My both interviewee were Americans, I did feel comfortable in both of the interviews. However, I feel that I did a lot better on the second interview than the first. The reason behind that is because I was a little nervous; I did not know how exactly the interview should go because I have never interviewed anyone in my life. There was a big change between the first and the second interview. In the first interview I stock with the question sheet, I did not ask other questions than what I had. I ended the interview in a very formal way which was not really good. I should have done it differently, kind of breaking the ice “in the end.” As they say if you do not make mistakes you will not learn. I took advantage from my first interview and I listened to it again and again. I wrote down the things that I should not do and the things I should do. Some of the things that I noticed in my interview that I did not break the ice; I started out with the first question! Besides that, I did not get deep with the questions; I was good with hearing the answer and moving to another question. In my second interview I prepared very well to what I am going to ask and how should I respond. I am really happy with how I did in my both interview because I learned in one of them and I corrected myself in the second. I like the whole idea of interviewing people. It helps me to practice my English with native speakers and also to get to know my classmates and make some friends. The hard part of the interview was writing down the script especially when the interview takes me 30 minutes or so. The other tough thing that I faced is the country report. I did not know how exactly I should write it although I am trying my best to collect enough information about the United States and try to add more from my experience living in it. Overall, I am glad with what I did and I hope to do better on my third interview.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
My Second Interview ..
Interview preparation
The preparation was pretty much the same. I emailed Tiffany and ask her if she wants to be interviewed, she was kind enough to accept that. We sat up a date and the place. I listened to my first interview with Tyler to seek for mistakes and try not to do them with this interview. I wrote down what should and what should not I say. I also decided not to stick with the paper. I tend to ask other questions even if they are not related to what I have. Before half an hour from the interview, I went to the library and reserved a room for us and I waited until she came.
Interview Report
Dr. Ronald pointed out some mistakes that I did in my first interview, I tried to avoid them in this one. I started by breaking the ice with Tiffany, we talked a little bit about her classes and how is she doing. Then I slightly got into the interview questions. Tiffany was really cooperative and she answers and gives little extra information. I did not really stick with the question sheet that I have. I asked her more about herself and tried to relate that to the questions. Which felt better for me, to have kind of a normal conversation not just following some order.
Country Report
Tiffany is from the United States. The United States of America has 50 states. It is located in North America between Mexico and Canada. The last population counted in July 2000. It has a population of 275,562,673. The capital of the United States is Washington D.C. The United States is a democracy country where people get to vote and elect for the president every 4 years. The legal age to vote for American residents is 18.
Tiffany also from Wisconsin, as she said they have the Green Bay Packers football team which she fined the best. The Green Bay Packers was founded on 1919 by Curly Lambeau and Gorge Whitney Calhoun. Until today they won 13 league championships. They also won 4 Super Bowls. "The Packers are the only team that won straight NFL titles." (1). I am not a fan of the football game, but I gotta admit, I see Green Bay Packers on TV all the time. That is a sign that they are really good at what they do.
She also mentioned that they are very famous with cheese. Wisconsin has very huge lands just for producing different kind of cheese, I did a research about the cheese lands in Wisconsin and I was amazed. Since 1840 Wisconsin was known of the number one of cheese production. It was because of a woman called Mrs. Anne Picket who started a factory of producing cheese and since then the work has been improving.
Sites:
http://www.50states.com/wisconsi.htm
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/United-States-of-America.html
http://www.wisspecialcheese.org/wicheese/wisconsin+cheese+heritage/default.asp
http://www.packers.com/history/index.html
http://www.packers.com/history/super-bowls-and-championships.html (1)
http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/wisconsin/history_of_wisconsin_cheese.aspx
Transcript:
Tiffany P: T
F: hello Tiffany
T: hi
F: how are you?
T: good
F: how was your day? kinda busy?
T: yea very busy!
F: finals are pretty close hah?
T: i haven't really thought about that
F: yea i have a lot of paper to do, how about you?
T: depends on the class, some classes are more than the others
F: did you decide what to write about the five pages for the English class
T: no i have not, i do not what I'm gonna write about yet.
F: yeah me too! well I hope we could end up with something good!
T: yea i hope so
F: So Tiffany can you tell me a little bit about your childhood as an american girl?
