Personal Reflective Essay: Cultural Differences

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• Cultural Competency: The ability to understand, appreciate and interact with persons from cultures and/or belief systems other than one 's own.
Cultural Competence for me is the foundation of communication and it involves in the ability to understand the surroundings by becoming aware of the cultural values, beliefs and perceptions of my fellow human being. This can be a workplace setting, school, or public encounter. For instance, I’m originally from Somalia, and after completing high school, I went Pakistan to pursue an Agricultural Science degree. This was the first time I left my home—It gave me the opportunity to learn a new language, culture, and custom values, other than mine. One the other hand, coming to USA was another set of cultural values, customs and values (Eye contact, equality, time management and self-help) that were even different than the Pakistani one. Today, I know a lot of I consider myself a “Cultural …show more content…

This is the attitude I grew up. My father died a while ago but the values he instilled me are still with me. As today, I help my community in every way I can contribute. For instance, I volunteer a local food shelf called Emergency Community Help Organization (ECHO), which provides emergency food assistance to people in Blue Earth County and North Mankato. I go to the ECHO foods when I have a free time to hand food to the needy people in my community. This helped me understand the hidden aspects of my community. In a normal daylight, it’s hard to meet a desperate person who doesn’t have food to eat unless he/she is homeless, but volunteering ECHO gave me the opportunity to serve people the needy people. One the other hand, I donated my blood to Red Cross to help people desperate in blood transfusion. Blood is the most valuable gift that I have ever gave away. It’s also something I did proudly, because it’s a wonderful opportunity to save someone’s