Digitally Travel the World with CultureGrams - 🌍 July 2024

Are you getting ready for vacation and want to learn about where you're travelling? Or maybe just want to learn more about the world around you? Look no further than CultureGrams! You can find a link to the resource on our website under Resources A to Z or under Resources by Subject and "Homework Help."

CultureGrams is an online resource with information on over 200 countries and territories. When you get to the homepage, you have a few different options: World Edition, Kids Edition, States Edition, and Province Edition.

Clicking on "World Edition" will take you to a page where you can choose which country or region you'd like to explore. There are a few ways to choose: at the top of the page is a drop-down menu, you can click on a continent on the map, or you can choose one of the links underneath the map.

To show all of the information on each country, I did a search of Europe and Turkey. Turkey, as you'll see in another screenshot, is at a juncture of Europe and Asia. Once you get to the main page of whatever country you're researching, you'll find different options on the left-hand side. It's broken down to "Background," "The People," "Customs and Courtesies," "Lifestyle," "Society," and "At a Glance."

Under "Background" you can find information on Land and Climate as well as History. "The People" will give you information on Population, Language, Religion, General Attitudes, and Personal Appearance. The information available will depend on the country you're researching, but there will be at least a thorough paragraph.

Under "Customs and Courtesies" you can find Greetings, Gestures, Visiting, and Eating. These can be particularly helpful when travelling. It's important to learn at least some about cultures you're going to visit. Even within the United States, different cultures have different norms and things considered normal to you may be viewed as rude in other cultures. One example I often think of within the U.S. is the term "ma'am." In the south, it's a polite way to greet women. Often times here in Ohio, it can be offensive to some, as it can be viewed as a thinly-veiled way of calling a woman "old." Another great example is tipping. Here in the U.S., it's customary as food service wages are typically set to accommodate tipping. In other countries, wages are in line with other customer service based jobs, so it's not expected. And in some countries, such as Japan, it's considered rude.

Lifestyle is another important thing for travelling. It prepares you for how people live there and can help if you want to connect with people while you're there. With sections such as Diet, Recreation, and The Arts, you can get an idea of what food might be available, what activities there are, and what kinds of entertainment are available. In the screenshot about The Arts in Turkey, you can see that theatre is very popular as well as handicrafts, particularly carpets.

I also think that the information under "Society" is very interesting. You can learn about the country's government, economy, transportation and communications, education, and health.

You'll find very similar information on the Provinces and States Editions. To get to specific provinces/states, you can use the drop-down or the map.

The Kids Edition combines the three other editions and makes it easy to use for the kiddos with information they might find interesting or might need for school.

If you look along the top of the World Edition, there are a few other cool features. You can learn about famous people from different countries and view the flags. You can also watch read interviews with locals. The interviews will open in a popup when you click on a person. There are a variety of people of different ages and sexes, so you can learn from a variety of viewpoints within that country.

You can also view photos from different countries and go through slideshows. with the slideshows, just like the interviews, it will open in a popup. It's fun to see different aspects of the country you're researching. Finally, you can find recipes if you want to create any of the local food at home and watch videos from the country.

CultureGrams is such an interesting database and I'm glad it's something we have available. It can be useful if you're travelling or doing a paper for school, but it's also fun to just browse through.