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!
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