Culture & cultures

Talking about culture is not an easy thing. I think that culture is the heritage of every single person being a combination of a lot of different elements: learned, achieved, constructed, inherited, internalized and shared. The concept of culture is a complex one because it is like a case where a lot of different things mix up together. Moreover, the concept of culture is not a monolithic one: culture is quite dynamic because anybody’s culture is constantly reshaped and enriched.

Our current society is characterized by the coexistence of different cultures and often the encounter between different cultures is the starting point for the creation of misunderstandings, prejudices and cultural clashes. Nowadays, we, as individuals, have to come to terms with the issue of multiculturalism versus monoculturalism and the problems concerning with integration and assimilation of foreigners in their host countries and societies is one of the fundamental points in any governmental policy’ s agenda. This phenomenon is no longer far away from us… We can just take the bus every day to go to work… We can just have a walk near the station of our city… We can just enter in a bar… We can just open the door of our house… to realize that the coexistence of different culture is one of the most relevant features of our society and that anybody, willy-nilly, is supposed to cope with it in his daily routine. The problem is how to cope with it.

Talking about this, the so-called “intercultural competence” is the ability to communicate successfully and interact effectively with people coming from other cultures. Giving that the concept of culture is quite complex, the one of inter-culture is still more difficult because it implies the acknowledgment of your own culture, on the one hand, and of another culture, on the other. However, the encounter between these two cultures doesn’t lead to the acknowledgment of the superiority of a culture on the other, but is a fruitful experience in order to enrich your knowledge of other cultures and share your culture with others. The achievement of intercultural competence is a never-ending process characterized by a non-ethnocentric point of view, communication, respect, understanding and, above all, flexibility. In the process of intercultural competence, judgement and criticism is avoided and the other is seen as a enrichment, an opportunity, a fruitful experience, a gateway, not a limit.

Tomorrow in class we’ll discuss more in detail about these topics. I wonder what my classmates will say about multiculturalism because, up to now, my word is that nowadays, unfortulately, multiculturalism and the peaceful coexistence between different cultures are just a wonderful utopia. But, as we know, some dreams can turn into reality in the future…