What is Culture?

After reading both Morgan articles I have come to this definition of culture:

Culture is a shared understanding and perception of reality comprised of physical, intellectual, emotional, and linguistic objects that are in a constant state of re-development, which all exist in a constant flux of conscious and unconscious awareness of the individual participants.

The key elements from Morgan's articles that influenced my definition are the Explicit and Tacit "Cultural Iceberg", the emphasis and necessity of community, and the "Verbal" (as opposed to static "Noun") quality of culture. 

I found the use of the three-demensional iceberg depiction of the five dimensions of culture to be very helpful in moving from a conceptual to applicable explanation of how culture effects and affects our understanding of our identity as an individual and as a community member. What amazed me was the large degree to which the products, practices, persons, and communities, that make up the Explicit aspects of culture, all rest on the unconscious, Tacit, realm of perspectives. This depiction however, seems accurate—the greatest influence our cultural has over its manifestations in our daily life are built upon the historical foundations, or the perspectives (in the form of traditions, folklore, foods, humor, etc.), that have stood the test of time and therefore influence peoples across multiple generations. With that observation however, it should be noted that even the deep-set Tacit perspectives of culture are subject to alteration, and those that become out-dated due to technological or social changes, can and will be disowned. This amazing part of the flexibility of culture is that it is able to evolve with civilization (without this capacity it would cultures become merely passing fads?).

As language teachers, I found that the call that "this kind of culture description and analysis calls for research outside ourselves" (Morgan 29), is of paramount importance. In order to most accurately teach a second language, I believe that teachers must be able to understand not only their own Explicit and Tacit culture, but also that of the target language, and furthermore they must also be open to the cultures that their students bring into the classroom. Second language acquisition comes with its own set of anxieties solely from the act of speaking, writing, and reading—however, if we approach SLA from a holistic viewpoint, including cultural education, then students can build a comfort zone of confidence around their self perception and their perception of the culture which they are entering through language. It seems that culture can never be ignored. If we ignore the interaction between individual and community, of personal and foreign culture, then we ignore the communal basis which cultural is based upon.