My name is Elias. I am a poor black worker in South Africa. The time when I first met Nelson Mandela was a very difficult period of my life. I was 12 years old. It was in 1952 and Mandela was the black lawyer to who I went for advice. He offered guidance to poor black people on their legal problems. He was generous with his time, for which I was grateful. 
In the textbook series English, two texts relate to outer circle cultures: "Student Profile:South Hill High School of South Africa" and "Beautiful Ireland and Its Traditions." In the South African student's profile, while few cultural elements are evident, there is mention of the student's nationality. The text is as follows:
 I'm Thando Gowon. I'm 16 this year. I come from South Africa. I'm a Grade 10 student at South Hill High School. I look good, think fast, and play hard. You'll never see me without a book or a pen. If I'm not in class, I'm either in the library or in the computer lab. At the weekends, I play computer games if I'm not busy studying. My dream is to start my own IT company. 
In another text with cultural evidence of life in Ireland, some unique aspects of Irish culture, including natural and humanistic features are evident in the following excerpt:
Ireland's beautiful countryside has always had a great influence on its people and traditions. The country has a long history of producing great writers and poets. Its beautiful countryside excites and inspires all, offering something for each of the senses...With all this beauty, it is not surprising that Ireland has developed strong traditions that include music, dancing, and dining...stop by a village pub and relax with a glass of wine or local beer...
The aforementioned excerpt provides a relatively comprehensive presentation of Ireland's culture and history. However, the representation of other outer circle cultures of this kind is insufficient.
The four texts relating to cultures of outer circle countries only focus on "people" (Elias and Thando Gowon of South Africa) and "practice" (sightseeing in Ireland's countryside). The students' profiles do give some basic introduction to their lives, but these texts do not provide a clear insight into lives of people in South Africa. Also, the description of Ireland's beautiful countryside introduces some of the subthemes of cultural sustainability: "natural heritage," "landscapes," and "history appearing in the environment". However, other aspects or subthemes such as cultural customs, cultural heritage, and awareness of history are absent.
The content referring to the cultures of expanding circle cultures is relatively limited: 9.3% in the NSEC series and 8.1% in the English series. In the textbook English, there are five texts referring to expanding circle cultures. Two texts are about life in Peru and introduce readers Peru's history, geography, language, and people, with particular emphasis given to tourism experiences: "Amazon Rainforest Tour," "Machu Picchu Tour," "Cusco Tour," and "Lake Titicaca Tour." In spite of some sporadic references to people's cultural practices in Peru, these texts mainly focus on cultural landscapes, especially Peru's natural environment and ecosystem.
While the text "Machu Picchu Tour" highlights Peru's ancient Architectural achievements:for example, the Incas' dry-stone method of building; one of the other three texts contains two letters in which the authors share their travel experiences in Cairo and Athens, in which tourists mostly refer to the scenery and the local food. However, in the other texts "Samovar:the Special Teapot" and "From Problems to Solutions," the texts explore the cultures in depth as follows:
...special teapot:the samovar! It's a traditional Russian water boiler that can also brew tea. It played a big part in Russian history and was a central part of Russian family life for a very long time...Almost 200 years ago, my great-grandmother's great-grandmother was trying to survive yet another freezing Russian winter when she heard about a new invention called a "samovar," which means "self-boiler" in Russian...The samovar tea-making process is quite special and has two stages. First, a teapot containing lots of tea leaves and a little water is placed on top of the samovar...
This excerpt describes the cultural history of a Russian teapot, the "Samovar," providing details about its invention, its integration into Russian family life, and its tea-making process, while at the same time highlighting its cultural symbolism: "The samovar symbolizes happiness, and that's one thing that I want to keep in my family forever!" This is a typical text referring to the subtheme "Interaction between Generations" of cultural sustainability, which introduces stories that one generation will share with another through the special samovar teapot. This story contributes to cultural sustainability for reason that it portrays "learning from and appreciating one's family" and "bringing together different generations and times." As indicates, "[c]ulturally sustainable development takes different generations into account" (p. 57).
