Nursing Profession In Nepal

According to “American Nurses Association”, Nursing is defined as the process of protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of different illnesses and injuries, improvement of suffering through diagnostic treatment and encouragement in the care of individuals, families, communities and populations. Nursing profession not only cares for the physical aspects of the patient but the mind and spirit as well. The task performed in nursing profession is wide. It is the process of encouraging, providing safe environment, doing research related to health system and management and providing education etc.

A.  History Of Nursing In Nepal  (Past, Present and Future)

            Florence Nightingale is considered as the founder of modern nursing. It is believed that Nursing began in a home as a result of the traditional women taking care of their family as a role of mother, daughter, wife or sister. Similarly, nursing profession became eminent when women helped the wounded militaries and armies in the second war. The status of women in Nepal is relatively poor compared to other parts of Asian and other developed countries. In the past few decades, most of the women in Nepal were illiterate even if some are literate they were bound to do the household work. When nursing profession was first introduced in Nepal, there were various sociological factors that affected the personal and professional development of women. Conservative believes and male dominant society always kept the Nepalese women in the back of the society. Women who were working outside of their home were not viewed having a good culture. Although nursing profession has been always regarded as a valuable profession in developed countries but in Nepal nursing profession mostly being a female occupation was taken as a low status. In past days, nursing profession was totally banned for female members. Mostly, in rich family the daughters were not allowed to become a nurse. The parents strictly used to prohibit their daughter from receiving nursing education. Still there is a motto in Nepal that, ‘If sons are spoilt by studying commerce and girls are spoilt by studying nursing”. However, modern advances in technology and medicines have brought dramatic achievement throughout the world. The change of this achievement also touched in many developing countries like Nepal. These days in Nepal, the role of a nurse is more expanded from hospital to the community field. Nursing profession has been developed for both art and science consisting of psychological and biological sciences that work together to continually improve the health care field.

Because of the development of modern technology, the training of the modern nurse is incomparably              better   than past days. The education and the special trainings that have been provided to the Nepali nurse have changed the past concept about nursing. Now this profession has been recognized as a prestigious and responsible occupation in Nepalese society. The concept about studying nursing has changed a lot. People have started saying that the nursing profession is very different than other occupation because it is a profession that has got higher responsibility by working with the life and death of the people in the society. For this reason too, Nurses are taken as highly respected profession in the Nepali society. Instead of sending their daughter in other fields, parents have started sending their daughter in nursing field. The most recent development in nursing education has leaded this profession to a bright future of all Nepali nurses.

B.  Educational background

Today, in Nepal, this profession has developed practices in different nursing specialties. They can go in any field according to their choices like in other international countries. They can specialize their nursing study in any branch of nursing like, Psychiatric, pediatric, midwifery, emergency, community etc. Because of broaden features in nursing profession Nepali citizen will enter in this filed in future too. In order to become a licensed nurse, one should take a three year course at a college, or four year program at a university. However, there are different levels of nursing study in Nepal. The requirements to enroll in nursing school now have become very strict. One has to pass her school leaving certificate in first division.  By passing Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) nursing which is three years course, one can become Staff nurse or Registered nurse. Similarly, Bachelor’s in nursing is a two years course after PCL, to study bachelor one has to have at least two years working experience. There is also a provision to do Bachelor in nursing by completing final two years of high school from the science background with the biology major. The demand of well qualified nurse is growing equally in Nepal like in other foreign countries. For this reason too, there are lots of nursing colleges established in Nepal. Increasing number of patients and hospitals, nursing homes and clinics are the main reasons for the numerous establishments of nursing colleges. As a result this has led many students to choose nursing course for their career development. According to the statistics provided by Nepal Nursing Council, there are total of seventy nursing colleges in Nepal, on which there are six academics authorities to run nursing colleges. They are Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu University, Pokhara University, National Academy of medical sciences, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences and Council for Technical and Vocational Training. (CTEVT). These institutions provide both theoretical and practical knowledge in and outside the college area. For the practical knowledge they take their students to different reputed hospitals and work with the patients and different virtual scenarios. The development of nursing profession has been increasing day by day to take up nursing as a remarkable career.

