Intercultural Interview Reflection
For this assignment, you will need to interview an individual a member of the culture you are studying for this semester (i.e., If you are writing your cultural communication practices paper on the culture of Peru, you would interview someone from Peru). Ideally, you should interview someone from a different civilization (not Western Civilization) and someone who is not a Christian; this will allow you to learn about different perspectives from your own on the concepts covered in this topic. Consult with your instructor early on in the process if you are having difficulties coordinating an interview.
This interview can be in person or over the phone (some people who have emailed have found that their interviewees actually plagiarized the responses so you may use email but be very cautious and check the Similarity Score before submitting). This may be someone you know personally or that you locate through a local cultural center, club, religious organization or even an embassy or consulate. You need to obtain permission from this individual to list their contact information in your paper in the event that your instructor needs to verify your work.
During your interview you should ask the following questions:
What do you identify as the most important or distinct practices of your culture?
How are gender roles addressed in your culture?
How is social power, authority, or social roles in a hierarchy expressed in your culture?
In class, we learned that in “honor-oriented societies,” worth comes from one’s role or group membership and in “justice-oriented societies,” worth comes from what one does or doesn’t do. What is the role of honor/shame in your culture? Are honor/pride and dishonor/shame important concepts in your culture?
After your interview, write a 750-1000-word paper summarizing and reflecting on the responses you received. What did you learn from this exchange? How did your perceptions change? Based on your discussion, how do you think your culture is perceived by others? You should incorporate at least three concepts from Chapters 12, 13, or 14 of your textbook in your response.
You must include at least one citation. You may use the textbook or a scholarly article on honor/justice, power distance, gender roles, or cultural practices.
Intercultural Interview Reflection
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Intercultural Interview Reflection
One of the unique features that individuals have all over society is that they have different cultures. In attaining cultural diversity, individuals need to understand their culture and other people's cultures to be more culturally tolerant. Even though there could have been many ways I could have applied to understand other individuals' cultures, I opted for an interview since it is fast and cheaper, considering that I was working on a fixed time and budget.
In this interview, I chose a girl from an Eastern culture. One of the main reasons was that women seemed to be disadvantaged in the Eastern culture than their male counterparts within the Western culture. Even though I could choose between interviewing in person and over the phone, I opted for an in-person interview. This interview helped me observe the interviewee's nonverbal cues, giving me a deeper understanding of their answers. Moreover, since I had more time, I had a chance to understand the participant better. Furthermore, since I wanted the interview to be more formal, an in-person interview helped to make this interview to be more formal. Even though I had the freedom to choose my interviewee, I chose the one from the consulate since the individual already had the recent information of their culture, having moved from the area recently, and it would also be cheaper since I opted to have an in-person interview.
The first question I asked her was what she identified as the most important or distinct practices in her culture. I mainly asked this question to understand what she valued most. This is the answer that she gave. "As a daughter, we always baked with our grandmother and mother. Every day we baked for breakfast and dessert. Baking was an important practice in our culture because it was an accomplishment to be known as the woman who would bake goods that the husbands and brothers enjoyed. It was a sense of pride for us. We still bake many goodies to this day; we now share those recipes with our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids."
The next question I asked her was how her culture addressed gender roles. The main reason for this question was that I acknowledged that most cultures have different ways of addressing gender roles. She answered that "Gender roles were as traditional as they got. The woman never said much; we were taught to be quiet and reserved. The men did all the talking and were the only ones allowed to give their opinions publicly. Though our mother was from Sweden and lived in America, those gender roles were still followed and enforced in our family values."
I also asked h...