How To Become Cultured In Five Steps

Every start is hard, and we are offering you some simple advice for “cultural enlightenment”. Lets go, one, two…

Lets be honest for a few moments and admit the culture is something that needs time. Time is something that we usually do not have. When we do find some time, we like to spend it on beer, football matches, bad films and good concerts.

Where is that “culture”?

Culture has also, if we will talk about the topic in the frame of this article, has turned into something which is hard to find in a “normal” life.

Unlike rock concerts by entertaining performers, chamber concerts are not really advertised, exhibits are not going to make it to the front page of the daily newspaper, and books are quite often turned into a heap of paper which, sooner or later will become a film, so there is no point in trying.

But there is. Concerts of classic/chamber/jazz music can be a lot more entertaining than the performances of mainstream stars, sometimes an oil on canvas can turn into an event that changes your perception of the world (at least for one afternoon), and books.. there is sometimes nothing better than a good book, a cup of coffee or tea, and if you are a smoker a cigarette, to fulfil your boring rainy afternoon (when you have to turn your television off anyway so it does not burn out in a storm).

Every beginning is hard

However, we are at the start again. Where to start, how to separate the good from the bad? How to not appear silly in front of your friends when a “serious” topic starts? Where to get information? So many questions, the pressure is enough to break many to go to the fridge full of beer and a football match.

Do not despair, we have a few tricks that will explain how to be "Culturally enlightened".

1. Books for beginners/dummies

We admit to ourselves that we have often reached for these books. We love them! They explain great social and literary themes “in a few sentences”, and in the frame of their possibilities offer the heart of the topic that they cover. If you like that topic, then after it, get another “more serious” book, and if you are not interested – well, now you know what all of the fuss was about.

2. Walk into a gallery

First of all we need to approach one misconception that people often have about galleries. Entry is free! Many people that like to go to galleries might find this funny, but many people, wrongfully mistake a gallery for a museum that they visited when they were at school. Galleries get their financing from many sources, but making people pay entrance fees is not one of them. So when you enter a gallery, you have enough time to look at every picture that interests you. State your opinion. That picture is there because of you, and you have the full right to judge it. After some time you will have the needed arguments to rightfully say something like:

“this is not really much of a painting to me”.

3. Change the station

Radio stations try as best they can so that you never change that station on the radio. Do that! If you always listen to the same station you will never hear something new, and maybe a few megahertz away there might be a violin passage that would be perfect for that moment. Anyway, most modern musicians, especially hip hop, “put together” their hits using music from previous decades and centuries. Remember, jazz started off as cool music in smoke filled bars, with the sounds of fights and shootings, and classic music is listened to as the musical background of any film epic.

4. Choose books by their cover

This is advice that would make the hair on real literature lovers heads stand up. Rightfully so of course, books are valued for their content, not their cover. However, when you are just entering the world which is lying in the local library, use this little trick. If you like science fiction, choose the one which has the best drawn space ship. If you like crime stories, chose the one with the shiniest gun. Romance? You want something pink. The one with the golden retriever will tell you more about your dog than you thought possible. The principle is simple – use it.

5. Do not give up

Perseverance is a virtue that will take you far. Ask questions, even stupid ones, seek clear answers. You do not know the difference between a violin and a viola? No problems, neither do we (at least at first glance), but we will learn. You do not know anything about opera? Libraries are full of audio and video recording of famous stars (maybe you even know of one, start with them). What is the purpose of the black keys on a piano? Who knows, maybe they are spare is one of the white ones breaks.

Countless questions, and the answers should be simple to find in today’s internet age. Quite often at least one friend from the bar knows the answer because he heard it from somebody a long time ago.

See, it was not that hard. You do not have to use all of the pieces of advice at the same time, but if you find yourself in a position to be “culturally enlightened”, then do it, you will not regret it. Of course, culture is a demanding job, and the best rest from it is, you guessed it, a good beer and an even better sports match.