T: my childhood was pretty good, i grew up in a very close family and relatively small town, about two hours from here. it is a collage town
F: so are you originally from Minnesota?
T: No I'm from Wisconsin
F: Okay! Can you tell me more about your childhood, what did you do for fun?
T: umm growing up, I liked to ride bikes I liked swimming I liked to play outside with my family, anything with my family is really important to me.
F: Interesting, so how many members in your family?
T: It was my mom, my brother, and me.
F: So moving along with that, what are the typical greetings in your culture?
T: Okay well for more formal occasions we usually shake hands, with friends it is usually hi or what's up. but in the family it is just hi or general chet chat
F: Does it feel weird when someone hugs you or kiss your cheek if he/she were from other country and has different culture?
T: I have never experienced that myself.
F: yea cause in my country we do that more often, we hug and kiss cheeks like most of the time even if it is not formal.
T: Cool
F: So do you like sports?
T: Yes
F: What kind of sport?
T: Just football
F: okay, so what is your favorite team?
T: green bay packers
F: Is that from Wisconsin?
T: Yes
F: Okay, so can you tell me more about the sports in the U.S., like what are the famous sports and how do people react to them?
T: For different people i guess there are different sports. for me it's just football cause i grew up with a family that was obsessed with football. I guess baseball is really famous but I don't really watch it it doesn’t entertain me very much but probably it is the most famous.
F: Can you help me to get to know the football rules cause I feel it is so complicated! like how long is the game?!
T: there are four quarters, each quarter is fifteen minutes long, but during the game play the clock stop and restart so they take more than an hour like probably two plus hours
F: I should read more about! So away from sports, are there any religious holidays in your culture? if yes, what is your favorite?
T: Well for me I'm catholic so i celebrate Xmas, ester, Ash Wednesday and the basic catholic holidays. My favorite is Xmas
F: What do you do in Xmas?
T: Well, My family get together in Xmas eve and hangs out, play games, open presence, and eats, just have fun, so i get to see family that i do not see very much and then Xmas day, i get to see my extended family like my great aunts, my great uncles.
F: That sounds really interesting
T: yea
F: So beside religious holidays, are there any daily rituals that you do relating to your religion?
T: Not really daily, more weekly, I try to go to the church every week
F: Sundays?
T: Yes I go every Sunday nights
F: What do you do exactly in there?
T: We pray and sing. That is basically what we do.
F: Is the praying mandatory in your religion?
T: No, it is not required, some people do some people don't, it's more of a personally preference
F: okay!
F: So what age did you start school?
T: I start going to school at age six, that's when I went to kinder garden. And yea every day from there i have been going to school
F: is there a huge different between the school and the collage education from your perspective?
T: My elementary, we had one teacher for all the basic classes like math and reading, we had different teachers for art and music. And middle school we had different teachers for every class. and then high school is basically the same as middle school but higher level. and then collage was the same too
F: What was the most stressful level in your education life ?
T: right now! for me as it gets older as it gets harder and I have more to do
F: That makes sense! So let's talk more about the United States life, what kinds of transportations are used here?
T: At home, we walk, bike, we use cars and here in st. cloud there are buses and trains. I like the buses here, there are very convenient.
F: That is right! you get to go almost everywhere and for free
T: Yes which is nice!
F: Let's talk about everybody's favorite topic, "Food", what country's foods do you like the most?
T: I like a lot of foods, I like pasta a lot, i grew up in Wisconsin i'm a cheese head. I like cheese a lot
F: Yea I heard about the cheese in Wisconsin!
T: Yea I like Mac and cheese, just because it has two of my favorite foods in the world
F: So you like italian food basically?
T: Yea italian is good
F: Have you tried Arabic food?T: I haven't had it!
F: It is delicious; Mostly it is rice with different kind of spices
T: I should try it! sounds kinda good
F: So tell me how long have you been Studying in SCSU?
T: Two semesters
F: How do you like it here?
T: I really like how easy to get around, and everything is close together. I like that there are no one from my school here so it forces me to get to know new people. So I made few friends!
F: Nice, is there anything you would like to suggest to SCSU to do, to make your living here better?
T: Umm, I guess mostly more verity of food. They can open some others country's food, so we get to try everything once in a while.
F: Cool I would like that too!, anything else beside that?
T: No, I like it here, I can't complain
F: Great, So here goes my last question and it is kind of personal, if you do not want to answer, it is totally fine!
