Interviews

Questions

1. Where did you go? How long it was it?
2. How did you feel when you arrived?
3. Was it difficult to get used to these new customs?
4. Did your religion life change in that place?
5. What was the most impressive thing about the other culture?
6. How can you incorporate into your culture aspects of this new culture?
7. What do you dislike about this new culture? And why?
8. Did you find any difference between your culture and the one that you visited?
9. If you didn’t find any difference between the cultures, what were the common things?

Girls

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Magdalena		Maria		Josephine

Girls

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Margarita		Florencia

What Magdalena (Chilean) told us

1. I went to the United States of America, specifically to Birmingham, Alabama. I lived there for three years.

2. At first it was strange because I didn’t know anyone there, but as I spent more time there I started liking the city and the country very much.

3. It wasn’t that hard because it is not as different, and because I was little I was able to learn fast.

4. The only thing that changed about my religious life was that I didn’t have religion classes at school. I went every Sunday to PSR (Parish School of Religion), where I had classes.

5. Everything was impressive. I lived in small city, and where people are very dedicated to family life. So, I was very impressed at how family was valued and cared. Also, education was incredible. I went to a public school, and received an incredible education. And, last, what most impressed me was at how many opportunities everyone had. You could read, act, play, do sports, etc.

6. I can incorporate it by telling others about my experience, and about how many great thing we can do as a society.

7. I have to say that the three years I lived there where some of the best in my life, so I don’t have much to criticize about. I think the only hard part was that I did not leave close to all my family, but it an incredible experience.

8. Yes, the US culture is much more developed than the Chilean. They are very respectful about the freedom of choosing what you want for your life.

9. The way we live (houses, cars, dressing), family and education are very important for both countries, and also there is respect for the government.

What María (Chilean) told us

1. I went to North Dakota, USA. I went for 7 months.

2. I was very excited to get to know everything!

3. Kind of, but not too much to the family that I went was really similar as mine, but it was kind a hard to get used to the customs of the young people, and the hang overs and stuff.

4. Yes, because I was with a family that was Lutheran. And of course I wanted to know how was that religion so I went to church with them all sundays, and only 4 times during those 7 months i went to a catholic church, and at the beginning I felt like I wasn't very catholic anymore, but then I realized that it was kind a similar and I was not being a bad christian.

5. Well the most impressive thing was how they live, I mean kids are very independent. They do many thing by themselves, that here all the parents help them to do that and they learn how to do it by themselves years later. And the other thing is almost no one smoke cigaretts, they prefare weed.

6. I would include to my culture to start hanging out earlier. I mean that the time of the partys, dances and stuff start earlier so they don't finish at 4 or 5 a.m., so then the next day you can take advantage of it, and I would include the thing to teach our kids to be more independent.

7. I dislike that they are allow to drink at 21 years old. I didn't like it because when they have the opportunity to drink, being illegal of course, they drink very fast because they are scared that they are gonna get caught, and they get drunk in a second, and when they are 21 they drink the whole week and just getting drunk. Instead that we drink and we are not scared of getting drunk, ours is like a social drink.

8. We have many difference. There they get the license to drive under 18. In the state that I went they were able to drive since 14 years old. The food was very different.

9. Both practice a lot the religion, both have family life and also the way of celebrating birthdays was very similar.

What Josephine (Chilean) told us

1. I went to Australia, now I have been living here for 2 years and a half but I am suppose to stay here for around 5 years.

2. Probably exited but at the same time scared, incase Australia was really different and I might of not fitted in.

3. Not really it wasn't difficult at all, I found it easier to follow their way of life, it's more simply in a way but yes it was different just took me around a year to finally get use to it all.

4. Here in Canebrra, there is only a very few group of people that are actually religious, here they only celebrate christmas as a media thing not to celebrate the real meaning.

5. Cant really think of something probably here in Canebrra, is how easy life can be like it's all so accomodated for how you live (buses, schools, jobs, driving etc.)

7. I don't actually dislike it at all. Yes it is very different from the chilean culture but after guetting use to it I quite enjoy it to be honest.

8. Yes I did completly different, can't say what exactly or explain but I think I would just have to say that the whole concept of life here in australia is very different, sometimes can be similar, to the chilean one. Like values, forms, daily roteens is very different, not to the worst or best its just different.

