Cultural Diversity Interview Essay

As people look at others around them and guess what cultural background they come from without knowing, in most cases, they are either slightly off or on the opposite end of the spectrum. Most everyone has been guilty by their assumptions of race or ethnicity at some point. When interviewing John Killingbeck, a twenty-year-old student at SIUe, I learned that he has background that surprised and interested me immediately. I recently met John and was aware that he was Latino, but I did not know enough of his unique cultural background. He was born and raised a United States citizen. However, he has a background that is unique to him and his family. John’s father was born in The Republic of Panama and he emigrated to the United states before he married and had John. Their heritage is still very present in their family and it is a part of John that he embraces and is proud to share. This student’s diversity is a …show more content…
As he explained to me, Panamanians and other Latino cultures are less time-oriented and more family-oriented or people-oriented than Americans are. He added, “we often joke about how difficult it is to go to any events because we are always running on ‘Panamanian time.’” By this, he was referring to how his family is laid back and time is not a value that they uphold in Latino cultures. Panamanian families, being people-oriented, live with the grandparents and the children, as well, until they get married. In contrast, they describe Americans to have a high value of time and punctuality, but not as high of a value for the family unit. In addition, the differences between the way these two cultures are oriented have an effect on misunderstandings between them. In the text, McCornack () explains how the value of individualistic cultures, such as the United States, have about time frequently sets them apart from cultures, such as Latinos (McCornack, 2013, p.