T: Okay
F: Can you tell me a secret about yourself that very few people know about?
T: Yea, one thing that very very few people know about is that growing up from the age of 9 months old until a few months after my sixth birthday I was in foster care with means I didn't live with my biological parents. and when I was six I was adopted.
F: It is kind of a big secret! thanks for sharing!
T: Yea
F: So how did that work for you, did you feel comfortable?
T: I was very comfortable, I never felt out of place, I was treated like family, i was belong there!
F: That is great!
F: So Tiffany, is there any part of the interview you want me to remove?
T: no it's all good.
F: Okay well thank you very much for coming, and I wish you luck on your Biology quiz!
T: Yea I need it!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
First interview ..
Interview preparation
Before I chose the students that I
want to interview with. I knew what country I would like to know better. I
chose students from the here, where am I studying and living now, the United
States. Since I am going to be here for 3 more years, why shouldn’t I know more
about the American culture from an actual American people. I had the chance,
and I used it in the interview! I chose Tyler P as my first interviewee. He
seemed like a nice and an out going person. I emailed him right before the
break but he was going to be out of town for the break. So we sat a meeting on
Monday right after the break. I tried out asking the interview questions before
meeting Tyler. I printed two copies of the questions to let him read the order
of them before the interview. Monday after noon I went to reserve a room at the
library, and I met Tyler there to interview him.
Interview report
The interview went very well. Tyler
was really an interesting guy and knows how to be interviewed. He gave me some
extra information about a simple question that was helpful for me to understand
the culture better. The interview was kind of a normal chat between to people,
not very formal. There are many things I thought I knew about the culture, but
after meeting Tyler it appears that I might have missed some information about
the religious holidays. I did not know that there was a holiday called “Lend”
or “Ash Wednesday”. It is the first interview and I feel like I gained lots of
information that I did not know of.
Country Report
The United States of America is located in north america between Mexico and Canada. The last population counted in July 2000, it has a population of 275,562,673. The capital of the United States is Washington D.C. The united states is a democracy country where people get to vote and elect for the president every 4 years.
Since Tyler P is from Wisconsin I decided to do a little more research on his state. Wisconsin is located in the easter north-central the United states. The capital of Wisconsin is Madison. It has a population of 5.687 million. Wisconsin is famous of producing cheese. It is one of the best states that produces all kind of cheese daily.
Cites:
http://www.50states.com/wisconsi.htm
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/United-States-of-America.html
http://www.wolframalpha.com/entities/us_states/wisconsin/6o/wp/83/
http://www.wisspecialcheese.org/wicheese/wisconsin+cheese+heritage/default.asp
Transcript
Faisal. A
Tyler. P
Faisal: Hi Tyler.
Tyler: Hi
Faisal: since I was a little I dreamed to come here to the untied stated and study here? I only saw America from TV and that is all, so I would love to know more about your culture from an actual American person. Can you describe to me a typical day of an American child?
Tyler: Well, I can tell you what my
childhood was like, when I was younger, lets say about 4 or 5 I started pre
school and it’s get you ready for a kinder garden which is the first actual
grade. I went to the kinder garden and all the way up to now. I would say I was
a pretty normal kid; I like to play outside and play sports my friends.
Faisal: interesting. So do you have
3 grades or 4 in high school?
Tyler: we have 4 grades in high
school and where I went to school; we had an old high school and a new high
school, the old high school was just 8th and 9th grade
and then the new high school was 10th 11th and 12th
grade. They kind of split it up differently in my last year.
Faisal: okay! Moving along with
that, what are the typical greetings in your culture and what do they mean?
Tyler: if I want to greed someone,
I would say hello or how are you, or just greet them with a handshake and
smile.
Faisal: do you use the handshake
more often cause I haven’t seen that a lot in Americans.
Tyler: it depends cause when I’m
with my friend I use handshake or what ever something different but normally if
it’s more formal I use handshake if you do not know that person very well but
if it’s with friends I use hi or how is going.
Faisal: is it different from girls
to boys or is it the same greetings?
Tyler: I would say you can get away
with the same greetings as long as you are polite about it. Cause a lot of time
guy with a guy the will joke around and call each other names and girls do not
like that.
Faisal: so you do not hug or kiss cheek? Cause we do that in my culture.