What Maggie (Argentina) told us

1. I went to the United States of America and lived there for 5 years, due to the job and studies of my father.

2. On one hand i felt very nervous because I didn't know what to expect from all the people and places I was about to confront. I didn't know if I would fit in. At the same time I was anxious, I was looking forward to getting to know a whole lot of different friends and learning from them things that maybe I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't moved there. Of course I missed my family and my friends, I was leaving a whole life behind and I knew it was going to be hard.

3. My first impression was negative, I didn't like the idea of changing those little details, things I was so used to do. However; it didn't take much time for me to open my mind to new experiences and flavours. I supose its related to the fact I was pretty young when I first moved. I wasn't very conscious of the change I was living and I was quick to adapt.

4. Yes, it changed but i feel I grew a lot in that aspect of my life. I had a solid base of catholic christianism and in the USA I got to know other types of catholic people who either lived christianism in a different way or others that weren't christians which gave me a different point of view. They made me think about why I was living my religious life that way and helped me to determine myself, being able to defend it.

5. Something that really impressed me was the blue ribbon schools. They were schools that invited our fathers to offer their time voluntarily for educating other people that couldn't afford better education. My mother decided to help this organizations and I thought it was a great gesture. It was a very nice experience, watching how all these people worked for free so the rest could have a decent education, which later on probably would mean a decent job and so on.

Continues Maggie's interview

6. Now that I have returned to my country, along with my family we have been transmitting all these aspects we've learned. My mother, for example, has been getting involved in different schools with the intention of giving more space to those who need special education.

7. Something I don't like would be the "oversize me" which was very common in that culture. Some people just couldn't sit down and have a nice homemade dinner. Instead, they spent all their meals at restaurants or having fastfood. People were also used to throwing damaged or old stuff away when they still could be fixed, and replacing them with new ones. Apart from being a waste of money, what would happen if someday they couldnt buy this new devices an they don't know how to fix them up?

8. Of course, there were plenty differences but that is the reason why I learned so much. If our cultures were the same I wouldn't have learned anything at all and I don't think tourism would exist in that case. Anyway, to know how it feels, you would have to live this experience yourself because thats the only way of making it important for your own life.

9. What I could see that we had in common was the way our neighbourhood received my family. There was such a lovely spirit between our neighbours that they became great friends and upto today we have been hearing from them, seven years later. I remember I used to play a lot with the other boys and girls and we would have nice barbeques all together once in a while. Nowadays we have gone to visit them and they have their own little neighbourhood magazine which is delivered once a week with all the news between them. I felt honoured to appear with my family in the front page that week, letting everybody know that we were going to visit them and we were having a get together again. I can thankfully say that this lovely spirit is as well in my own town, it is a positive aspect that our both cultures have in common.

What Florencia (Chilean) told us

1. Academic Exchange for 6 months to San Diego, California, USA. (University of California, San Diego)

2. I felt a combination of two contradictory feelings, first joy because of the new experience I was going to live, and also sadness because I left my family back in Chile. Also, I felt really welcome here by the students and also other internationally people.

3. The most difficult thing for me was to live by myself. In Chile we go to study to the university but we still live with our parents. Here all the students live near campus, and left their homes at 18. It is a more independent life new for me.

4. Not really. At first I couldn't find the right church to go because there are a lot of different Christian churches. For Holy Week I discovered the Catholic community of the university and started going to mass with them.

5. The most impressive thing here is the variety of people you see around campus. They is a huge mixture of races, styles, fashion, etc. There are a lot of Asian people studying here, because of the large amount of immigrants that came to the U.S. Otherwise, in Chile we don't see many asian people daily, so that was a first shock for me.

6. I can incorporate the tolerance towards different people. To accept others and do not discriminate. It is really good how they all live in harmony here.

7. I don't like how the value of a united family is lost when the students leave their homes to go to college. For me, family is very important for the development of a person, and here that process is cut off when they leave.

8. Chile and the U.S. are pretty much alike because we are both westerns countries. Maybe the U.S. is a more material-consumer country than Chile, but we are taking that direction too. Also a difference is the language, English in the U.S. and Spanish in Chile.

9. We have many common things, like a Christian-based religion, the occidental cloth, the food, how society works,etc.