Due today in 7 hours...... please read first ....

Examples:

The person I interviewed was my best friend Zach Delapaz, and he taught all about his Filipino side of his family and culture. He taught me some new things I did not know about the culture, and I have a cousin who is also Filipino. Zach taught me that family, religion, and education is very important to the Filipino culture. Since family is so strong the Filipino’s are very resilient and battle through all events.  I couldn’t meet up with Zach somewhere because I wanted us to both be safe and stay healthy, so we facetimed, and I interview him from our homes. The interview was on May 18, 2021, at about 2:30pm. I decided to interview Zach and learn more about his Filipino cultural was because I wanted to learn more about his family and the religion, I also wanted to know more because his background and how is was different from my background and my cousin really followed more of the family culture and only some of his Filipino background.  It was also interesting to me since in some ways it follows other cultures that I wanted to learn and understand.   I found that the Filipino’s are very respectful and are taught this very early in life and carry this throughout their life. I found that the Filipino’s love their culture, art and architecture, this is of the love of the land and life.  Zach and my cousin have told me that from a very early age they were taught to respect are and most important the architecture of not only the land of but the family.  When interviewing Zach, he told me that in the Filipino culture they are a tight knit family. The culture love a celebration and not only do they celebrate with food they celebrate with cultural gifts.  Zach’s family gets together a few times a year like lunar new year, and they would make food and after dinner Zach and his siblings would get red envelops, I asked Zach about the enveloped and he told me that it brings you good luck into the new. He also taught me that in the Philippine they take care preserving their land because it tries to fight urbanization and to keep their waters as clean and beautiful as possible. The Filipino they are very religious, but Zach’s parents are not very religious. He also told me that his family believes that they expect you to have the best education. My cousin told me that the food they served was to feed all and celebrate the occasion.  I did see that my culture and the Filipino culture is similar.  We celebrate life and happiness. This was a positive experience for me because I learned about a new cultural that was different from my own. I thought I knew a lot about the Filipino cultural but after talking to Zach about his cultural I found out a lot more about what I already knew about the red envelope they get at the end of Lunar New year I knew something’s about it but I never I knew when it was given. The next steps I will take is to increase my awareness and I will ask more questions about the culture to learn more and celebrate different cultures and events.  I will also do research about the culture.

____________________________________________________________________________

  I decided to interview my father-in-law, Mr. Yousef, because he is from Saudi Arabia and his culture is different from that of America. He is a 56-year-old who has lived in Saudi Arabia for most of his life. He was forced to flee to India with his family when he was a child due to the fact that his father was becoming a popular Iman (Muslim priest). He returned back to his country when he was fifteen years old right in time to finish high school. After high school, he enrolled in an airport program where he would eventually graduate and become an airport manager. He was an airport manager until his recent retirement two years ago.  

     I asked Mr. Yousef if he could share an experience or event that was or is significant in his culture. He asked if I had anything in particular in mind, to which I answered the culture shift in Saudi since King Salman appointed Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the next heir to the throne. He asked me why I was curious about that and I answered that I had been hearing a lot of news about Saudi drastically changing since that announcement. In addition, Mr. Yousef is from an older generation, so I wanted to see how things had changed from one generation to the next. He proceeded to tell me that several big events have happened. First, women are now allowed to drive a car in the entire country. He says that regulations have made it somewhat difficult for women to get their driver’s license. Second, another significant event that has changed the culture up is that women no longer need a man’s permission to travel anywhere. He explains that for generations, women had to ask permission and be accompanied by a male from the family in order to travel or visit stores. He mentions that women also had to ask permission from a male in the family to open a bank account. He claims that as of two years ago, this norm has been eliminated. Third, Mr. Yousef disclosed that women are now allowed to be at sporting events and they are able to participate in sports themselves as well. Fourth, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has allowed for the country to have movie theatres and theme parks. There is plenty of construction going on for that all over their country now. I guess they used to have movie theatres about 20 years ago but they all got shot down because American movies were proving to be too much for the culture. Fifth, he mentioned that women are no longer forced to wear a head scarf (hijab) out in public, but only in some major cities; They are still required to wear them inside Mosques. Sixth, Mr. Yousef mentioned that people are now allowed to play music in public. He specifically said that people are now allowed to bring speakers to the beaches and parks and play music as long as it is not too loud. Seventh, Prince Muhammed bin Salman is now allowing all types concerts to take place in Saudi Arabia and all people are welcome to come. Mr. Yousef claims even some rapper guy named Tyga did a concert in Saudi and it left a lot of Saudis in shock. Eighth, the country is now allowing non-pilgrimage tourists to visit the country with prior approval. Ninth, some restaurants are now starting to offer real alcohol to tourists, this privilege is only for tourists only. Mr. Yousef went on to explain that all of these new policies and events have shocked the Saudi people, especially the older generations. He says that the most shocking of all events is women not being forced to wear a head scarf (hijab). He says that this decision is a disrespect to their culture and the older generations. He says that he does understand why the government has allowed such a thing. He believes women should wear a head scarf (hijab) at all times. The other controversy going on right now is the presence of alcohol in the country, even for tourists. Mr. Yousef feels like that new rule is drastic and that soon enough alcohol will become a norm in their country even though alcohol is one of the biggest sins in their religion. He also feels that concerts should be carefully chosen and that the country should allow censor certain artists that come, musically and dress code wise. He claims a majority of the people feel the same way. 

