To achieve a state of happiness and satisfaction is set at different thresholds for each individual. Some may find fulfillment at the mere notion of existence while others may achieve satisfaction through their contributions to a high-functioning society. Nevertheless, happiness is a belief-a distinct conviction that is undeniably held true within every person and what ultimately drives one’s individualistic ambitions.

Despite the highly subjective definition of happiness, there seems to be a shared consensus about certain expectations and achievements to obtain happiness: a standard set by an ideal culture. Culture takes root into shared beliefs, practices, and materialistic ambition of a group of people, commonly defined by folkways and norms. However, with multiple interpretations of different social cues and limitless onsets of ideologies, a simple yet complex emerges: What exactly is culture?

First, we need to investigate the building blocks of backgrounds and cities we’ve resided in. As a thirteen year resident of Irvine, California, I believe I have some credentials to speak upon my upbringing in the bubble of Orange County. Realistically speaking, there’s certainly a degree of high culture, the cultural patterns of a society’s elite, that’s clearly displayed through multi-million houses and the cars racing through Irvine Blvd.

Additionally, I’ve noticed a large set of subcultures present within different communities and residencies, typically divided by the neighborhood one resides in. These varied genres of cultures stem from socioeconomic background of many of Irvine’s residents, exhibiting formal norms that construct the operations within the community. However, culture cannot be defined purely through socioeconomic status. It’s no secret that there is a plethora of boba shops, fusion restaurants, and cultural markets occupying every corner in Irvine and Orange County. This, in fact, showcases Irvine’s multiculturalism where, according to Crash Course Sociology #11, cultural diversity is recognized. Taking multiple accounts, I believe that culture is defined by aspects of upbringing in a certain environment and the cultural diversity within that said environment.

Furthermore, culture can also be defined within the borders of the immunity around us. As a Korean-American, I’ve experienced both the beauty of Korean culture and the individualistic grind of the American Dream. Yet, a large part of my mentality stems from the Korean values placed by my purely Korean speaking parents. Language is essentially a system of communication, but it all serves as a proxy to share culture, hence why many of those who speak the same language create enclaves and communities. Through the Korean lectures I’ve survived from my parents, I’ve learned about the world through the perspective of a Korean rather than an American, reinforced through my tendency towards collectivism over individualism.

This is an example of the Crash Course Sociology #10’s depiction of Spain-Whorf hypothesis: the idea that people understand the world based on their form of language. Hence culture can also, in part, be the community that an individual is exposed to and is influenced the most from, typically a shared proxy such as language.

<Ashley Hong Orange County School of the Art>