Andre Tavares Silva English 191 Section 99
Yuan
Suzhou, China
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
First Report
Interview Transcript
Interview Report
My second interview was again supported by my position in the field of foreign languages, as well as the knowledge that I have about the organization of this Department at St. Cloud State. The fact that I am a tutor in this school provides me resources to reach other students in the same job as me. This is how I reached my second interviewee.
I decided to keep the same technology as in the first time, as well as the questions. My point in keeping them was solely to use it as an instrument of comparison between the answers of the first interview and the current one. The conversation took place at the tutor room at Lawrence hall, on Tuesday, March 30, at around 3:30 p.m. The whole process took a little more than half an hour. I recognize that I used certain improvisation upon carrying on this interview, as I never contacted my interviewee. It happened that I took a schedule of all tutors in the Department and looked for the Chinese ones. I simply showed up at the room ten minutes before the Chinese tutor arrived and then I introduced myself and asked if she would contribute with her answers to my interview.
My interviewee is called Yuan. She is a 21 year old and she is a junior at SCSU. It was really interesting having talked with her and having asked the same questions as I did to Jiawen, two weeks ago. In contrast to the majority of the international students in this country residing, she had a feeling of dislike towards the U.S. She came up here more due by a stereotype of America than for her own will. She graduated from High School in China and then she came to SCSU, at age of eighteen. What most surprised me during the whole process were the answers and comments made, which somehow opposed my first interviewee’s. After the talk, I got a proof that culture might vary within a country, especially if it is a territory with big dimensions, such as China.
This interview, though, was conducted a little differently than the prior. In this case, after every answer I made comments about what I already knew and what has been said before by Jiawen. There was sometimes where Yuan would stop me and ask: “What did he answer for this question?” The advantage I have found was that some points she made were not anymore unfamiliar to me, and therefore confirmed a cultural aspect of China, as I have researched and heard from its citizens. The part that really impressed me was when she described her hometown and its culture. That is because it seemed intensely different from Jiawen’s city. That also made me realize how diverse and contrasting can China be.
Yuan’s city is called Suzhou. It is a place with population a little over six million and located in the Chinese coast. About one hour drive away from Shanghai. This proximity really contributes to the development of Suzhou, once a great slice of its population, somewhere around 80%, are not native from there. Most migrate daily from Suzhou to Shanghai to work.
This provides a very diverse society, which includes since Chinese from other parts of the country, as well as neighbor countries citizens, and a lot of Europeans. This leads Suzhou to become an international city. Moreover, the high influx of non-natives, more specifically foreigners, makes the province of Jiangsu more liberal than the other provinces along the Chinese territory. Another aspect of Suzhou is that once it consists of a rich town, local cultures require people to fit under these standards. In other words, citizens are expected to be really gentle when speaking, achieve academic excellence and be good workers. All this information was actually provided by my interviewee.
Interview Questions (Transcript)
1. Where are you from?
“My name is Yuan; I am from Suzhou, China. I am 21 years old and I am a junior in Special Education. My province is similar to California if comparing the two areas. It is also more liberal due to the income of outsiders, different from other parts of China. It’s becoming an international city, in fact, 80% of the people living in Suzhou are not natives from my city.”
2. What is the family structure/social life like in your country?
“Families are formed by two parents and a kid, usually, as we have the one-child law, but you can find families with more than one child. Most of moms work and take care of finances, while dad takes care of cooking. Social life aspects are pretty similar to the U.S’s. However, the fact that moms stay at home here is weird to me.”
3. What type of government does your country have? How is it different from the US government?
“We have a Communist government. The main differences are that US government has two parties. China has one and no elections. From an American perspective there is not much freedom of speech, in China there is a great censorship with movies, music, and TV. You can talk and criticize about it to another person, like your friends and parents, though, publicizing critics is not really allowed. Some people get mad with this. I actually understand why there is such a censorship in my country. I think that the fact that we have one party makes it difficult for people to make change. In the U.S, if you don’t like the Republican Party, you criticize it and go for the Democrats. In China, talking good or bad, you are talking about the same Party; you don’t have where to go.”
