What’s Culture Got to Do With It?
We cross borders, swap languages and change diets - often without thinking twice.
These everyday choices are acts of culture.
They shape how we learn, how we live and how we see ourselves.
And the data tells the same story:
Over 300. The number of languages spoken in London’s schools today.
293 million. The number of nights spent by international visitors in the UK in 2023.
56%. The percentage of babies born in London in 2021 whose mothers were born abroad.
More than 1 in 10. The growing proportion of young people in England and Wales identifying as mixed or multiple ethnic groups, with the highest concentrations among under-25s.
Significant growth. London’s foreign-born population has increased steadily over the past three decades, now accounting for more than a third of residents.
Rising trend. The number of inter-ethnic couples in England and Wales continues to grow, especially among younger generations.
These aren’t just numbers. They reflect how globalisation, migration and mobility are deepening our cultural connections.
As people move, mix and meet, culture becomes more complex and layered.
We see this as richness gained through exchange-connection rather than mere coexistence.
Today, culture is shaped as much by travel, trade and transnational life as it is by tradition.
Culture and Education: The Ultimate Chicken and Egg
Culture is more than heritage or tradition.
It lives in the stories we tell, the values we uphold and the behaviours we reward.
Education is how many of those elements are passed on.
Through subjects like history, theatre, music and literature, schools transmit cultural memory - the narratives a society chooses to preserve.
But culture is also present in less visible ways: in the behavioural expectations set by teachers, in the language of school mottos and in the daily rhythms of institutional life.
Values like ambition, integrity or curiosity aren’t just taught - they’re embedded.
But what came first - the values or the system that teaches them?
Long before formal education, culture was passed down through oral storytelling, ritual and imitation.
Education systems emerged to structure and standardise that transmission.
Yet once institutionalised, they began to shape culture in return, deciding which stories to tell, whose knowledge to validate and which behaviours to reward.
Today, education doesn’t just reflect culture. It edits it.
It decides what counts as knowledge, what history is emphasised and what norms are reinforced.
The stories we choose to teach—and those we choose to leave out - are rarely neutral.
They reveal the values a society wants to preserve, and sometimes, the ones it wants to suppress.
Culture gives education its heartbeat.
Education gives culture its future.
They are not fixed entities - they evolve through each other, in constant exchange.
A Global Era That Demands Cultural Fluency
The deeper our world connects, the more essential cultural fluency becomes.
Global trade has grown by more than 1,000% since the 1970s.
International student mobility has surged by 80% in just a decade.
Culture is no longer a backdrop. It’s a defining part of how systems function.
Businesses need it to build trust and navigate markets.
Schools need it to prepare young people for a world shaped by movement, migration and exchange.
Lifestyles, too - from how we work to how we rest - are shaped by cultural flows.
But when systems ignore cultural nuance, they lose relevance.
When education clings to outdated models, it alienates.
When brands or governments mimic culture without understanding it, they flatten meaning.
Cultural fluency isn’t a luxury. It’s a requirement.
Without Culture, Nothing Works
Culture teaches us how to learn, how to live, how to belong.
It’s the soft architecture behind our institutions, behaviours and beliefs.
It blends into education, anchors our lifestyles and shapes how identity is formed and expressed.
When we ignore it, systems drift.
When we recognise and invest in it, they become more meaningful, relevant and alive.
Culture gives context. Without it, nothing truly works.
The question is - are we paying attention to what we’re passing on?
We’d love to hear how culture shows up in your world. What are you consciously carrying forward, and what are you choosing to leave behind?