an ecological antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with the country’s forests.

People’s diets have varied considerably around the world, and have often been dictated by geography, the types of crops that the land can sustain and animals that dominate the ecosystem. However, with advances in technology and globalization, billions of people can now eat all sorts of fruits and vegetables out of season, as well as exotic, imported meats.

Take a look at the two maps below and discuss what you see with your teacher.

The United Nation declared a “Decade of Indigenous Languages”, beginning on January 1, 2022. There are currently over 7000 languages in the world, but roughly 40% of those languages are endangered, as adults no longer speak the language to their children. According to the U.N., one language is lost every two weeks. 

It is not a secret that people might judge you by the way you speak. For example, if you sound confident, people might trust you. 

Tamara de Limpicka (1898–1980) was a key artist in the Art Deco period of the 1920s and '30s. Born in Poland, she also spent a lot of time in France and the U.S. Her real fame came when high-fashion magazines began to use her art for their covers. Soon she was painting portraits of the aristocracy, and even royalty. Although her name is not well-known today outside of Art Deco fans, de Lempicka was one of the most important and popular artists of the Art Deco movement.

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is thought of today as one of Mexico's greatest artists. Her most famous paintings are self-portraits. Of her 143 paintings, 55 were self-portraits. She once said, "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

Languages generally develop organically, following changes in culture. But sometimes we have to purposefully change our language to create the culture we need.

Take, for example, sexism. In English, seeing the masculine form of a word—e.g., adding "-man" to a job title, and using he/him/his pronouns—as neutral had been accepted as the norm since the 19th century and still often is. In the 1970s, however, women began to demand equal representation in all things, and that meant in the language, too. 

Rice straw, or wara, is the waste left over from rice production. It used to be used to make tatami mats, bags, and other daily goods, including shoes. But these days most things are made from plastic and other synthetic materials, so farmers are left with mountains of useless wara.

Mascots, or yuru-kyara, are incredibly popular in Japan. There are yuru-kyara for everything, from sports teams to prefectures to a toilet disinfectant (seriously). Now they're offering the world a mascot for the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Classic Australian lollies Redskins and Chicos are set to be renamed so they don't marginalise consumers, confectionery company Allens has announced.

The decision was made by the brand's parent company, Nestlé, because a redskin is a slang term for Native Americans in the U.S., where it is considered offensive. Chico, which is Spanish for "boy", is also used in a derogatory way. 

Over the past 20 years, American television entered a Golden Age. Before the turn of the millennium, most TV shows followed familiar patterns: crime shows and situational comedies—also known as sitcoms—consisted of self-contained episodes with little plot development through a season or the run of the show.

For nearly a century, Kowloon Walled City stood out as a rare modern example of an ungoverned territory. When Great Britain took Hong Kong from the Chinese, they left a Chinese enclave in Kowloon, near Hong Kong island. As the 20th century unfolded, consecutive Chinese governments neglected the governance of the enclave, the British refused to get involved, and it took on a life of its own.

The Italian football world is again experiencing racism within its ranks. A series of players have been subject to racist abuse by fans, with little or no response from clubs, officials, or the media. Hard-core fans claim they have the right to abuse players any way they want, and certain clubs deny that racism even exists.

If there is one train ride that will rid you of your comfort zone, then that is the journey on Train 61, from Yangon to Bagan in Myanmar. Myanmar is an impoverished country that has been reeling from civil conflict for nearly 70 years. It only opened itself up to the rest of the world in 2014.

On New Year's Eve, people all over the world have celebrations and customs to ensure a good year to come. Each country has its own unique traditions which may seem pretty strange to other people. For a taste of what your neighbors may be doing, check these out!

Japan is a culinary delight. There are many restaurants with Michelin stars. It's a country where ramen shops can command hours-long waits, and where entire floors of department stores are devoted to specialty food. If you take a domestic trip, you are expected to return to your office with omiyage—souvenir treats specific to a region. So one might expect Christmastime to be a season of decadent food. But actually, Christmas is when you get a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken [KFC]. 

The 11th-century Japanese writer Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book was written using kana, a Japanese script mainly used by women for nearly a millennium to write literature, arrange secret assignations and express themselves freely within the confines of court life. Women in medieval Japan were discouraged from studying kanji, so they began using kana instead, which transcribe words phonetically.