4. How did you find out/decide to come to SCSU/US?
“I was initially planning to go to Canada or Australia, but my mom had the dream of me coming to America, even though I didn’t like it. Then, I attended a conference of American schools in Shanghai. I matched my grades and I was told that MN was the safest state to study. No 1 state. Also school is cheap and provides me financial aids.”
5. What do you plan to do, where do you want to go after you graduate? Will you go home?
“First get my teaching license, after graduation I would live wherever I could find a job, it doesn’t matter if it is China or America.”
6. What is your daily life like in your home country? How is it different from your life here?
“I went to school every day, comeback home and did homework, just like here. The difference is about making friends, in China you make new friends every day, maybe because of our huge population, whereas in the U.S it is harder, because people will mostly talk to you if they have an interest. Besides, I look different, like a foreigner, I believe they think that just because I’m different they need to hesitate talking to me, maybe they don’t know if I speak English or not. It’s an aspect that I don’t like about here.”
7. What is the greatest influence the US has had on you?
“My English has improved. Also I got more open-minded, because there are different people here that I need to socialize with, especially by the fact that I am a teacher and I got the chance to talk to younger people, such as H.S or elementary. Also the TV shows, which I love watching even when I was back at home.”
8. What is the image of the US in your home country? What do you think now?
“U.S’s image in China is very positive; they still think it is the best country in the world to live. I didn’t believe it was the best. Actually I disliked many aspects in this country, personally. It turned out to be ok with me; I saw that is not really that bad, although I miss home and still dislike it, in most parts. In addition, people in China talk about the U.S as if they knew all about it.”
9. What is the food and clothing like in your country?
“Clothing is similar to the one I use in the U.S. About food, we eat a lot of rice and dishes with steamed vegetables. We also prefer more Stir fried foods instead of deep-fried. Other items with great consumption are the products from the lake, like its fishes. The truth is that most of the food is very light, not much flavor. But I like it.”
10. What are some of the social "norms" or "customs" in your home country?
“The culture of my city, which is very rich, says that everybody is supposed to be gentle with words and actions, such as having good manners, being a good student, good worker. It is pretty boring. That’s why I think that people here are wilder, and not every time they treat others with the behavior I expected. It’s all a question of culture, I guess.”
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Report of Interviewees' Countries Presentation
The presentations made last class section were undoubtedly interesting. It is really helpful, after going through the interview process, to have some of the basic info of the countries where each interviewee is from. The first group up was actually mine. We talked about China and Mongolia. One factor that surely enriched our presentation was the fact that one of the group members was a national from China, which supported every argument made about his country.
The second group talked about Sri Lanka and Nepal. Among the interesting data therein provided, I gathered the most crucial, which said that Sri Lanka is a small island off of the coast of India, and there are mountains and hill on the center of the island. Also, the natives in Sri Lanka are believed to inhabit the island since 6th century b.c. It consisted of a British colony until 1815. Esala Perahera, Duruthu Perahera, Sinhala, and Tamil New Year, are some of the names of festivals of the country. About Nepal, I learned that its constitution was created in 1962, also that it was ruled by kings until 1990, and after the monarchy the movement began. This makes Nepal the world’s youngest republic, since May of 2008. The country hosts a lot of festivals, namely: Dashain, Goddess, Durga, Tihar, Itoli. Another aspect is that marriages are very expensive, once the bride’s family has to come up with a dowry. Polygamy used to be legal and marriages were arranged. Though, people are starting to marry each other for love.
The third group talked about Japan and South Korea. About Japan, it was nice to know that mainly four islands compose it, although there are 6.852 other ones. Its flag represents the country as the land of the rising sun. Also that Japan is a constitutional monarchy, having a prime minister and an emperor. With the 10th largest population in the world, the country has the size of California. After that, what was said about South Korea was that it has had three kingdoms, but after its unification Korea was annexed to Japan. Also, the U.S and the Soviets at the end of WWII occupied it. After this fact, Korea split into North and South.
