“Ohmigod, I LOOOVE your culture! I have so much respect for it and I know sooo much about it!”

…Really? 

-

Surface culture: Food, flags, festivals, fashion, holidays, music, performances, dances, games, arts & crafts, literature, language

Deep culture:

Communication styles and rules: facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, personal space, touching, body language, conversational patterns in different social situations, handling and displaying of emotion, tone of voice

Notions of: courtesy and manners, friendship, leadership, cleanliness, modesty, beauty

Concepts of: self, time, past and future, fairness and justice, roles related to age, sex, class, family, etc.

Attitudes toward: elders, adolescents, dependents, rule, expectations, work, authority, cooperation vs. competition, relationships with animals, age, sin, death

Approaches to: religion, courtship, marriage, raising children, decision-making, problem solving

I feel like this is pertinent to discussions we’ve had before and will have again. Even as inclusive as this list is, it STILL doesn’t cover everything, but I think it’s a handy primer and reference for certain talks.