The interview I conducted for the Connect Program allowed me to learn a lot about how people’s upbringings shape the way they communicate and understand cultural differences. I interviewed two people, first participant was a 19 year old Egyptian friend studying psychology and theatre, and the second participant was a 23 year old friend who is half Pakistani and half British. I chose them because both have grown up around different cultures, so I knew they would have strong and interesting opinions. The main question I asked was how their upbringing influenced the way they communicate and view cultural diversity. What stood out to me was how both interviewees became skilled in intercultural communication, but through completely different experiences. The Egyptian interviewee learned about diversity through their community, constantly meeting people with different backgrounds which made them more tolerant and open minded. The half Pakistani half British interviewee learned diversity through their family, growing up in a mixed household and speaking four languages, which made it natural for them to communicate across cultures from a very young age. The interviews flowed smoothly and both people were comfortable sharing their thoughts.

The Connect Program as a whole had a strong impact on me. It made me realize that many cultural differences are not as big as we think and that people in other countries often deal with the same issues we face. Some countries were also much nicer and more welcoming than I expected and this changed my perspective a lot. Asking questions in the program was not difficult because many of them were things I had always wondered about. I wanted to know if people in other countries face similar problems to us and whether what the media shows about different countries are accurate. Some questions I already had in mind while others came from the conversations themselves, especially when we talked about traditions and holiday celebrations. The biggest success of the process was how friendly and open the group was it helped everyone feel safe to share. The only real challenge for me was the meeting duration. Two hours felt too long and I would have preferred a shorter and more focused session. However, even with the long meetings there were no awkward silences because our facilitator and one very active participant kept the conversation energetic. At first, I even thought that participant was the facilitator because he asked so many engaging questions.

I noiticed that communication skills improved a lot, especially since English is my second language. The main factor that helped was the group which was really encouraging for me to speak and share my ideas . One surprising thing I learned was that in some Christian traditions, fasting can mean giving up an unhealthy habit like chocolate or social media, instead of avoiding certain foods. I found this really interesting because it was something I had never heard of before.