The text "From Problems to Solutions" presents readers with a practical modern problem: How to build a new dam across the Nile to control floods, produce electricity, and supply water to more farmers in the area? Protests arose because water from the dam would likely damage a number of temples and destroy cultural relics that are an important part of Egypt's cultural heritage. This problem was addressed, by moving the temples and other cultural sites to be effected by the flooding of the dammed area to a place where they would be safe after the Aswan Dam was completed. The relocation project was considered a great success, in particular because this was achieved through the united efforts of the international community. The text introduces the solution to the problem of preserving ancient cultural relics when needing to also allow for progress in the form of modern development.
In the textbook series NSEC, there are seven texts on the cultures of expanding circle countries, which differ from those in the textbook series of English. In English, the cultural representations of expanding circle countries mostly refer to beautiful scenery, while the cultural representations in the NSEC series tend to involve the presentation of literature and scientific achievements. For example, two texts that refer to literature highlight the importance of Anne's Diary and the Greek story:The Story of Atlanta, while two texts refer to "Copernicus' Revolutionary Theory" and "Finding the Solution," introducing the great astronomer Nicolas Copernicus and the mathematician Leonhard Euler.
The textbook series NSEC contains 13 texts (17.1%) that represent Chinese culture. The textbook series English also includes 13 texts (21%) with reference to Chinese culture, as shown in Table 3.
As shown in Table 3, the texts referring to Chinese culture involve engagement with several content areas, such as cultural icons (NSEC: Why not carry on her good work? A pioneer for all people, An early farmer pioneer; English: Mother of ten thousand babies), traditional cultural heritage (NSEC: Big Feng to the rescue, A sad love story; English: The Chinese writing system, Promoting culture through digital images, My amazing Naadam experience, The five virtues), environmental issues and natural features (NSEC: A night the earth didn't sleep, The return of the Milu deer; English: The night the earth didn't sleep, A day in the clouds, The strange tale of the Milu Deer), and students' experiences in/out of schools (NSEC: A letter from Xiao Dong, The dream and the plan, A night in the mountains, A letter of invitation; English: First impressions, A letter of advice, A travel plan to Xi'an, Learning English).
Regarding Chinese culture, the two textbook series mainly include texts relating to students' personal experiences and events, as well as some Chinese scenic spots and great historical figures. While these elements are aspects of Chinese culture, the connotation, in this case, is that culture is not limited to social interactions and personal experiences. According to, culture in foreign language education involves different aspects of culture, which can be termed "products," "practices," and "perspectives." The texts in questions involve less in the way of cultural references relating to "perspectives" and "products." The preservation and transmission of cultural heritage and traditions, such as thinking patterns, the products of music, and literature, are essential to cultural sustainability. Meanwhile, "from the standpoint of sustainable development, one should see examples from different cultures alongside with one's identity and surroundings so that development could be globally sustainable" (, p. 57).
There are six texts (7.9%) in the NSEC series containing cultural references to "mixing cultures," and eight texts (12.9%) in the English series referring to "mixing cultures." The details of these texts are as follows, respectively.
The texts in Table 4 introduce or compare the cultures of different countries in a single text. For example, "The open hand-a universal sign" in the NSEC series introduces the ways people greet each other in Japan, India, Muslim countries, and the Western world. Another example in the English textbook series is the text "World cultural heritage sites," which presents the world's cultural and natural heritages (as highlighted by UNESCO), such as the Taj Mahal in India, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and Cologne Cathedral in Germany. These texts introduce cultures throughout the world that are thought to be of vital importance to human history and culture.
The category "common culture and nationality unclear" accounts for 26% of the texts in the NSEC series and 21% in English. Texts on common culture and unspecified culture discuss some universal topics with cultural origins that are not clearly indicated, for example, science topics, such as "Is exploring space a waste of time and money" and "Homes on Mars," or global trends and social issues, such as "The face-down generation" and "Online safety." This category is not discussed in this article because the unspecified culture is irrelevant.