Question
Describe a place where you learned another culture.
You should say
• where you went
• what it looked like
• who you went with
• and explain how you feel about the culture.
Sample answer
Three years ago, I went to Yunnan, a province characterized by a variety of ethnic groups. I lived there for about half a year, when I witnessed a number of cultures of the ethnic groups, like bai, Tibetan, dai, etc., which I’d never seen before.
And the most impressive one to me was the Nahki culture. The Nahki people live a completely different style of life: They wear traditional clothes only, which include wide-sleeved loose gowns, jackets, trousers and a beautiful belt made from cotton and sheepskin. And… They have their own language with which they talked with each other inside their community, although they had no problem communicating with me in Mandarin. Not only is the spoken form different, but the written form of the language is unique; dongba symbols as it called, it is actually a system of pictographic glyphs, which has a history of over 700 years. And that is why the writing system is called a living fossil.
Some other interesting aspects of the Nahki culture is that, the people have a totally different view on feminine charm. Unlike most people around the world, who hold the belief that thin is beautiful, the Nahki people regard plumpness as a main criterion when judging women’s appearance. This is partly due to their matriarchal society, in which women are heads of families and they just need to be strong to do everything from household to farm work for their families.
