York International Internship Assignment #1: What is your culture?

Culture is a tricky thing. The word itself might be a little overworked. In your fridge you might have some bacterial culture, on your street you might have a drug culture, on the weekend perhaps you want some arts and culture, and then there´s the matter of your own culture. Without trying to flog the last bit of meaning out of the word, let´s define culture as the accepted language, values, behaviours, and technologies of a group of people.

If you´ve grown up in Canada you´ve probably digested the national mantra of "we're a mosaic; the Yank's are a melting pot" as often as pancakes with maple syrup. But this hasn´t stopped people from talking about ‘Canadian culture’. The reality is that if you take a small town prairie kid, a worker in Toronto's Chinatown, and a senior citizen from Quebec, their language, values, behaviours and technologies will be strikingly different. If a single ‘Canadian Culture’ does exist, it is only as a backdrop, and might contain the few things that unify us across the country: a cold climate, resource wealth, an immigrant spirit, and a profound desire to be un-American.

As for my own culture, there’s certainly the Canadian backdrop. Beyond that, it´s my small town upbringing, Mennonite immigrant history, and Toronto education which serve as my cultural bearings. Respectively, this has given me an innate ability to conquer boredom, a strong belief in pacifism, and a passion for exploring cities. And I can eat maple syrup with almost anything too.