C.  Professional Background in Different areas

Nursing profession is the one which requires more theoretical and practical knowledge. In Nepal, nursing career can be seen in different faculty. Some are oriented to clinical area and some are oriented to community or public area. Nurses who work in community area are called community nurse. The community nurse provides different levels of cares to individuals, families, population groups and communities, concerned with the promotion of health, prevention of disease and disability and rehabilitation. The goal is to raise the standard of community by helping them and their families to cope with the threats to health in such a way as to maximize their potential for high level wellness. They especially focus on promotion, prevention, protection, balance and social justice. They go to different area of villages and provide health education about different diseases and health related topic.  Clinical practices recognize the Registered nurses for their excellent services, their role in promotion for the personal and professional growth and reward them for their hard work. The continuous involvement of the nurses for the quality improvement activities ensures a quality level of expertise towards nursing care to the patients and the families. Clinical practice is beneficial for the nurses for their overall progress, as their goal is to be a caregiver to the patients in the clinical setting. It is a very recognized practice which will benefit the nursing profession as well as the entire hospital. Hence, Clinical nurses are rewarded by various benefits like prestige, recognition, monetary compensation, and opportunities that will be benefit their career in the long run. Though, the background of nursing profession maybe various but it is recognized as a respected profession and best career for all people especially for women in the world. For this reason, nursing profession has been famous in all over the world. Nursing profession has been demanding day by day through its various specialties in all over the world

D.  Personal Background

                When nurse work in the different field like in hospital and community it is a very rewarding career. Nursing is the profession who specialize in the care and support of patients in various medical settings. They perform a variety of tasks from assisting doctors, administering medications, and monitoring patients. However, nurses are also someone’s’ mom, daughter, daughter in law etc The history and development of the nursing profession is very interesting.  As we know that, nursing is believed to have begun in the home as a result of the tradition of women taking care of their family when needed, whether it be the role of a wife, a daughter, a mother, or a sister, still in Nepal. .  When she finishes her job in hospital then again she has to do household work as well. The nursing profession in Nepal can be considered as the profession with more struggles. Sometimes, she doesn’t get chance to give time to her family by doing her long hour duty in hospital area. They are totally dedicated to their profession who are always ready to spend twenty-four hours with their patients. For this reason, to become a nurse one should have strong emotional stability. In a society , she has to act as a model of one professional medical person in medical area and when she go back to home then  has to act as a model of mom, daughter or sister.

E.   Factors affecting the Nursing Profession

There are many factors which affect the nursing profession in Nepal. In Nepal there is no additional government support to improve the nursing profession. Government has not given care in the shortage of staffs in the hospital, for this reason single nurse has to see whole ward with the multiple number of patient. Because of work load nurses in Nepal are frustrating day by day and they are motivated to go in foreign land.  Not only in Nepal, study has shown that all nurses in the world are frustrated and have faced job dissatisfaction due to lower level of nurse staffing and growing workload. Nepal being a developing country there is still lack of medical manpower like nurses, doctors in remote areas in the ratio between patient and health personnel. Not only for remote areas but Nepali nurse has started working in foreign land too as being an international registered nurse. They go to other international countries because of high salary quality. For this reason too, Nepal has been facing a problem of nursing shortage. Also, in a Nepali society, nursing profession is not given that much respect which is given to the doctors or other health professionals. In spite of working hard in her profession, credit always goes to physicians only. Along with that there is less salary and less facilities in the working area. Those kind of some negative factors have negatively affect in nursing profession in Nepal.  

F.   Conclusion

The nursing profession is the profession which provides new opportunities and new skills    in the society. For this reason too many youngsters are attracted in this field. However, there is always full of job opportunity at all levels of nursing in Nepal as well as in international countries in any practice and specialties which proves that future of nurses in Nepal is highly demanded. Nursing profession is highly demanded by all around the world. However, before choosing to become a nurse, one must first examine themselves and look to see if they have the right qualities for this demanding job or not. They should examine themselves that some qualities such as caring, compassion, a strong desire and willingness to help those in need, patience, honesty are with them or not.

