Jhon Kenneth D.

Jabon

BS ACC 1-2

My pen pal friend's nickname was Hongnan and my expectation to her was she's a business woman
who value time and money because she said that she is a Chinese who migrated in New Zealand. I thought
Chinese are greedy and just focused on generating money based on the issue in West Philippines sea, I
thought that they are risk taker. My initial impression to her was I think she is matured and knowledgeable and
that she can give me advices and tips base on her experiences. I can say that I have a deep conversation to
her and We are hoping to be friend and I also expected that she will become my friend whom I can share with
my experiences and story. I also expected to learn a lot of things about her Culture as a chinese. I think she is
a good listener and ready to give advice and can motivate people. The reason why I wrote a letter is because I
want to have a friend from other country that I can share my story and knowledge about our culture and trivias
about Filipino. I also want to experience having a conversation with other ethnicity and to practice and hone my
English writing skill. I want to know the cultural characteristics of my chatmate and in order for me to identify our
cultural differences and how I can communicate to them effectively even if there is a cultural differences. I am
curious on how they practice their rituals and traditions.

My pen friend is from New Zealand and what I discovered to her when I am having a conversation with
her is that she is basically a Chinese that migrated in New Zealand in order for her to study English and to
finish her master's degree in Information technology. I mentioned to her that I love to watch anime and I found
out that she also love to watch anime like death note and food wars. She love to plant flowers because she said
that it can grow by its own and her mood becomes light when she saw flowers. I also found out the reason why
she migrated from China to New Zealand , According to her she wants to work in a country where there is less
pressure , she said that working and living in China is really stressful and people there only care about money
and they always give pressure to other people, there is no much privacy and respect in China. She doesn't
have money and high salary and she feel like she is a loser. She also gave me advice and tips on being a
college student because I mentioned to her that I was a first year college student who is struggling and having
a culture shock in University. The cultural pattern that I've observe to my pen pal was she belongs to a high
context because she said that she is goal oriented and wants to learn to improve her skills in communication in
order for her to establish relationship with other people. I think she is an individualist type of person because
she mentioned that she is working hard for her family and to achieve her personal dreams. Her impression to
Filipino was conservative because she already met Filipino people and she said that most of them are
conservative.

The strategies that I will do to bridge the gap between our cultural differences are to continue having a
conversation with her , I will share interesting facts, trivias and characteristics about the culture of Filipino and
also I will ask her if she can share some of her knowledge about their culture so that we can exchange ideas
and we can learn new knowledge about cultural characteristics of one another. I will continue to make our
conversation fun, interesting and meaningful. I will also share to her my experiences of being a filipino. I will ask
her essential questions that I can use to know her better. I am going to continue identifying our mutual interest
and I will also talk about myself in order for her to know me better. I will open up to her my passions, dreams
and beliefs so that she can be more comfortable talking to me when she have an idea about me. I will have a
conversation to her with respect and I'll be sensitive and be careful not to offend her with my message.
Jhon Kenneth D. Jabon

BSACC 1-2