Think of any objects in your house, meals you eat, or gestures you use, and you’ll find evidence of culture. Culture has shaped who you are. 【小题1】 Here’re some tips.

Share your culture’s art and techniques. Each culture has its own clothing, music, visual arts, and many more distinguishing characteristics. Other members of your culture will be overjoyed to share or talk about their interests, what they do for fun, and fine works of art they appreciate. This may include traditional artifacts you can find in a museum, but material culture goes far beyond that. 【小题2】

Cook family recipes. It’s never too late to learn some recipes from your grandmother’s cookbook. 【小题3】 During the process, you might remember meals from your childhood or festivals. Just reading a recipe can teach you how much ingredients and kitchen tools have changed.

【小题4】 Your city or village may have some cultural events, which you should actively participate in. If you don’t know of any in your area, some tribes or ethnic groups in your country almost certainly celebrate major cultural festivals. Travel to these places to get a broader perspective on your culture.

Speak your local dialect. If you know someone who shares your culture but speaks a native tongue better than you, or in other words, in a more authentic way, ask him or her to teach you. Language is an important part of a culture. 【小题5】 Plus, if the language is rare in your area, nobody will be able to catch on to what you’re talking about.

“It’s raining cats and dogs!” Although this phrase isn’t very common in England any more, it clearly shows we don’t always say what we mean. One thing that is often frustrating for language learners is that they understand every word in a sentence and yet the meaning remains unclear - like this sentence that actually means “It’s raining heavily!” However, it’s not just idioms that cause difficulties for people learning English.

The British are often considered to be polite but this can be very confusing for non-native speakers. We often don’t say what we are thinking—in fact we often say the opposite! Here’s an example that will hopefully explain what I mean: “You should come around for tea!”

British people are less open than people from other cultures, so we aren’t as quick to invite people into our homes. This phrase is one of those that we say but often don’t really mean, so when no further details are given, you can probably assume (认为) it was made in the name of politeness! But how does this compare to other countries?

When I lived in India, lots of people would invite me into their homes but I always assumed that they were just being polite. Of course, I was wrong. The invitations were almost always genuine, and people expected me to visit them. In fact, I think I spent more time at other people’s houses than my own!

In England, we often think it’s polite to offer or suggest something even if we don’t actually want to do it, while in other cultures people are more direct. Perhaps if English people just say what they were thinking, things would be a lot easier—especially for non-native speakers!

Today we talk about pointless, useless actions. And we have an expression to help us do that. For this expression, let’s go to the beach!

For a beach trip, we bring several things that can make the trip more enjoyable. For example, a beach towel (沙滩巾) makes sitting on the sand more comfortable. Some people choose to bring a beach chair. And a beach umbrella protects you from the sun’s powerful rays. Swimming in the ocean can really make you hungry. So many people bring a cooler for food and drinks.

Making castles on the beach is a fun activity. So, bringing sand-digging tools like a shovel (铁铲) is a good idea. But you do not need to bring the sand. Most beaches have a lot of that already! And that brings us to today’s expression: “bringing sand to the beach.”

“Bringing sand to the beach” describes actions that are pointless and unnecessary. The actions are useless. This means serving no purpose.

To bring sand to the beach can also mean overkill. Overkill means to do or have more than what is necessary or useful. Often when using this expression, we say “like”. For example, bringing flowers to the opening of a flower store is like bringing sand to the beach.

We usually use “like bringing sand to the beach” when bringing something to a place is unnecessary. But you can also say the same idea with different objects and places. For example, I could also say it is “like bringing a sandwich to a restaurant.” With this example, the meaning goes one step further. It also means that what you are bringing (the sandwich) is of poorer quality than what you would find at the place (the restaurant).