Citation

1.    Satnton, M.W. (2004). Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care.

       Agency for the Healthcare Research and Quality 14, Retrieved from     http://www.ahrq.gov/research/nursestaffing/nursestaff.pdf

2.    Gurung, M. (2003, March). Nursing. CAREER BAZAR. Retrieved from

                           http://www.wavemag.com.np/issue/article1156.html

3.     Peter, S. (2008, September 26). The Future of the Nursing Profession. Ezine Articles

    Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Future-of-the-Nursing-Profession&id=1516655

4.    Adhikari, S. (2008). Nursing: No Longer A Dirty Job. The Rising Nepal. Retrieved from

    http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/gopa.detail.php?article_id=36729&cat_id=10

5.    Koontz, A.M., Mallory, J.L., Burns, J.A., & Chapman,S. (2010). Staff Nurses and      Students: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. MEDSURG Nursing. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=17&sid=62d40a01-bc24-4030-8625-88dfc52db868%40sessionmgr15&vid=4

Outline for final paper.

Introduction:

In Nepal, a demand of nursing profession is very high. This profession has been recognized as respected and responsible job in our country.  Following points are the important factors for nursing profession.

Body:

I.                    History and current status.

a.       Past

b.      Present.

c.       Future.

II.                   Educational background.

a.       Educations system.

b.      Nursing schools.

c.       Degree.

d.      Theory and practical knowledge.

III.                Professional background or their role in different areas.

a.       In clinical area.

b.      In community area.

c.       Other public areas.

IV.                Personal background.

a.       Around family.

b.      Around society.

c.       Around working area.

V.                  Factors affecting the nursing profession in Nepal.

a.       Socio cultural factors.

b.      Environmental factors.

Conclusion: Finally I will able to describe about the nursing profession in Nepal by including their history and current status, educational, professional and personal background and factors affecting this profession.

Report of third Interview winner.

The winner of my third interview is Lee Pakou. She has taken an interview with the student from Ethiopia. While reviewing her all three interviews, each interview has its own unique style. Her Interview and country report could impress any readers and can take some ideas for writing and conducting an interview. Viewers can easily be impressed with her interview. Her personal thoughts regarding the interview are really impressive. She has tried to make the interview very clear and has included important facts and data about the country. The main thing that I liked most was her interview was very fluent and words were in respective manner. She did a great job with her interview including reference and citation, which I think is an important part for each report. She has put great effort in every topics and all topic are described with full of information. It is very important to know that while asking questions for an interview, the questions should not be open ended that mean not yes no question. Her questions have touched each important topic like cultural, religious and personal background of Ethiopia. Over all Pakou has done great job in writing and conducting an interview, however, if she would had included some pictures to write her country report then that would be the plus point for her report.

Winner of third interview

Here

Topic for final paper.

I have choosen a topic," Nurisng Profession in Nepal" for my final paper. I feel this topic as a suitable topic for my essay because of my past experince in Nurisng profession. This essay will help me to explain about the educational and professional background of Nepali nurses and their values in Nepali society.

Report of my best Interview winner.

I chose Sanjina Karki as a winner for the second interview because while looking at her blog, all the requirements were fulfilled in her post. She has chosen her interviewee from the country Ethiopia. While reading her interview, it seems she has put a lot of effort to conduct her interview and to prepare her report. She had made very clear heading for each different topic by making the letter bold and increasing the size of letter which was really impressive one. It really made me easy to read each heading and description. Similarly, while reviewing her interview process and her transcribe of interview, I found it was very informative one with lots of facts and data about Ethiopia. Her questions was not open ended questions, indeed her question was really meaningful with important topics. For this reason too, her important part is interview with her interviewee that gives us useful information about country. She has applied good pictures on her blog to describe about the country. Those pictures have provided additional points to know the living style of Ethiopian people. That mean, how they live, what dresses do they wear, what are their everyday food etc.  Her interview has included all important parameters that requires in our course schedule. She has included references also in the bottom of the country report which is very important thing in our report.  She has gathered all important information about country by asking important questions related to cultural background, country, their food, dress etc. Most of the questions were really good by including important subject matter. I like each part of her interview process and transcribe of interview. However, the thing that I would like to complain about her report is for not including some interesting facts about the country. If she had included some more interesting and surprising facts about Ethiopia then it would make her interview more interesting. Over all her interview and her report is really interesting and meaningful.

