Essay about Cultural Interview

My cultural ancestry comes from a Cuban and Mexican decent. I have chosen to write about my Cuban side because I can relate to them more than I could with my Mexican side. I was raised around my Cuban family and would occasionally see my Mexican side due to them living so far away. I have spent a lot more time associating with Cubans and have adapted to more of their habits.

For the intercultural interview, I decided to interview my friend Medelyn, a 19 year old female of Honduran and Mexican descent. During the interview, I focused on her Honduran culture, as she was born in Honduras, I asked her a multitude of various questions ranging from formalities in her culture to gender roles to classism in her culture.. The interview lasted about twenty minutes, I asked her about fifteen questions, and after she answered each question there would be a small discussion about her answer. When interviewing Medelyn, it was important to rid myself of any ethnocentrism, assumed cultural similarity or differences, stereotyping, and anything that could create a bias and compromise the interview.

Culture is defined as the boundary between different people from different ends of the earth. For my project I had to interview another person from a different culture. This was difficult for me because I had no idea where to start because I didn’t know what made my culture specific to me. I found my interview subject relatively fast and I sat down and asked the questions. I found my subject from my boss I interviewed my bosses boyfriends sister and we went at it.

As my cultural other, I interviewed EMG, she is 26 years old and the au pair for my nephew and niece. She lives in their home since she moved from her hometown Cartagena in southeast Spain. She will be leaving this May to return to Spain, for her sister’s high school graduation, after about 18 months with the family. In the time she has been here, I have seen and interacted with her at family gatherings, usually holidays and birthdays. I have not personally created a bond or relationship with EMG, but I think she is a sweet girl. EMG has become friends with my daughter; they have gone to New York City for New Year’s Eve and Pennsylvania for a Taylor Swift concert.

My life experiences with different cultures began in my hometown, when Prairie Island Tribal Council members educated students about their culture through lectures, dance, and band performances. This allowed me to appreciate my Mdewakanton classmates’ culture. My exposure to different cultures expanded during an internship at a medical examiner’s office, because death is universal. I learned being culturally respectful and sensitive begins by listening to their stories and experiences before answering their questions honestly and reassuring them the deceased would be treated with respect. As I traveled to rural Honduras on a medical brigade and as a student studying abroad in Italy and Germany, I realized by listening and observing without judgement, I began to understand the cultures. In addition, I discovered generalizations of a culture give an incomplete view and I cannot assume I understand a culture. Instead, individuals are unique based on experiences as well as their culture.

Andre Ebbinkhuysen is the subject of my culture interview. I chose him because I was interested in learning more about the South African culture and its history. We met at McDonalds on South College Road on Friday, June 10th at 11:00 am and interviewed for about an hour. I felt very comfortable interviewing him, as we share a secondary group at Cape Fear Community College, sitting right next to each other in our Sociology class. I feel I know him better than a stranger I would have tried to approach for this interview.

For my interview, I chose to interview my mom, Ilsa Wells, who had been born and lived in Colombia for 23 years before moving to the United States. Her family in Colombia was able to get by and provide for their fairly large family, albeit barely and with a lot of people having to work to make ends meet. She got her education there and when she was 23 she decided to move here in search of job opportunities and a better life.

After interviewing Joe, I decided to interview a student that has visited three times the Counseling Center. My interviewee’s name is Maryam Mirzaei. She is 26 years old and identifies as Persian. Maryam was born in Iran and is about to transfer to California State University, Northridge. I asked her what is her definition of culture, has she ever felt excluded based on her culture or ethnic background, what she wishes people knew about her, and how has she seen Pierce incorporate diversity on campus. Maryam stated her cultural background is her way of living. Because of her Persian roots, she celebrates a lot of Persian holidays. They remind her who she is and where her ethnic values come from. She feels comfortable knowing that in a lot of

When engaging in the dialogue with “Mrs. A”, I was constantly trying to remind myself that (1) it was not an interview, (2) I was trying to learn as much about myself as the other cultures, and (3) what I put into the project is what I would go out of it.

To guide my research, a variety of methods was implored. A few years ago, I was afforded the opportunity to study the development of Intercultural Education policies in communities of African descent in Ecuador. At the time, the country had started to make the plight of Afro-Ecuadorians more a part of the national discourse, and many new initiatives addressing the economic and social development of Afro-Ecuadorians had been erected. During the research study, I spent time visiting schools and community organizations aimed at fomenting educational opportunities for Afro-Ecuadorians in Chota Valley, Guayaquil, and Esmeraldas- regions that have the highest population of Afro-Ecuadorians. Although I was overwhelmed by the veracity of organizers, government officials, and school personnel committed to educational advancement for students of African descent, it was the efforts of leaders in Esmeraldas that

In Ellensburg, where Veronica lives, English is the primary language used. There are some negative attitudes about second language learners and their need to speak English. The town is make of wealthy, middle class and poor, although it is predominately middle class. The Census in 2010 showed that 85.7% of the population was white, 1.5% African American, 1% American Indian/Alaskan, .2 Native Americans/Pacific Islander, 3.2% Asian, and 9.7% Hispanic (Census 2014) (they can be classified as many different races. The power in the town is predominately while and it does reflect the population of the community.

I am going to meet with her on August 10 so I can learn more about her job duties and profession. I am so glad that she said that we can meet together because it can help me to decide what I would be doing after graduation. I know for sure that I will like to work for the Federal Government.

Going to a diverse boarding school I was fortunate enough to be exposed to a multitude of cultures and ideas, which has opened my mind and formed me into the open minded person I am today. In my time I accumulated friends from Nigeria, Indonesia, Australia, and so many other fascinating places with cultures that differed my own. One instance in particular which exposed me to ways in which my culture differed from my friend comes to mind. During the middle of junior year I had a friend from Seoul Korea talk to me about her possible plastic surgery endeavors in a very open and nonchalant way. I was not only surprised with the way in which my stunning friend, both inside and out, telling me that she felt the need to change her appearance, but

MiMi was very open to sharing her childhood and cultural experiences. She informed me that there were many things that affected her throughout her childhood, and she never really had a chance to share it with anyone outside of her experience, or culture. MiMi’s grandmother Lin was more restricted in her conversation. Lin was very quite at first, but warmed up towards the middle of the conversation. Many of Lin’s answers were one-worded answers, and she sat with her arms folded the entire time. MiMi was excited to sit down and talk, and smiled often when talking about her visits to China, and her family functions. I think that MiMi is proud of her culture, and was happy that someone else was interested in her culture. Lin was protective of MiMi, and I feel that she wanted to make sure I was not there to Mock MiMi’s

The school atmosphere was different I was hanging with Caucasian girls and the African American children did not understand what I was doing being so close to children opposite of my own culture. At that point, I was unsure of what their problem was but realized they were sheltered from other cultures and raised differently. This caused several fights as a child because other children would call me a “little white girl” and I had no idea of what that meant and was offended. I was raised around majority boys in the neighborhood, until I started playing softball, some would consider me as a tomboy. So