Expatriate Interview

One of my closest friends at Queens is a very well traveled individual named Nicholas. He has lived in El Salvador, France, and the United States. He was born in Florida and raised was raised in France though his family is El Salvadorian so he has spent a coupe of years in El Salvador with his family. He speaks English, French and Spanish fluently and has fit in well here at Queens. I sat down with him in his Room where he and another friend from El Salvador were playing FIFA 2011 a soccer video game and talking to me about their experience in El Salvador. I focused around three key areas of culture and wanted to see the El Salvadorian perspective on the matter. First I asked what they were surprised to see in El salvador in comparison to the United States. I asked them the difference in how their culture viewed family and what that means to them. I then asked them how they have adjusted to El Salvador culture and if they liked the adjustments. Throughout the interview they were full of jokes and kept the atmosphere light, at least between them, I was usually the one at the butt end of the joke, but non the less I had a good time interviewing them. When I asked them what surprised them in El Salvador as suppose to the U.S or France they said the biggest difference was the how in America people are worries someone might sue you if get into someone elses business. They used an example of how when you walk anywhere in El Salvador and drop something everyone and anyone will help you pick it up and give it back to you. While here in the United States if you were to drop something they would just keep walking and not help you at all. This kind of society that involves the community of the individual is a society that has high collectivists standards. Communications between different cultures states that: Collectivism means greater emphasis on (a) the views, needs, and goals of the in-

Expatriate Interview

group rather than oneself...(200). This is representative of a lot of hispanic cultures their statement also reflects on how hispanic cultures have a low-uncertainty avoidance since hispanic people tend to not be afraid when people within a culture are made nervous by situations which they perceive as unstructured, unclear, or unpredictable(200). My friend told me that it is very easy to talk to strangers in El Salvador. When I asked them about the differences they noticed between El Salvador and the U.S. they said that the biggest factor between the two nations was the sense of family in El Salvador in comparison to the United States. They said that in El Salvador so long as you are with friends that you are welcomed into any home that your friends are welcomed into. It is also customary for them to give you food once you are inside their house. Nicholas also stated that when you host a party in the neighborhood you will be held with great respect amongst the community. They also said that family is so important there that if you were to leave the country you have to spend time talking to them every day and keeping up interaction or else there will be a lot of emotional damage.They said unlike most American families where the son or daughter goes away to college and only sees their family for break. El Salvadorian families usually make the children go to local colleges and if they do leave its a big deal in the house. When I asked them how they adjusted to EL Salvador they talked a lot about how the adjustment was that the police were not really the law. They said the biggest adjustment is the connections you know and how that is the law. There are a lot places in El Salvador that you cant go without trouble following you. They said that they heard stories of friends bribing police 20 dollars when they got caught for drunk driving and

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that you can get away with almost any crime so long as you pay the bribe. They also said it was scary at times since the two major powers in El Salvador are gangs and that they commit horrible crimes to innocent people for no reason. These were all reasons for them to feel scared even in broad daylight. I felt like the El Salvadorian culture is intense and scary at times. There is a lot of aspects about the culture that gives it a warm and good feeling, but at the same time there are many scary aspects of the culture that would make me personally afraid of seeing. I do want to travel there at one point in my life, but from what I learned I have to go with Nicholas and make sure I stay out of trouble.

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Work Cited Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E.,& McDaniel, E. R.(2010). Communication Between Cultures(7th) Edition ed.) (M. Eckmon, Ed) Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Wadsworth