¶ … interview of an individual who belongs to a culture different from that in Maryland. The interview explains the cultural differences between United States of America (USA) and his country. Furthermore, the paper casts light upon the experiences that he and his immediate family has had because of his stay in USA. Demographic Information

The interviewee belongs to Germany and lives in Maryland. He has spent his life in various states of USA but his origin is Germany, He has the wish to spend the last days of his life in Germany. His age is 45 at the moment. He is Jew by religion and has married to a Christian girl. His marriage was outcome of love between both of them. They decided to celebrate the differences in their religions and none of them forces each other to follow the religion of other. Both are free to perform their respective religious duties. By income group, they belong to upper middle class. It is the result of their high qualification and long service in esteemed organizations of USA.

Family Traditions and Culture

The traditions in the family of husband are not strict. When he expressed the wish of marrying a Christian girl, his family had no objection. On the other hand, the lady belongs to a religious and conservative family. Her decision of marrying a Jew person was difficult to be accepted by her family members. The intensity of love did not let her change the decision and she succeeded in marrying him. They shifted to USA after marriage. It was a new culture to them. Furthermore, their traditions were also different as they themselves belonged to different religions. They agreed upon spending a happy life ignoring the religious differences and decided that their kids will choose the religion on their own.

Residence

As mentioned earlier, they used to live in Germany before marriage, and they served in many states of USA, it is evident that they have changed their residence home multiple times. Their stay at multiple places has broadened their view about the world and life. Particularly speaking in the context of lady, who belonged to humble and conservative surroundings, has learnt many new things. Wherever they have lived, they have led a simple life style. This simplicity of personality and behavior is apparent in their only son as well. He is a simple and innocent boy, enjoying the company of his parents.

Day to Day Activities

The person is serving at a leading position in an esteemed organization. He gets up early in the morning to join office. His wife prepares breakfast and the two of them enjoy their happy life together. Then she sees off both the husband and her son for office and college. The son gets back to home by noon and enjoys lunch with his mother. The husband returns to home in the evening and they enjoy evening tea. Then the son gets busy in his studies and the old couple recollects old memories while performing the side activities of home management. They do the dinner together and get to bed early.

On the weekend, they go to perform their religious duties. Both of them take their son with them and he has respect for religions of both his parents. The parents are happy that he is a simple boy and has not made any girl friend as yet.

Educational Background

The father is highly educated from German institutes. He is a project manager and ranked high in social and professional circles. The mother is a graduate from Germany. As she belonged to conservative society, they did not allow her to go for higher education that than. She attended a restaurant as house-keeping assistant where she met him for the first time. They fell in love and married within the next six months. Now their only son is apple of their eye and they want him to lead a happy life by getting as high education as affordable by...

Their deep wish is to settle in Germany but they do not want to force their son to pursue his career in Germany. If he plans to live in USA, they are ready to support him morally.
Roles of Males and Females

In the culture adopted by the old couple, there are no strict roles for men and women. They assumed that father needs to fulfill financial responsibilities and mother needs to cater for the household related responsibilities. It was quite possible that the lady had a wish to serve somewhere to earn money, but her association with religious Christian family led her to follow the traditional role of women. As they were in love with each other, the husband did not ask her to do anything against her wish. Furthermore, their son was born after a year of marriage; she could not get time to plan any employment activity. The salary of husband was sufficient to run the small family happily. If there was any deficiency, they made up for it by adopting a simple life style.

Work Experience

The husband is a project manager presently. He had graduated as an engineer and served as professional engineer for long. It was his zeal and zest for his profession which paved ways for his success in the professional field and he emerged as project manager. The lady served in housekeeping department of a restaurant in her youth. It was her first and last working experience.

Differing Views of Children and the Elderly

The parents differ from the views of their parents as they decided to marry the person of different culture. The husband's parents were flexible about it yet they warned their son about the likely issues that could come in his marital life because of social pressure. The lady was criticized a lot but the love made it easy to take up the challenge. It was in their favor that soon after marriage, the husband got employment opportunity in USA and they shifted there. It was the place where nobody knew them and nobody criticized them for this marriage. Their relationship was in their own hands and both made dedicated efforts to run it smoothly.

Individualistic or Collective Family

The husband's family was individualistic while that of lady was collective. The family they brought up contained the element of individualism in exploring their interests; however, for long-term planning, they were collective. If the family is to be ranked at one side of individualistic and collective quantum, they are more towards individualistic. Their son has no religion and they have left it at his discretion. He may become Christian or Jew depending upon his own wish. The parents are not in the favor of pressurizing it. But it is interesting to mention that they do not allow him to adopt any religion other that Christianity and Judaism.

Important Material Items

There is one important material item in their family that is transferred down from generation to generation. It is a metal bangle which is given to the eldest daughter in law in the family. As the interviewed person is the eldest son of his parents, he gave that metal bangle to his wife. Despite their open mindedness and exposure to the modern world, the lady values that bangle and plans to give it to the wife of his only son.

Likely Future of Their Culture

The likely future of the culture to which they small family belongs, is an interesting topic. The parents belong to different cultures and live in a different culture from the one they were brought up in. Their only son is following the guidelines of parents which are either implicitly transferred to him through genes or explicitly taught by them. It is difficult to predict the future of the culture followed by them. There is difference between American and German culture and…