Welcoming Families From Around The World

The family I would love to prepare for culturally and welcome into my home would be from Pakistan. Pakistan is located in Southern Asia. The Pakistani culture and customs are different from the Western culture and I believe having a Pakistani child in my home and learning her about her would be quite interesting. Before I can welcome a Pakistani girl I would have to learn about her culture. The first thing I would want to learn about her is which ethnic group is she is from because the country of Pakistan comprises of many ethnic groups. The second thing I would want to learn is her name. As we know a name is a source of identity and it is very important as the host I am able to pronounce her name properly and even know the meaning of her name. The third thing I would do is to find out the kinds of food my child guest eats. Food is very important and having a guest in your house not eating what you have prepared for meals can be very distressing and I definitely would not want my guest to be hungry. The fourth thing I would to prepare for my guest is to learn a few about their language such as a few minor phrases. Probably I would get a language book to help with interpretation of basic words. Learning a few words from her language will allow some amount of communication. The fifth thing I would want to learn about the Pakistani is about some general customs and etiquette. This very important too because how Pakistanis relate to each other especially in terms of gender relationship will impact on the kind of relationship formed. Unfortunately girls are treated as cattle in the Pakistani culture and many times are married before they reach the age of 16 years. Being prepared for a person of different culture is very important. Even though we might be different in cultural practices we basically are the same and have the same needs such food, shelter and clothing. To benefit from a cultural exchange we first must understand each other and, be very open-minded. Many times we become misled by what is being said in the media about persons who may be different from us. We do want to be stereotypical and bias in our behavior and therefore it is best that we are informed about the persons who are different from us culturally.