Introduction Statement of purpose In this paper I intend to study about cultural diversity and competence. My research is based on Cambodian and African-American cultures which I intend to explore on their cultural setting to compare and contrast their themes, concepts and ideas. The term culture has attracted a lot of attention from various scholars who have come up with different definitions. For instance, Ross (1987) describes culture as, “An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning” (p. 13). The differences in thoughts have been due to varying perceptions that every scholar holds. Nevertheless, one factor that appears to be persistent in all perspectives is that culture explains the set of shared values and virtues that a given group of people associates with. These values and virtues can also be shared among institutions such as schools, companies and corporate organizations. With the world’s population increasing every other day, new cultures have continued to emerge from all corners. This has brought about the need of understanding and accepting cultural diversity for the sake of coexistence (Fleming, 1994). This research is based on two cultures; the Cambodian and African-American cultures. It seeks to elaborate on three common themes as indentified in the literature review. The themes include; ritual, ideology and the role that genders gives individuals in the society. The research also seeks to address ideas and concepts such as family set up, way of life, mode of dressing and cuisine among others. Results Cambodian culture The culture of Cambodia is among cultures that enjoy rich histories. It is a culture that has greatly been influenced by India and has had a lot of influence and inspiration from religion. It is because of this religious influence that the culture came up with the unique Khmer belief. It also developed religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism (Velkley, 2002). This is evident with Fig 2 in the primary sources that shows Buddhist nun at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia (Ebihara, Mortland & Ledgerwood, 1994, p. 45). With growth in business and agricultural revolution, the culture rapidly spread to areas in South-east Asia courtesy of seafaring merchants. As they went about doing their trading, the merchants intermarried with native people in South-east Asia thus helping the culture to grow and spread. The effects of religion also influenced their architecture and housing. Most of their buildings were designed and decorated with mythical creatures from the two religions. This is evident especially with the wall carvings on their temples as seen in Fig 1 (Sun-Him, 1987, p. 23). Nevertheless, this architecture has greatly changed with time. For instance, most nuclear families in modern rural Cambodia put up thatched rectangular houses made from wooden frames and bamboo. Most of the houses are divided into three rooms; one serves as the bedroom, another as the sitting room and the third one is used as girls’ bedroom. A number of homesteads have extra structures outside that serve (Forsberg, 2006). House building in this culture is treated as a social responsibility and neighbors and friends come together to help with labor. The theme of the role gender gives to individuals in the society is clearly depicted in th