LINK

Herehttps://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AibJ9S9Lth5xdE9PdkwtMHBvY1ZmUHVqeTRaVHg2TFE&hl=en&authkey=CL7K7JIP

My Third Interview.

Preparation of my third interview:

            I conducted my third interview on 09/11/20101 at Miller Center on third floor. The person whom I conducted an interview was the male student from Sri Lanka. His name is Nadun Gurusinghe. My friend Udara, who was also my first interviewee, introduced me to his friend Nadun. This really made it easier for me to approach him. While taking my third interview I had more time to prepare for it. As I have already taken interview with my two interviewee, I got chance to gain lot of information about Sri Lanka. The two interviews which I had already taken and studied made my third interview more perfect and in easy way. While taking my first and second interview, I knew that on which topic should I focus and how interview flows if I take this question. For, this time I prepared my interview focusing on following process:

A.    Assessment

B.     Planning

C.     Implementation

D.    Evaluation

A.    Assessment: My first two interviews went very well which really made me feel more confident for my third interview. While doing assessment, I went back to my first and second interviews, read all the questions that I asked. I also read all facts about Sri Lanka and went back to some websites to learn more deeply about Sri Lanka. I believe doing this thing I will be able to make my questions more reliable than previous interviews. I assessed all my questions very carefully and recognized all my error that I did in my previous interviews. I tried to find what problems aroused while conducting previous interviews.

B.     Planning: While planning my third interview, I decided to conduct my interview in the library because my third interviewee was very busy with his class assignments. To save some of his time, I planned to conduct it in the library’s third floor. As we were supposed to add eight more questions in our third interview, I decided to edit some questions. I planned to hand my questions at first to my interviewee like I did in past two interviews and gave some time to read so that it will make both party more comfortable. Similarly, being prepared with every necessary thing that is required in an interview is most important part and skill during interview. For this reason, I roughly calculated the time that the interview would last. Checking my Tape recorder was also one of the important parts of my planning process because if it did not function properly then it will definitely create problems. I plan to prepare my questions in intelligent manner so I planned to make it according to some specific facts about place, culture, religion, education etc.

C.     Implementation: By assessing all my weakness and strength points on my first two interviews, I made my final questions ready for my third interview. Though the questions were simple and related to everyday life, I made a copy of my questions to hand to my third interviewee, Nadun. Then after making sure he was ready, I started my interview.

D.    Evaluation: My third interview went in perfect manner. Both of us equally took part during the interview. I did not find any disturbing factors like cell phone ringing, which I experienced in my second interview. I had already requested him to keep his cell phone in silent mode and not to receive any calls during the interview which he had agreed upon. Both of us were relaxed and were comfortable talking with other. I asked all my questions with curiosity and he tried to answer them with his full effort and knowledge. The surprising fact that I came to knew from this interview was about marriage in their culture. According to my interviewee, they were allowed to marry with cross cousin and parallel cousin. That is they can marry with the children of their uncle and aunt. It is really surprising to me that they marry within their own extended family. This came as a surprise for me because in my culture cross cousins and parallel cousins are considered and treated like our own brothers and the marriage between us would be a taboo.  

  

Map of Sri Lanka

 Sri Lanka
 Sri Lanka is a small island of Indian Ocean that lies in the southern Asia with the area of 41,006 square miles. The capital city of Sri Lanka is Colombo and the neighboring country are India and Maldives. Most of the land is flat and rolling in which mountains in the south-central region rise to over 8,000ft (2,438 m). Large parts of Sri Lanka is covered with tropical forest with hundreds of rivers flowing through them and amazing waterfalls.  While talking about climate, it has no marked seasons. The climate is tropical monsoon (December to March) and southwest monsoon (June to October). The constitution of Sri Lanka established a democratic republic of Sri Lanka. The government is a mixture of the presidential system and the parliamentary system.  President is the chief of the country.

