Background Information on Interviewee
My interviewee will be a male whom I will give a pseudonym of John. John is a friend of mine who is of thirty years of age, dark in color, and tall. He is a man of great personality and portrays an African Culture. He is an immigrant in America, where he is pursuing his career as a doctor. His home origin is based in Africa, where his two parents have raised him in a family of seven, and he is the firstborn in his family. I had an opportunity to interviewee him, and this interviewee has made me understand my friend better than before especially the differences and challenges he has to face due to the difference in cultures.
Summary of the Interviewee’s Story
John has faced many challenges as he lives within the culture of the United States. During the interview, John opens up and acknowledges the difficulties he has gone through trying to accept and embrace the mainstream culture of the Americans. As much as he tries to ignore the central culture, he is forced to accept and practice it. John has to learn and embrace the mainstream culture since it is part of him and his day to day activities. As he learns about the mainstream culture, he recognizes that there is a difference between his own culture and the mainstream culture. It makes it difficult for him to adjust and live by the two cultures. However, the interviewee says that he plans to maintain his own culture as he tries to learn and live by the mainstream culture.
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During the interview, John speaks about his discrimination among his peers as he was not welcomed as expected. He claims that the young people of the American culture sees the people from the African culture as weak. Notable resistance came from the neighborhood and school environment. However, he acknowledged that some people have recognized him and appreciated his culture as well as his differences. These same people have portrayed a need to learn his culture, therefore, giving him equal treatment as their own. In this case, he has made very few friends who appreciate who he and has welcomed him with their whole hearts.
Despite the discrimination that he received, John is happy that the African culture has been embraced with a few from the American culture. He has come across some Americans who have set up businesses that portray the African culture. Some of the have opened up shops that sell African items such as clothing and artifacts, making it possible to maintain his culture. He has been able to buy clothes and eat African food while he is within American culture.
As John was seeking employment, he was faced with organizational and language barriers, thus making it difficult for him to secure a job. John claims that most of the organizations he has sought employment from have not considered his applications due to his nature and culture. From his point of view, he claims that the organizations’ first priority was their fellow Americans, even though his credentials were better than theirs. Moreover, communication also became one of the barriers when seeking employment as he was not able to speak with the American accent. The American accent also made it difficult for him to understand the speaker clearly, thus hindering communication. However, with all of the difficulties he has faced due to cultural differences, John says that he is gradually adapting and embracing his new culture, the American culture.
Comparison of Interviewee’s Story and Your Own Story
Birth order refers to a sequence in which a person is born in a family. The term is believed to have a psychological effect on the person as well as development (Shah and Jadav, 2016). It is believed that people have different personalities according to their birth order, whether they are the firstborns, the middle, the youngest or the only children in the family (Shah, & Jadav, 2016). According to the interview, John portrayed some characteristics that are different from my own due to the difference in birth order,
John is the firstborn in their family, which makes him take the lead on others. Firstborns are said to portray natural leadership skills since they have superiority over the younger siblings. Other characteristics of firstborns that affect their personality include reliable, protective, responsible, and controlling. Besides, they are considered to be diligent, structured, and achievers (Bartlett and Hurd, 2018). In summary, it can be said that firstborns are fact-oriented people.
On the other hand, being the youngest in my family, I get all the attention from my parents. I am usually known as a ‘baby’ of the family, and this has a considerable effect on my personality and psychological development (Bartlett and Hurd, 2018). Some of the characteristics of the youngest children are that they are outgoing, attention seekers, and dependent on others for decisions and responsibilities and non-achievers. The youngest children are known to be the people who always want to have fun, are rebellious and self-centered. These characteristics portray a personality of the last borns being extraverted, lives in the moment rather than future-focused.
The book of “4 skills of cultural diversity competence” analyzes the cultural aspects and barriers from a personal and interpersonal level to an organizational level. The information from the textbook identifies two aspects of culture, which include art and expression forms and social interactions. A case study of a classroom setting is outlined, and shows how students feel neglected, disappointed, and devalued by the school due to cultural diversity (Hogan, 104). The content from the class text relates to the interviewee since they go through the same experience as the students mentioned in the textbook. Therefore, cultural diversity competence skills should be taught to the whole world in order to avoid discrimination due to cultural differences. Institutions should make it a priority to train their workers on these skills in order to deal with the problems brought about by the difference in cultures.
References
Shah, D. P. & Jadav, M. (2016). To what extent does birth order affect our personality? International Journal of Social Impact , 1(3), 87-95.
Bartlett, N. T. & Hurd, P. L. (2018). Fraternal birth order effects on personality: will reasonable claims require extraordinary evidence ? Archives of Sexual Behavior , 47(1), 21-25. doi: 10.1007/s10508-017-1109-z
Hogan, M. (2012). Four skills of cultural diversity competence (4 th ed) . California: Cengage learning
