Cultural Interview Report

Administrator " [Course Title] " [Date]
Administrator " [Course Title] " [Date]

"Culture is more often a source of a conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster" – Greet Hofstede.

As the quote mentions, we all have different cultural backgrounds and we are not necessarily like each other .I am Tunisian and for this reason, I was curious to interview a Moroccan friend of mine in order to get to know the culture and my friend herself more. As I majoring in Communication studies and Media Production is my concentration, this assignment might perfectly fit my dream job which is "Film Producer". I might be interviewing specialists to realize a movie or a documentary one day. As the professor asked us too this assignment, I was very interested in tying this experience and asked my friend Kenza Tahri to help me with that task. As I mentioned in the last sentence, my friend is named Kenza Tahri, a nineteen-AUI student and she is from Casablanca-Morocco. We were sitting in front of the cafeteria and here is how did the interview go:

First, I opened the interview with a very simple question in order to prepare Kenza for the rest of the exercise. "What is your definition of culture?"
She didn't hesitate a lot to give me a quick answer, "when I think culture, I automatically think about traditions, food and clothes. That's what culture means to me"
I wanted to switch a little bit the conversation to get to know Kenza better and know how to orient the interview. I asked her "how do you define success?"
A huge smile appeared on her face and she seemed glad to be asked that specific question because she had a lot to say: "Success for me is to achieve long-term goals, to get a well-payed job and to have a wonderful family, I think every young girl sees a part of her success in getting a good husband and having the most wonderful kids in the world.
Afterwards, I asked her about education since we are in an academic environment: "How important is education in your environment? "
She answered with a lot of confidence on her face: "Education in the Moroccan culture is VERY important (she has put emphasis on the word very). In my opinion, you can't have important conversations with highly-educated people without having a minimum of cultural and educational background"
I was very respectful to that and immediately noted her answer on my sheet of paper.

I was curious to know more about "civism" in Morocco then I asked: "Is punctuality important to you? Why or why not?"
She seemed confused at the beginning of the answer but then, was more comfortable to tell me that It's very important but at the same time, it's very hard to be punctual in Morocco because almost, no one is punctual. Then, she provided me with a very concrete example which was the following: For example, if you have an appointment and you know that the bus is coming at a precise time, it will never come on time so automatically, you'll be late for your appointment. I confess that after one year and a half spent here in Morocco, this is very real and it happens almost all the time with me personally.
At that time, I was more interested in knowing more information about Morocco's food then I asked her about the most important meal of the day in Morocco.
"Breakfast is like a party time in Morocco. There is a lot of traditional food in there such as "Rghayef", "Msemene" and many other bakeries.
She inspired me with her answer and, at that moment I got a question on my mind which was: "Do you have any eating habits\rituals that are specific to your culture?"
The answer was quite obvious for her: "Indeed, we have the "Couscous" for Friday. Almost every Moroccan family prepares "Couscous" for lunch. It can be either with chicken or beef"

Always talking about the Moroccan food: "What is the most known meal in Morocco?" "The most known meal in Morocco is "Couscous" which is from a Berber origin, "Pastilla" and finally Moroccan kitchen is known by its "Tajines" which is a kind of a mixture of chicken/beef/… , oil and other (epices)" she said. It was (tentation)
After having enough material about the Moroccan food, I tried to completely switch the topic and orient the conversation to Religion which is considered as very sacred in this country. I asked, "What's the importance of religious ceremonies in your country? Do you think it's really religious or it has became a traditional custom?"
She seemed a little bit embarrassed but chose to provide me with a complete answer anyways: "Praying every Friday in the mosque is a mainly a religious custom but as the time goes on, it has become a traditional habit that everyone feels obliged to accomplish because of social constraints" .
Since she answered me on that question, I decided to get deeper in the level of religion because it was very important to me especially if I'm living here. "How is the physical contact between the two sexes viewed in Morocco?"
This time, she was more comfortable with the question since I iintroduced her to the topic. She said: "It is viewed as a sin. ( … short moment of thinking… ) I think it's contradictory because some habits are banned by the religion but not by the society so, it can go in both ways."
And at the end of the interview, I was more interested by asking about the most respectful habit in Morocco because it might help me one day in a situation or another. She told me that saying "Salamou Alaykom" to a person who you even don't know is seen as a very respectful way of being a good citizen among the Moroccan society. In general, you have to show respect to the persons walking in your side even in the street. I found that amazing. I personally think that it tightens the social relationships between the different ages and categories of the society.
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