Challenge №6

“It’s different cultures the make the world go ‘round at the end of the day”. Samantha Fox

My sixth challenge was: to have a video call with a foreigner and learn more about his/her culture.

I decided to talk with a guy who is an exchange student from Nigeria. He came to study IT in the University of Novosibirsk. I met him in one of so-called meet ups that I used to attend. I am not a fan of having video calls even with close people because I feel kind of uncomfortable. That is why this challenge was difficult for me. When I called him I was a bit embarrassed because I did not know what to tell. We already had a nice conversation earlier and I did not know what to ask. But then gradually I stopped feeling awkward because we started having a lively discussion about cultural differences of our countries. We talked about religion, national holidays, climate, cuisine. I became so curious about sweet potato they have, and now I want to try it to find out what was so special about it. Sometimes I was a little irritated as I could not understand him because of his strong accent, but it was okay because we’re both non-native English speakers. Surprisingly, I enjoyed having a video call because we laughed a lot, I could see all his emotions, and it was lots of fun. All in all, now I think that there’s nothing really scary about video calls.  I am happy that I overcame myself. I agree with the quote of Kristen Wiig: “When you go out of your comfort zone and it works, there’s nothing more satisfying”.