6 Tips On Learning Culture Without Visiting The Country

What should you know, before you travel?

Learning a language is incomplete without culture study. You may get hints from grammar - honorifics, for example - or idioms. But the right words are only the first step towards approaching the wealth of culture packed within a language.
The best part? You don't need to travel to your target country to get started.


So, for the purpose of this post, what is culture? It's really an umbrella term for varied thoughts, actions, histories and other unique identifiers of a certain group of people. A culture can be at a a national level (Germany), regional (Bavarian), social (high-class) and familial (your family vs. mine).

So how can we learn about other cultures, especially at a more intimate level?

• Talk with native speakers. Notice the emphasis on the 's'. Talk to more than one native. Why? Because like in your native land, there's going to be as many opinions as people. One group, as thus culture, can never be defined by simply one input. The more people you speak to, the more you will learn. You can do this online at italki or at local meetups.
  
• Observe gestures. I'm not just talking about the stereotypical Indian head-wobble or Italian hand movements. Body language is very important, and if you've watched Inglorious Bastards, you've seen that Equally important are small phrases and words used for fillers and emphasis. Knowing when and how to use them isn't necessarily related to culture, but you'll certainly sound more native.
  
• Key in on loan words. Loan words, besides being convenient if they come from your own language, are extremely beneficial. They mark language with history. Conquests, geography and colonialism are a few of the reasons that you can find Persian, Arabic and English words in Hindi. And then there is the use of Kanji in Japanese, which originated in China.
  
• Technology is your friend. Now you can watch videos popular in Germany, Russia on youtube. You can find news outlets and movies stemming from countries around the world. Websites like Alexa.com, which were originally designed for marketing, have some free features that allow you find the most popular websites by country and category.
  
  And of course, take the word for "grocery store" in your target language and go see where people shop. Use Google Street View to tour your target culture and observe the streets, the architecture. Take notes.
  
• Videos of live interactions. Many language teachers online, like Anil Mahato for Hindi, try to incorporate simulations to show learners how the language is used. Whether it's going shopping or asking for directions, videos that integrate the real situations in the target country can also introduce users to normal behaviors and cultural practices regarding that topic.
  
• The local school curriculum. This can be based on politics, but school curriculums often try to encompass what the current generation thinks is a) important life skills b) original to their culture/region c) what is considered art. What students are studying can be a great insight - and as the papers are likely to be in your target language, you'll learn a bit of vocabulary too!

Besides these tips, there's of course the regular "fun" supplement of learning - travel, movies, music and TV - all of which can be used with the notes above.

Learning culture little by little and interacting with it will help you communicate better in your language - even if you haven't reached fluency. And of course, you'll be more open to make friends in your target culture and key in on the jokes, too!