People of Sri Lanka and their Language and Religion:

The population is about 21.3 million with different ethnic group, in which Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tami l4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, 10.5% Indo- Aryan emigration. Sinhalese came from India in the 5^th century B.C and is the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. For this reason Sinhala is the most widely spoken language in the country. Sinhala is the constitutionally recognized official language of Sri Lanka with about 13 million people speaking this language. The interesting part of this language is, this language is not spoken anywhere else in the world, other than by a few traders in Chennai India. They also speak Tamil and is considered as a classical language and the oldest of the Dravidian language family. It is spoken by Tamil population of Sri Lanka. Similarly, while talking about religion, Sri Lankan people follow different religions. Sri Lanka has Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, and other 10%. The majority of people in Sri Lanka follows Buddhism and is given a place of preference in the national constitution. In Sri Lanka there is a system of classes and castes as well as gender and ethnicity. Class is determined by qualities such as wealth and education and caste.

Cultural background related to festivals, foods and dress

Sri Lanka, in culture, is rich with different groups of people and ethnic background. Culture is highly embedded in Sri Lanka like other South Asian countries like India and Nepal. It is blessed with different culture in the aspects of life, food, costumes, traditions and religions. The culture of Sri Lanka has unique combination of practice and originality. The kingdom of Sri Lanka is multi ethnic and multi religious. Sri Lanka, in short, is country where art, culture and religion are a part of life of the inhabitants. Their traditional music and dance is also the aiding factors to rich their culture. Music traditions in Sri Lanka vary from folk music to religious one. Festivals are also a part of Sri Lankan culture. They can be either religious or National festivals. Sinhala and Tamil people celebrate Sinhala and Tamil New Year festival every year on April 13^th where as Muslims celebrate Ramadan. Diwali is the festival of lights which is a national holiday celebrated by Hindu religion and Christian gets holiday on Christmas, 25^th of December. Being predominantly a Buddhist country, Buddhist festivals occurs more than any other religion’s festivals. The Buddhist calendar is based on the moon’s phase, every Poya Dawasa, or full-moon day, is a holiday. Sri Lanka has no approved national dress because they have different communities like Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Though there is no approved national dress, male Sri Lankan wear long sleeved shirt without collars up to their knee and white Sarong is worn by male on some occasions or as the national dress. It is also worn by the members of parliament including the President of Sri Lanka. Majority of middle class males wear trousers and shirt. Females wear Sari, Osari (dress of Kandyan ladies), skirt and blouses. In wedding dress called Mul Anduma is worn by bride grooms with different ornaments and Crown Royal shoes.

Sri Lankan is great food lovers and their foods are hot and spicy. Rice is one of the most important diets in Sri Lanka and is the basic food for all meals. Each ethnic group in Sri Lanka has its own type of dishes. In Sri Lanka several different curry are popular, from mild to very spicy. Sri Lankans typically consume little meat, but eat large amounts of pulses. The main meal usually begins with rice or bread, followed by curry or pulse and vegetables such as cabba. All meals are cooked on the base of coconut milk and flavored by liberal use of spices. The Sri Lankans are also expert in preparing fish dishes. Mallung, Sambol, Lamprais, Buriyani and Polos Pehi are some of the most popular dishes of Sri Lanka. They like several juicy sweet meals like Kavum, Halape, Thalaguli and Wattalapamge or carrots. Their favorite foods include “Pol sambol”, which is scraped and spiced coconut, and katta sambol, which is a very spicy mixture of fried onions and chilies. Cakes and sweets are also an integral part of the country’s diet. Tea is served with most meals and as refreshment.

