Last night in my basic English class, we talked about culture and icebergs. That might sound strange, but it actually makes a lot of sense. You probably know that an iceberg is a massive chunk of ice that floats in the ocean. Like an ice cube in a drink, most of the iceberg stays below the surface, but there is a little bit above the water that people can see.
Culture is like an iceberg. Some parts of culture you can see. They are visible. In the United States, we have some visual parts of our culture, like Halloween, Christmas or the Fourth of July. We have foods like hamburgers and pizza. We have places like Mount Rushmore and Washington, D.C. These are all part of our visible culture.
We also have invisible parts of culture. These parts are what we think and believe. They are harder to see. You have to watch what people do to learn what they believe. For example, in the United States, if you are upset with your friend, you know you should go talk to him or her and tell them why you are upset. They might be angry, but if you are really friends, you will solve the problem. This is the thinking part of your culture.
Before I came to Brazil, I did not know very much about Brazilian culture.
