Cultural Interview Essay

All around the world, there are people with many different cultural values, backgrounds, languages, and traditions. Being from Nepal and being culturally orientated has helped me realize what values I might bring to a certain place. Through my culture, I’ve learned that not only do I love learning and embracing my culture, but I love to learn about other cultures too. In 6th grade, I knew a girl named Amira. She was from Egypt. We were both at a new middle school, so we didn’t know each other, but in a matter of time, we became best friends. However, I noticed that many people even her own friends didn’t know much about Amira and her background. They just assumed that she was from the United States. During lunch, we sat with our friends, and they made comments

Before I followed, I told the group that Amira was from Egypt so obviously she was going to have a foreign accent. This was one of the moments that made me realize Amira and I had similar yet different stories. For me, people automatically knew I was from a foreign country. For Amira, people assumed that they knew her background, but in reality they didn’t. We lived right next to each other, so every Friday we would hang out. Sometimes she would tell me stories about Egypt and her culture. Sometimes I would dance to a Nepali song for her. She was fluent in Arabic and I was fluent in Nepali, so we would teach each other words. She would come to my house and start a conversation in Nepali with my parents and I would do the same with her parents. I was so fascinated with her culture, I went out of my way to learn more. This experience helped me and Amira become closer friends. If I was put in a similar situation again today, I would not respond differently because my automatic reaction would be that I needed to stand up for whoever was getting hurt. Throughout the learning journey, not only did I want to learn more about her culture, but I wanted to learn more about other