 Dear students, in this module, we are going to talk about the components of culture. And one of the important components of culture is the use of symbol and language. Symbols are the objects, images, or gestures that have specific meanings within a culture. These are the aspects that do not communicate using words or different mediums. Rather, we use different symbols, gestures, objects, or images for them. Language, on the other hand, is a system of communication that allows individuals to express their thoughts and ideas. So, for having a much more complex communication, we use the language. Language makes your abstract thoughts communicable. These are ideas, images, and thoughts that cannot be seen or felt. They cannot communicate within a physical object, physical word. They also make different words and concepts communicable. So, in any culture, the importance of language and symbols is just like the basic foundation of the international process. So, symbols help to convey cultural meanings and values. Any entity or object in itself cannot make sense until that culture or language does not have any meaning. For example, when you are a student, when we say that you are a student, then it would communicate nothing as long as you have a concept or you have the sense of meaning that is attached to this sentence. Who will be called a student? Its definition will not be communicated with that word until it becomes a concept in your mind. So, language, on the other hand, the symbols and language help to define and reinforce the cultural identity. The symbols and language use your cultural identity, your behavioural reflections, your normative forms, and your values. Food, as an example, we can see that as a Pakistani food, we use the language to communicate a lot of things within the food. But at the same time, there are some things in the Pakistani culture that we use to reflect different symbols. For example, the flag of Pakistan. So, Pakistan's flag is the symbolic value of a country's representation. In the language, we see that Urdu is our national language, English is our formal language. So, different languages use the complex nature of communication. The symbols are the symbolic reflection of different cultural identities.