reflection essay

Cultural Interview

I got a chance to interview my friend Student B, who is from China, for the assignment in the Cultural Norms at Work Class on May 17, 2017. In fact, the purpose of this interview is to learn how to understand each other’s cultures and respect their values and beliefs through intercultural communication. In this interview, I was able to identify the culture of China through several questions and to find out the values and beliefs of my partner based on Chinese culture with the active listening, which I learned in the class. I focused on the three things, that are expectations, perceptions of cultural practices, intercultural communication, in order to succeed in this interview.

	Firstly, I thought about the expected answers and prepared them before the interview in order to have a successful intercultural communication. As expected, I did not get beyond my expectation of attitude toward elderly people and adults. For example, Student B usually gives his seat up to the elderly in public, and when an adult comes in, he stands up to express respect to the adults. I could see that he has the values and beliefs that honor the adults as an Asian. On the other hand, Chinese table manner and funeral culture were quite different from what I expected. When it comes to table manners, it is not that strict. Cigarettes are allowed at the table and cell phone are relatively free to use during the meal time. Also, wearing white clothes at a funeral was not what I expected. Overall, Student B's answers were consistent with my expected answers.

	The second thing was to try to figure out the values and beliefs that lie beneath my partner’s cultural practices and norms. For example, the one thing that I learned through this interview was that brides wear a red dress at a wedding and most ornaments are decorated in red. This showed that Chinese belief, which red is symbol of luck, affects their norms and practices. In addition, another thing I learned was that Chinese value individuals rather than groups. This value was shown in the priorities of group project. Student B tends to prioritize his ability to appeal and identify the subject and purpose in order not to waste of time instead of getting to know other people. These Chinese values and beliefs made me interested and I had a positive response throughout the interview because some of Chinese customs are totally different from my culture.

	Finally, I tried to understand the culture of my partner and bring the atmosphere in a positive direction. For instance, I smiled during the interview, nodded and continued to make eye contact. However, it was hard for me to fully understand the cultures and values of another country. Particularly, the barriers of language were too great to explain our thoughts in detail. Despite the overall difficulty, however, interviews were successful in understanding my partner's culture due to the active listening we learned was a big help. 

	In conclusion, through Chinese norms and practices, I could see that my partner admires adults and is relatively individualistic and expresses his opinion clearly. Although our cultures and customs are different, the effort to understand has been a great help in accepting the culture of my partner. Through this interview, I learned how to communicate with foreigners. This experience will be a stepping stone for my college life.