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 8^th and 9^th grade and then the new high school was 10^th 11^th and 12^th 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 5^th 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!