The responses to the first question, "What is your ethnic background?" were widely varied. Of the thirteen students interviewed, three had to be presented with ethnic background choices after they initially responded they did not know their own ethnic background. Two students declared a state in the U.S. as their ethnic background choice. The students who answered quickly with little thought were Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. This strong response compares well with the responses to the third question, "Are there children from different cultures in this class? If so, which cultures?" Two students identified all three of the ethnic choices above. Five more identified two of the three ethnic backgrounds above. Three more identified Mexican American students only. The overarching reason given for recognizing someone from a different culture was language. The fact that Mexican American students spoke less English than their contemporaries was the single attributable factor to explain this high recognition factor. Language differences were noted far more often than skin color, religion, or any other differences in the discussions with students.

Question two asked, "How many different cultures are there in the world?" The answers ranged from a low of 60 , to a high of 1,000,000. The predominant answer was between 100 and 300, with nine of thirteen students answering in that range. One student explained that there were approximately 300 countries in the world, so that would be about how many cultures there were, too.

Students stated they learned about other cultures in a variety of ways. The two most common vehicles for cultural education were other students and the Internet. Five learned the most from fellow students and four from the Internet. Reference books came in third with two, brothers and sisters were fourth, and one learned from teachers. The most comprehensive response was from a student who patiently explained her parents taught her to respect all people despite their differences. She learned a lot about culture in this way. She said if one gets to know someone who is different, he or she finds there are more similarities between people of different cultures than there are differences.

All the students agreed that it is important to learn about different cultures and that it is beneficial to them personally to do so. The reasons ranged from simply knowing "things," to being able to speak another language, to going to other countries on business trips. Several students brought up learning and understanding more about the diversified religions as a vehicle to more overall understanding in the world. The majority of the responses continued to center around language. Most students felt being able to speak and understand a foreign language will bring them the largest and most immediate benefit.