Instructions: Intercultural Interview Assignment Prep and Interview Guide

Your interview guide will consist of 12-15 well thought-out questions that you will ask your

interviewee for the Intercultural Interview project in this class.

These are the SEVEN REQUIRED Questions (modify the language if necessary to fit your

interviewee and the micro-culture/community you are focusing on):

1. Can you define what it means to be a member of your culture? How do you identify

yourself? What core values or ideas are important in your culture?

2. What were some cultural values and beliefs instilled by your parents (or members of

your community) while you were growing up (or first became a part of this community)?

Do you still hold those values/beliefs? Why are they still important to you?

3. What are some of the bigger traditions or rituals you follow/celebrate from your

culture? What are some traditions that you do not practice anymore and why?

4. What characterizes way you talk to other members in your culture/community? friends?

And with your parents? Or other elders in the culture? And expectations of how to talk

between and across genders?

5. How much physical contact is acceptable in your culture and with whom? How do you

show respect and affection amongst other members of your culture?

6. What advice do you have for people outside of your culture that would make

communication with you and other members more appropriate/comfortable?

7. Have you ever come across to someone who didn’t understand your culture? How do

you deal with it? What happens when you see your culture mis-represented? How do

you respond?

What kinds of other questions are informative and interesting to ask your interviewee?

(The focus of this class is on culture and communication. Your questions should be in line with

that focus for the most part). You may borrow from the sample questions provided and modify

them as appropriate or come up with your own.

Keep in mind:

Do the questions focus on cultural experience and communication behavior?

Remember the focus of this class. For purposes of this assignment, it is not appropriate

to ask questions that are related to physical geography or factual/encyclopedic

information that you could research and gather on your own. Focus the questions on

learning something about the interviewee’s cultural background/experience and on their

communication behaviors (both verbal and nonverbal).

Are the questions in an order that would flow well in an interview? It is

recommended that you start your interview off with some general questions to get

comfortable with the interviewee, and then get more specific in your later questions.

Think about how questions are connected and if it makes sense to group some of them

together (by topics/subjects, by follow-up or related questions).

Intercultural Interview Prep - FA19

Intercultural Communication (COMM 7)