3 Influence of culture

3.1 Defining culture

Even though, it is accepted that cultural differences should not be underestimated and culture influences peoples’ perceptions, there are still no one unified meaning of culture and it varies in accordance with author (Gudykunst, 1983). The most common definitions of culture are found in an-thropological literature.

According to Albaum et al. (2002), culture is human-made, so it is learned and is communicated from one generation to another. This definition corresponds with the statement of Soumava and John, who stated that cultures are ways of living built up by a group of human beings, which are transmitted from one generation to another. One of the most popular definitions was given by Hofstede (2001), who stated that, culture is the collective programing of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

In accordance with Hofstede’s (2001) definition, Xiaosui (2014) stated that a national culture is a set of collective beliefs and values that distinguish people of one nation from those of another.

Thus, there are many expressions of what culture is and it is interesting to notice that most of concepts are concentrated at culture as at a common or collective context rather than at individual perceptions.

3.2 Elements of culture

A crucial note among aforementioned definitions is that culture is programming (Hofstede’s definition). It is agreed that culture requires a number of years to be formed and acquired in society, so it is a slow process. During these years certain elements of culture in a certain society are being formed:

• Major beliefs and attitudes shape people’ learning values;

• Developing of collective activities (for example celebrations) form unity of rituals;

• Installing the role models;

• Acquiring symbols (designations of myths, sagas, clothes, jargon, linguistics…)

These features of culture are gained from childhood. They are shaped by family, education institutions, religion, worksite, friends, media and books, and many other sources (Jones, 2007).

Along with different attempts to define culture there are a lot of ideas have been proposed identifying elements which consist in culture with regards to explanation of their influence on the national culture, the value and norms of a socium (Schnalke and Mason, 2014) .

Such elements of culture as education, religion beliefs and language influence the values, norms and expectations of a society (Cateora and Graham, 2007; Samovar et al., 2007; Hill, 2011). “Each of these ingredients plays an equally important role in determining the nature and values of a particular culture” (Lillis and Tian, 2010, p. 100)

Education is often considered as a main element of society. In educational institutions, people get to know the fundamental skills and build habits, which become essential in a modern socium. Such cultural norms, as respect for adults, obedience to laws, good faith, neatness and time perception are taught at school (Hill, 2011).

Religion as an cultural element is considered to be as important as education.

Cateora and Graham (2007) claimed that the significance of religion is possible consider regarding value systems of a society and the effect of value systems on marketing must not be omitted. The impact of religion is frequently more strong and significant then it is usually assumed. It can set not only values and beliefs, but also influence people’s lifestyles and preferences in appearance.

A for time this element is treated differently among countries. Cultural relations towards time are shaped by unequal time orientations. In a monochromic culture, time is considered as an economic importance. Therefore, activities are conducted at a certain time in accordance with schedules and agendas. Polychronic cultures are defined as multitasking, when two or more activities are being done at the same time (Gillespie et al., 2007). “In cultures with this view, people view the ability of being involved with many issues involving other people all at once as more important than completing an individual task by a deadline” (Brodowsky et al., 2008, p. 246).

Regarding to language, it is stated that by Jiang (2000) that if there could not be any languages, then culture would not be possible discover in full, because the language modifications reflects culture and is simultaneously influenced and shaped by it. As pointed out by Chaney and Martin (2010), there is a necessity for getting to know a common language to communicate successively with individuals from other cultures. As a result, several researches have considered the links between language and culture identity. Boroditsky (2010) evaluated some researches which estimated how people speak and think and installed people’s understanding of space, time and causality could be influenced by language. According to Boroditsky (2010), several academic works have stated causal relation between the language being spoken and the way people think. If a bilingual person switches from one language to another, he/she begin to think differently. Hence, by learning a one more language, individuals also getting to know a new world outlook.

The connections between language and culture are seen in non-verbal and verbal communications as well. Particular cultural patterns of people’s behaviour are learned and culture is shared. Non-verbal communication is not only shaped by factors such as gender and personal features, but is also affected by cultural identity. Individuals who are culturally, linguistically and racially similar might be able to read the non-verbal behaviour of each other more accurately (Gabbott and Hogg, 2000).