Soda? Coke? Pop?

Today during class, we talked about cultural characteristics. Cultural characteristics are parts of a groups everyday life. They are the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members. These same characteristics can also link or divide a region. Examples are language, religion, and ethnic heritage. We looked at a map that showed what counties in the United States call soda. Each county is color coded indicating what each county called soda. For example, counties colored yellow called soda soda. Counties colored blue called it pop. Counties colored red called soda coke. We learned why in the southeast of the United States there are mostly red but only the bottom of Florida had yellow. That was because people form the northeast had moved down to florida because of the cold weather. They brought along with them soda. That is why they call soda soda instead of coke. We also talked about the kids who could speak different languages. Students who could speak  many languages are rare in the United States. As the generation goes on, the parents wont teach the language to the child.