If you’ve ever traveled abroad, or even through the different neighborhoods of a large city, you know that communication is linked to culture. Culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group of people. A group’s culture includes the language (or languages) and other symbols used by group members as well as the norms and rules about appropriate behavior.

Most people are members of several co-cultures simultaneously. Co-cultures are smaller groups of people within a larger culture who are distinguished by features such as race, religion, age, generation, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, educational level, occupation, and a host of other factors.

Consider Anna, who identifies with a number of co-cultures: she is an American, an African American, a midwesterner, a married lawyer with two children, a person with an income over $100,000 a year, a Democrat, and a Baptist. Each of these co-cultures carries different meanings for Anna and affects her communication—including the languages she speaks, how she presents herself to others, and how she interprets others’ behavior (Chen & Starosta, 1996). Cultural identities can even form around interests and hobbies. For example, a music critic at Blender magazine might distinguish among rock, soul, and hip-hop and might even break those styles down further, using terms like old-school, freestyle, classic, punk, techno, and R & B. For someone less involved or less interested in the music scene, such distinctions might seem unimportant—it’s all just popular music.