1.

1 When asked to describe yourself, do you think of yourself as belonging to a particular

nationality or religious or ethnic group? Do you refer to your occupation, marital status,
family, contemporaries, membership of groups/clubs or similar? If so, which ones, and
why?
2. Mancunian

1. 2 What experiences have you had that increased your sense of belonging to a particular
group?
2. Being in Vietnam.    But really, as far as I can tell, all the experiences that have increased
my sense of belonging in a group have been those that have allowed me to define myself
in contrast to the group that these experiences that I’m directly relating to have taken
place in.    For example, Lunar New Year experiences have sometimes solidified that we,
as the English, don’t do this sort of thing…

1. 3 How has your background influenced: (a) The way you express yourself, verbally and
nonverbally? (b) The way you think about and relate to other groups? (c) The way you
choose your friends?
2.
3. Language as a tool for self-expression: Osaka ben and Vietnamese allowing me to express
myself differently

1. 4 What experiences have you had of people from cultural backgrounds different from
your own? Consider: (a) Friendships (b) Social relationships (c) Work relationships (d)
Travel contacts (e) Media exposure (films, TV, social media: Facebook, Twitter, etc.) (f)
Any other that apply in your case.
2.
3. Marriage, Japanese friendship, literature

1. 5 Have you experienced any (communication) problems because of differences between

your own and another person’s cultural background(s)? What about problems because of
radical differences in personality?

1. 6 If so, what did you do or could have done to make communication more effective?
2.
3. Understanding - just trying to engage with people and remembering that we have
differences, but also perhaps that there is a universal.    That lots of communicative issues
come from either one or both of the conversational partners not wanting to try harder to
understand one another.

1. 7 Which part(s) of your overall experience so far could be useful for connecting with
people from a different background and make communication easier?
2.
3. Living in Gambia and the United States as a child definitely set up a broader
understanding of different people.    Likewise for my dad’s engagement with different
business communities in Manchester (Indian, Pakistani, Jewish, Chinese).