Culture Diversity In Manchester Cultural Studies Essay

Manchester has a rich and diversity of history and culture, Many people of different nationalities live in Manchester. So, that means diversity of culture is brought to Manchester. Manchester is one of the big city of commercial, financial, academic and cultural capital in England. Manchester is a crowded city that there lots of people live in. It is seen that the diversity of the population and celebrates bring people of different backgrounds together as Mancunians. The ethnic make Manchester continues to become more diverse and popular. In Manchester, there are lots of communities which have different groups such as Pakistani, Indian, Chinese, African, European, and Arab people. So, there are lots of different ways which there are cultures are reflected in the city . In this essay, will be considered religion, food, festivals and music.

Manchester city has diversity of nationalities and ethnicities which means that there are different cultures of religions such as Hinduism and Christianity and islam amongst others. First of all, the society of Manchester has several religions. According to www.bbc.co.uk/Manchester, ” The department also produces festivals programmes across Radio and Television which celebrate religious diversity in the UK by marking the key celebrations across a range of different religions, including Sikh, Muslim, Christian and Jewish dates”. Secondly, religions always have an effect in the society and bring a lot of aspect of ideas. According to the website , “Religious communities also help create social capital by motivating members to take part in charitable and voluntary activities (Payton, 1988; Wuthnow, 1996; Wuthnow,

Hodgkinson, & Associates, 1990)”. The advantages of teaching religious studies in schools across Manchester are that different cultures can then respect everyone’s different values and beliefs. Looking at this website http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiqu ette/UK.html .

“Nearly every language in the world is a product of a culture or combination of cultures. Also, just as a language is informed by its culture, a culture is informed by its languages. Therefore, language teachers often need to explain aspects of a culture in order to explain a piece of language”.

This is the same with the people in Manchester, if we didn’t have the festivals, the teachers or the music and cuisine, Britain would still have been the same country it was many years ago. The people of britiain would of found it more difficult to go to other countries such as India and be confused by their ways of life. If we don’t understand the culture then we won’t understand the language and ways of teaching. People would find it very hard to communicate with one another and this would lead to segregation in society causing everyone to form groups as some people are very wary to foreigners and immigrants. This is culture shock meaning the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown culture such as one may encounter in a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. This is often combined with a dislike for, or even disgust (moral or aesthetic) with certain aspects of the new or different culture.

Also Formerly a very homogenous society, since World War II, Britain has become increasingly diverse as it has accommodated large immigrant populations, particularly from its former colonies such as India, Pakistan and the West Indies. The mixture of ethnic groups and cultures make it difficult to define “Britishness” nowadays and a debate rages within the nation as to what now really constitutes being a Briton.

Multi cultural society brings a whole lot to Manchester such as new types of cuisines. The diversity of cultures of food have lots of different types of food and lots of changes, which are seen in several restaurants in Manchester such as Arabic, Indian, Italian and Chinese food. British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. However, British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those that settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as the chicken tikka masala which is now the new national dish according to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/1285804.stm. However now if we were to speak about British cuisine we would only speak of a good English breakfast or Christmas dinners. Due to the cultural diversity this is what it has been limited to.

First of all, Indian restaurant are around this city, there are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK. Indian food was a cheap and cheerful alternative when eating out. One could buy an Indian takeaway that cost next to nothing. So, many working class poorer communities opted for Indian food. Slowly but surely other types of food started to be brought in the city such as Chinese food, greek and italian. The types of food that different cultures brought into England are mixed and inspired all over the world due to immigration.

The most important impact of people in Manchester is the celebrations, this brings many different cultures together. It also teaches one another about each culture thus everyone gaining and understanding with each other. According to, (Modood , et all 1994) “Young South Asian people in the UK understand their ethnic and religious culture within the broader British culture, in that they wish to celebrate their ethnic, cultural and religious differences, in relationship to those of the wider society”.

Manchester has a multi-cultural population and so many other cultural and religious festivals are held across the city. Manchester ‘s Muslim communities observe Ramadan. Celebration of Eid tends to focus particularly around areas such as Rusholme. There are also Hindu, Sikh and Jewish Festivals. Celebrations for the Chinese New Year take place in and around Chinatown in the City Centre in January or February each year (the date for the Chinese New Year moves), with the spectacular dragon parade at the heart of the event. The Chinatown website  has more information on Chinese New Year. The Manchester Mela  is a celebration of Asian culture and food, which takes place in Manchester every summer and engage visitors from different places. The Caribbean Carnival of Manchester  is a well-established cultural event that takes place in the summer in Alexandra Park.  A number of large outdoor events are organised in Manchester in the summer. People from all backgrounds get together for large picnics and performances.

The most interesting effective is people who live in Manchester can listen to different kind of music. According to www.bbc.co.uk, “The idea was to soundtrack the project by taking a classic Manchester tune and having it re-recorded by a new band in a way that reflected the many nationalities and cultures that make up modern Manchester.

First of all, people can enjoy listening to different types of music whether the location be at a restaurant or a bar or a nightclub, different music will be played to represent the atmosphere and the place. For example, in rusholme, there are different types of restaurant for example Chinese and Indian and Arabic, each restaurant plays their own culture of music so that different people who come in the restaurant can enjoy their culture too. To many people in many cultures music is an important part of their way of life. According to http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/uk/black_and_asians_in_britain/newsid_1999000/1999884.stm

“Having lots of different cultures, religions and styles has made Britain a country which is very mixed.

This mix of cultures and styles has influenced music, art, dance writing and sport. “

Having a diverse workplace means there are a lot of differences in the people that work there . This may sound simple, but diversity includes race,culture, gender, ethnic background, age etc.

The beauty of having a diverse workplace is that you can have many different types of people from diverse backgrounds bring different talents and experiences that can foster new ideas, address changing markets and customer demands and add some skills that were not there before. This is the same with different people with different cultures; everyone brings something new to the table. And slowly but surely everyone starts to learn new things and embrace them in their own ways of teachings. For example people start to listen to different music, they start to learn new ways of cooking, new styles of fashion is being brought to Manchester etc.

To sum up, there are many different kinds of culture in Manchester because there are a lot of international people who live here also due to the vast amount of immigration we now have a wide range of cultures, festivals and different types of music being brought here. It is one of the reason many people wish to study here as everyone is now accustomed to each others culture due to years of teachings. Everyone can now experience a taste of each others countries, culture and well being.