Society including Marriage, family and gender an Education:

In all ethnic groups, marriages are usually arranged by the families of bride and groom. Both bride and groom are expected to be of the same socioeconomic status, ethnicity, cast and religion. Also, the groom is expected to be slightly older, taller and educationally and professionally more qualified than the bride. According to religion, in Sri Lanka there is preference cross cousins marriage or parallel cousin marriage. Cross cousin marriage is the marriage between cousins and this marriage is especially famous in Tamil and Sinhala groups. Additionally, there is more preference of marriage between parallel cousin, marriage between children of two brothers in Muslim religion.

Normally family consists of father, mother and their unmarried children if that is nuclear family but if that is joint family then they usually have grandparents, parents, their children, uncles, aunts and their children. Joint family is more common than nuclear family. In Sri Lanka, men specially focus more on income opportunities and women focus on the household.  Things have changed slightly these days and women have also started working in the professions such as nursing, teaching, tea picking, and garment construction. In manufacture and agricultural work, men are typically assigned tasks considered more physically demanding, while women are assigned the more repetitive, detail-oriented work at which they are thought to be better than men. Opportunity for foreign employment for women, while relatively available and well-paying, is restricted to domestic work, whereas opportunities for men are more varied, ranging from manual labor to engineering. Within the home, regardless of their engagement in paid labor, women and girls do all food preparation and most other domestic work.

Although most schools are segregated by gender, education has always been important for both boys and girls in Sri Lanka. The literacy rates for men and women are similarly high; the last census in 1981 found that 87 percent of females over the age of ten years were literate, compared to 91 percent of males. In Sri Lanka, education has always been highly valued and encouraged. School attendance is compulsory between the ages of six and fourteen, although children often attend preschool and typically continue until the completion of the secondary level. Academic competition starts early, as parents scramble to place their children in the better primary schools, and continues with three sets of standardized exams that determine access to subsequent.

Income source:

Sri Lanka's traditional economy has been agricultural with rice being the main food crop. Spices, tea, rubber and coconuts were especially encouraged by the British under the colonial system and are still an important part of the economy. Apart from these there were more exotic products like precious stones and even elephants and peacocks which were exported. However in recent years there has been a thrust on developing new areas. One of these has been textile and garment manufacturing which has overtaken tea as an export earner. Sri Lanka's economy is shifting away from its traditional agricultural base to include production for an international market, a shift accelerated by a major policy change in the 1977 transition from a socialist-style, state controlled economy to a free market economy lead by the private sector. By the mid-1990s, roughly one-quarter of the population was employed as skilled workers in agriculture, fishing, or animal husbandry; one-quarter in skilled craft or factory production; one-quarter in administration, medicine, law, education, accounting, sales, services, or clerical work; and one-quarter as unskilled laborers. In spite of this shift away from agriculture, Sri Lanka has recently achieved near self-sufficiency in rice production and other staple foods. References:

·         http://www.mysrilanka.com/travel/lanka/nati_symbol/dress.htm
http://www.webquarry.com/~raditha/srilanka/

·         http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Sri-Lanka.html

·         http://sri-lanka.saarctourism.org/sri-lanka-food.html

Interview Questions

Rashmi: Hi Nadun nice to meet you again.

Nadun: Hi Rashmi, nice to meet you too.

Rashmi: Here is your question?

Nadun: Thank you

Rashmi: before I start this interview I would like to let you know that I am going to record this interview, would you mind if I record this interview?

Nadun: That’s fine.

Rashmi: Before I ask you any questions, Can you please introduce yourself ?

Nadun: My name is Nadun Gurusinghe and I am from Sri Lanka and I am 22 years old.

Rashmi: How long have you been in United States and why did you choose United States over other countries?

Nadun: I have been here for almost 3 yrs and I chose United States over other countries because it is the most developed countries in the world. The degree I would obtain here is highly regarded in my country and I would have better chance to get job than the degrees from other countries

Rashmi: What were the things that came as a surprise when you first arrived?

Nadun: When I first came here the first thing that was a surprise for me was the weather. I am not used to cold weather and I have never seen snow before I came here. So that was a big surprise and the other thing was the food. I have been used to eating home cooked food and here it is hard to find the home cooked food and here we have to eat all junk food like burgers and I am not used to all these things. So food and weather was a surprise for me.