     For a while, I have been wanting to question my father-in-law regarding the events in Saudi so that I could learn more about the events and experiences that him and all Saudi people have been going through. From the beginning, I have had a hard time dealing with this culture and I thought getting into deeper conversation with a person from an older generation may help me look at things from a different perspective. I went into this interview with an open mind and an open heart. I wanted to learn a different way of seeing this culture and its people.

     Plenty of cultural values were communicated during the interview. From my understanding, most of the Saudi people share the same values due to the fact that everything in their life revolves around their religious book called The Quran. Some of the values that were expressed were family loyalty, hospitality, generosity, duty to support the community and its members, and most importantly Islam. He says everything, from government rules to the culture, is all based on The Quran. The events that are happening now are really shocking to them. 

     I experienced many emotions during the interview. I found myself mad at first when I learned that women had never been allowed to drive, attend sports games, or be able to participate in sports like all men. I was mad because I myself have read the Quran and nowhere does it say that women cannot do those things. I found myself thinking that these people are being hypocrites for the fact that they claim that everything they do in their society is based on The Quran. Yet, nowhere in the book does it state women cannot do those things. I remained patient waiting for an explanation that could somehow explain those things and make feel less angry. In time, Mr. Yousef disclosed that people in leadership started to take things out of context throughout the years. Some people in leadership thought they had interpreted The Quran right and had decided that women were to be super protected from any type of danger. So in other words, some of the cultural things happened to be in place due to mistakes in interpretation of The Quran. As such, this is why there has been a big movement toward women’s rights in Saudi Arabia in recent years. When this was explained to me, my anger subsided. I began to feel hope and happy. It felt as if something big had finally been cleared up for me and I was finally at peace with this culture.

     This interview definitely confirmed what I already knew but it also clarified so many of my doubts and questions. I was honestly convinced for the longest time that this culture was unfair to women because of masculinity issues and a holy book that was biased. As I sat in this interview, I realized that some of the things I knew were true but most were wrong. This experienced confirmed that Saudi people do have extreme ideas compared to American ideas, but they come from a good place. This experience also confirmed that I have carried deep biases and that I needed to learn more about the culture and history to understand it. This experience corrected my thoughts about the treatment of women in Saudi. This experience also corrected my thoughts about how Saudi are not hypocrites and that they are allowing new developments to happen in their culture and society as a means to be more connected to the world. 

     I think that from now on, I am going to have regular conversations with my father-in-law about the new developments in his country. I think he is a trustworthy person and is very knowledgeable about his culture. He is the type of person who will not bias any information to try and convince you of liking his culture or his country. He tells things just how they are and he tries his best to give you the best interpretations of what they mean, to him and his people. I think that I can build my awareness of this culture and these people by talking to him more about the people, the country, and the new things that are happening that are impacting the culture and future of Saudi.