Intercultural Experience - Personal Statement Example

Intercultural Experience I recently had an enjoyable experience by spending an afternoon visiting a Hispanic family that I had met through a mutual acquaintance. They are a typical American family with two girls aged 13 and 9 and have lived in Indiana for about 15 years. However, they still maintain their Mexican cultural traditions, religious practices, and social norms. You could get a sense of their ethnic connection with Mexico when you entered the home and became aware of the decor and the aroma of Mexican food.

Though Maria said that the family often eats American style foods, it is intermixed with the cuisine of Mexico. Today she was cooking pulled pork that was slow cooked in oil. Maria served this on freshly cooked corn tortillas with a variety of toppings. It was obvious in the household that the family was from Mexico and had a rich religious tradition. There were religious icons on the end tables as well as a bible in a conspicuous place on the table. There were also pictures on the wall that depicted religious scenes.

I asked Maria about there religious background and she told me they were Catholics. The father, Juan, said that the Catholic religion was a dominant religion in Mexico and both he and Maria had become Catholics at birth and had been baptized into the religion as young children in Mexico. There was no doubt that Juan was the head of the household. He sat in the chair that dominated the living area. When the meal was served, Juan sat at the head of the table and was served first. The family seemed to attend to his needs and offered him a great amount of respect.

I asked Maria if her children were always as well behaved as they were today, or if they were just on their best behavior for my benefit. She said that they were always well behaved during dinner. Meals were a special occasion and the children and family regarded mealtime as a time to talk and communicate with one another. Though the whole family was bilingual, the parents spoke mostly English and encouraged the children to speak English as their native language.After lunch, we talked about work and their impressions of the American workplace.

Both Maria and Juan felt that Americans were too bureaucratic. They felt that the American management style was too aloof and removed from the workers. This was a cultural difference that comes from the collective nature of the Mexican traditions. They felt that managers often viewed themselves as better and more important than the workers. They believed that managers should be there to help the workers rather than merely to supervise them. I concluded my visit and the departure was warm, though also very formal.

They invited me to make a return visit sometime in the future and the children said they were glad that I had met them. I gained an insight into the family's sense of religion, the family structure, and the importance of food in the Mexican culture. I also got some idea of how the collective traditions of Mexico translate to the feelings that Maria and Juan had about the workplace and the American management style. While the family was very much American, they maintained many of their traditions and cultural norms of their Mexican homeland.