Rashmi: Why did you choose SCSU over other Universities?

Nadun: When I applied to United States, I applied to couple of colleges and I picked SCSU over those Universities because SCSU provided me the cultural scholarship and my tuition fee was lower than other universities. On top of that I had few other Sri Lankan friends that were attending SCSU at that time so I thought that it would be easier for me to adjust in SCSU.

Rashmi: By the way Nadun, what is your major?

Nadun: My major is Aviation.

Rashmi: Can you explain about it?

Nadun: Aviation is about designing, production of airplanes and includes how you fly those things and you just read about airplanes and lots of stuffs regarding that.

Rashmi: What made you chose this subject as your major?

Nadun: Actually my parents wanted me to be a doctor but from childhood I always wanted to be a pilot coz seeing airplanes fly in the sky was a fascinating thing for me. I just chose Aviation.

Rashmi: Do you find any differences in education system between United States and your home country?

Nadun: Oh yes, there is lot of differences in education system between Sri Lanka and United States. In Sri Lanka basically it is all theory knowledge. I mean they teach all theory stuffs and there is hardly any practical but out here there is lot of practical knowledge so that you understand actually what is going on rather than memorizing things. So I like it here.

Rashmi: Where do you see yourself in next 5 years?

Nadun: I would see myself working in Sri Lanka in some aviation industry. Within next 5 years hopefully I will graduate and then I would do something in my hometown.

Rashmi: What made you think that you are not going to live here in U.S after 5 years?

Nadun: The main reason I came to United states was to complete my undergrad. As I already told you it is highly regarded in my country and then basically in  5 years I will be done with that and my objective of coming to united states would be completed and I will go back to my country.

Rashmi: What is the thing that you miss the most about your country?

Nadun: Of course my family that would be the most important thing that I miss. Secondly I would say food.

Rashmi: Why don’t you tell me something about your family?

Nadun: My family includes my parents. I have one elder brother and one elder sister and I am the youngest one.

Rashmi: Do you miss your family?

Nadun: Oh yes I do.

Rashmi: How much?

Nadun: A lot, I cannot explain in words.

Rashmi: What type is your family is it joint or nuclear?

Nadun: I would say it is a nuclear family because it is only my parents and we brother and sister. My grandparents live in my village, that’s like 3 hrs drive from my place.

Rashmi: Can you tell me about the parents and children relationship in your country?

Nadun: I would say parents and children are more bonded in my culture because there is a sense of responsibility for the parents towards their children till they are married. Children do respect their parents a lot and there is lot of things they have to follow whatever their parents say even if they want to do different things. Parents have all the control over their children.

Rashmi: How is your daily lifestyle back to your country? What do you have for your diet (breakfast, lunch, dinner)?

Nadun: Our days start with morning tea in lot of cases. Personally I don’t like teas but mos t people start their day with tea and bread. We have meals which is usually rice and curry.

Rashmi: Do you cook your own meal?

Nadun: Back home I didn’t even knew how to cook meals but out here I do cook sometimes.

Rashmi: What type of food do you serve in your special occasions like in festivals, weeding ceremony etc?

Nadun: I would say it depends on family whoever is celebrating those occasions but from the place where I am usually we cook spicy meats, lots of different kinds of curries, and flavored rice, sweets and drinks.

Rashmi: Will you tell me something about your culture?

Nadun: Sri Lanka is multicultural and multi ethnic country. Buddhist includes the most population, secondly Hinduism and then Christians and Muslims.

Rashmi: How diverse is your country? Is your culture similar to any other countries?

Nadun: As I told you Sri Lanka is multicultural and multi ethnic group with different communities and religious groups living together and comparing my culture to other countries I would say it is similar to other south Asian countries like India and Nepal.

Rashmi: Is there any norms and values that should be strictly followed in your country?

Nadun: In my country people are encouraged to love the juniors and respect their elders mainly their parents and teachers. That’s what the parents teach their children.