Tyler: no, if it’s like my mom I would give her a hug.
Faisal: interesting, so tell me Tyler do like sports?
Tyler: I do! I actually play baseball here in SCSU
Faisal: cool!
Tyler: yea I grew up playing football, baseball, and hockey in high school and pretty much any other sports that I could.
Faisal: really good for you! So tell me how would you describe the sports in your country?
Tyler: I would say American football or baseball are probably the most famous sports in the U.S. baseball I would say is the original famous sports cause it is kind of more lyed back game and people go with their family and enjoy it.
Faisal: So what is your favorite baseball team?
Tyler: the Milwaukee Brewers cause I’m from Wisconsin.
Faisal: nice! As you know in every culture they are a few holidays people celebrate, what are the holidays
that you have in your culture?
Tyler: In my religion we celebrate Christmas, Ester, Lent and Ash Wednesday.
Faisal: I’m sorry what is the third one?
Tyler: it’s lent, it’s actually right before Ester. So ash Wednesday they give you ash and stuff. From ash Wednesday all the way till ester In the catholic tradition you give up stuff for lent, like desert and chocolate just to challenge themselves and it’s about 40 days.
Faisal: Actually it is kind of similar to a month that we have, we call it Ramadhan. We fast in it, we do not eat from the sunrise to the sunset.
Tyler: so it is similar to that!
Faisal: yeah! So beside that do you have any daily ritual?
Tyler: I read the Bible and pray.
Faisal: And you do that every Sunday?
Tyler: no, I try to do it everyday
Faisal: okay but what is special about Sunday then?
Tyler: Depending on who you ask, the Sunday is the day off no one would be working and you go to church with your family.
Faisal: but it is okay to go to church anytime you want no just Sunday, right?
Tyler: yeah!
Faisal: Do you mind telling me how many times do you pray everyday?
Tyler: I try to pray right before bed. Some people pray some people not. It is not mandatory in our religion. It is kind of a personal thing
Faisal: interesting! You told me when you were 5 you went to kinder garden right?
Tyler: Yeah
Faisal: is it considered an actual school or just to prepare you to Pre School?
Tyler: it is. We start kinder garden to the 5th grade and moving up.
Faisal: what was the toughest level in your education life?
Tyler: I would say the older you get the more stress you are cause when you are in kinder garden you do not really care about your grade and in high school you will be stress about that from your parents and your teachers
Faisal: that is right. Moving on to transportations in your country, what are the types of transportations can I find in the US?
Tyler: we have just about anything you can think of, busses, cares, planes, and bikes. Back in the home we used cars, which makes it easier to move around.
Faisal: interesting that you have all those kind of transportations!
Tyler: yeah!
Faisal: so moving to another subject, which country’s food do you like, and how is it similar to yours?
Tyler: I would say my first choice is American food, but other than that I like Italian food a lot.
Faisal: are they kind of similar in away?
Tyler: not too much, I mean America tries to copy everyone’s food, but if eat original Italian it is a little bit different
Faisal: right. Have you tried Arabic food?
Tyler: I never have no.
Faisal: you should, there is an Indian restaurant here in cloud. Indian food is kind of similar to the Arabic food.
Tyler: yea!
Faisal: so let me ask you a little about your government, what kind of government it is?
Tyler: democracy! We get to vote and elect and have a little bit of a say
Faisal: nice. So moving to college life, how long have you been studying here at SCSU?
Tyler: it is my first year!
Faisal: oh! Is it your first semester?
Tyler: no it’s my second
Faisal: so tell me what could SCSU do to make your stay better?
Tyler: I would say, some times the dorm get a little challenging with the heat and the air conditioning, but other that that I will be happy here I can’t complain.
Faisal: So here is the most challenging question, could you tell me a secret about yourself that only a few people know about?
Tyler: it is not really a secret but, I feel like the more time I spend with people, the more they get to know me better person I am. If I wanted to describe my self I’m an out going person, I like to help people kind to teach them what to do, like in sports I like to involve them in, I’m a competitive person, I do not like to lose.
Faisal: interesting! You have answered all my questions, is there anything you would like to add?
Tyler: no, unless you have anything else you would like to ask?
Faisal: no, I guess we are done, thank you for your time Tyler!
Tyler: yeah!
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