There is a need to distinguish two paradigms of 'culture' in applied linguistics. What has become the default notion of 'culture' refers to prescribed ethnic, national and international entities. This large culture paradigm is by its nature vulnerable to a culturist reduction of 'foreign' students, teachers and their educational contexts. In contrast, a small culture paradigm attaches 'culture' to small social groupings or activities wherever there is cohesive behaviour, and thus avoids culturist ethnic, national or international stereotyping. Ethnography uses small cultures as the location for research, as an interpretive device for understanding emergent behaviour, rather than seeking to explain prescribed ethnic, national or international difference. A small culture view of English language curriculum settings reveals mismatches between professional-academic and organizational cultures at the mezzo level of the institution; and (small) cultural imperialism is revealed as the invasion of the technologizing discourses connected with instrumental 'ELT'. Within the small culture mélange, culture learning will not necessarily relate to ethnic, national or international difference.