Rashmi: In your culture how do you celebrate different festivals and occasions like birth and wedding ceremony?

Nadun: Birth and wedding ceremony is considered as a occasion where people come together and celebrate. It depends on different religions and communities. In my community we call our friends and relative whoever can attend. We believe that if we celebrate it together then it is worth more so we call our friends and relatives, cook different kinds of foods. Sometimes we even dance and sing songs and cherish those moments.

Rashmi: Your culture is Buddhist, right?

Nadun: Yes

Rashmi: Does different culture celebrate these occasions differently?

Nadun: I would say yes.

Rashmi: How do they do it?

Nadun: In Buddhist usually it is the monk who gives the name to the new born baby whereas in Hindu it is the priest who gives the name to the baby but I don’t really know about other religions.

Rashmi: If people die in your country how they are ended (buried/burnt)?

Nadun: Usually either they are burnt or they are buried. In my culture the dead body is kept for 3 days and friend and relative come to give farewell to the body and then it is burned.

Rashmi: What you do during your leisure time?

Nadun: During my leisure time I usually hang out with friend and sometimes I go to Helen beck to play soccer and cricket.

Rashmi: How much do you hang out with your female friends? Do you have female friends or not?

Nadun: Yes I do have few female friends but I don’t hang out much with them, sometimes during the weekend but not much.

Rashmi: (Any difference how a man and a woman contact with each other, anything that is not considered “proper”)? How do you interact with female friends? Is that similar how you interact with your male friends with female too?

Nadun: It is not certainly the same way I interact with my female friends. I am a shy person and if I don’t know the person that well then I don’t really talk much. I feel more comfortable with my male friends rather than my female friends.

Rashmi: Do you have different rules of eye contact and body language in your country?

Nadun: Yes we do have different rules. Generally we do not have eye contact tour elder  person when we talk to them , and it is considered disrespect which is totally what we are doing here. And the body language is kind of similar what it is here.

Rashmi: If it doesn’t offend you , can  you explain me how does new couple meet at first?

Nadun: If it is arranged marriage then it is basically parents who arrange the meetings but now  a days there is Love marriage too and ih that case they can meet in college or they can just set up their time and meet, it is up to them.

Rashmi: Can you explain  about marriage in your culture?

Nadun: Generally there is arranged marriage in my culture but these days people are doing Love marriages too. Insome culture we have cross marriage and parallel marriage that is marriage between cousins. And specially this marriage is preference in Muslim religion.

Rashmi: What is the status of female in your country?

Nadun: Female status is lower than the male inmy country because it is male dominant society but people working on making females equal to males

Rashmi: Are female groups equally educated like male?

Nadun: I would say female group are educated but they are not equally educated like male.

Rashmi: What is the most common source of income?

Nadun: Tea , coffee, rubber and the coconut  is the main products that we export and apart from  that tourism is the main source of income because there is a lot of British and American people they  visit  our country every year.

Rashmi: How has unemployment affected your country?

Nadun: Unemployment has been a problem because being unemployed will certainly  bring the economy down. But there is not much unemployment copmpare to other south asian countries.

Rashmi: How is tourism in your country and how do you feel that your country is related to the outside world?

Nadun: As tourism is one of the source of income. There is a lo of tourist coming to our country. There is lot of beautiful beaches , monumentsand lot of beautiful landscapes, that is how I guess our country is related to outside world.

Rashmi: What is the political situation in your country?

Nadun: Recently  a along war has been ended, the civil war and the political situation is getting better and my country is now republic country.

Rashmi: I would like to let you know that this question will be the final question for you today so at last I would like to know that in what way do you think that you can make an influence for your country?

Nadun: As I told you after I graduate I will be going back to my country and I would like to work in my related study field. And also I would like to promote the Aviation field in my country which needs a lot of improvement in this modern age.

Rashmi: These are all the questions Nadun that I have for you today, if you have any questions for me you can feel free to ask.

Nadun: Not really Rashmi.

Rashmi: Ok thank you very much for your help Nadun, I really appreciate.

Nadun: You welcome.