The fourth group talked about Malaysia, which used to be a British colony. The country has around 5.000 years of history, the official language is Malay and it currently is a federal constitutional elective monarchy, where the king is elected for a five-year term, and where chief ministers govern the states. There is a big Chinese and Indian population. This influences a lot in religion, language and business.
Then the country in focus was Saudi Arabia, which is the largest Arabic country of the Middle East. Its capital is Riyadh, and their constitution is also their bible, it’s called the Qur’an. There are no political parties or national elections. This government is based on the Sharia, which means the Islamic Law. Saudis pray five times a day, and weekends begin on Thursday due to Friday. The country’s biggest holiday is called ‘Ramadan.’ After that, Turkey was mentioned, and the most interesting aspect I found was about its first president, Ataturk, who was responsible for separating state and religion in Turkey.
Another group came to speak about Senegal. It was said that French is the major language over there, although only 15% of the population can speak it. Wolof is another official tongue, now spoken by 80% of the people. Muslim is the primary religion, and the main foods are rice, spices, and vegetables. Society is family oriented. Portuguese were the first to reach the country, after its natives, in 1444. In 1963 Senegal elected its first President. This group also talked about Kenya, which national language is Swahili, but most speak English. Kenya consists of a slow paced society where citizens have daily breaks from work so they can spend time with their families. Nationals eat mostly fresh food, having little refrigeration procedures. It became a British colony in 1890, and reached independence in 1963. Citizens have the right to choose for their religion. The third country mentioned by this group was Ethiopia. It is one of the few countries in Africa that has not become a European colony. There are more than 80 ethnic groups, and Amharic is the official language. Others like English, French, and Italian are also spoken. The main religions are Orthodox and Islamism.
The last group, talked about Burundi and Togo. About the first nation, I learned that its population is something around 9.9 million and that beer is an important drink in many occasions, much more for the way nationals drink it, which is with a straw. The Germans went up there and claimed the land as theirs, although, England and France were the most important in the dispute for Burundi. The biggest genocides in human history took place in Burundi, more precisely in Rwanda. About Togo, I learned that is used to be a small kingdom, until the British took the west part of the country, and the French go the east. Voodoo is an approved religion and soccer is the most famous sport in the nation.
Again, it was a really rich experience to hear a little about all of these nations, especially when there were natives from some of the mentioned countries present in class. Right now, I feel excited to hear more about my classmates’ reports of their second interview, and we will again be able to share experiences and cultural interactions we have acquired.
The second group talked about Sri Lanka and Nepal. Among the interesting data therein provided, I gathered the most crucial, which said that Sri Lanka is a small island off of the coast of India, and there are mountains and hill on the center of the island. Also, the natives in Sri Lanka are believed to inhabit the island since 6th century b.c. It consisted of a British colony until 1815. Esala Perahera, Duruthu Perahera, Sinhala, and Tamil New Year, are some of the names of festivals of the country. About Nepal, I learned that its constitution was created in 1962, also that it was ruled by kings until 1990, and after the monarchy the movement began. This makes Nepal the world’s youngest republic, since May of 2008. The country hosts a lot of festivals, namely: Dashain, Goddess, Durga, Tihar, Itoli. Another aspect is that marriages are very expensive, once the bride’s family has to come up with a dowry. Polygamy used to be legal and marriages were arranged. Though, people are starting to marry each other for love.
The third group talked about Japan and South Korea. About Japan, it was nice to know that mainly four islands compose it, although there are 6.852 other ones. Its flag represents the country as the land of the rising sun. Also that Japan is a constitutional monarchy, having a prime minister and an emperor. With the 10th largest population in the world, the country has the size of California. After that, what was said about South Korea was that it has had three kingdoms, but after its unification Korea was annexed to Japan. Also, the U.S and the Soviets at the end of WWII occupied it. After this fact, Korea split into North and South.
The fourth group talked about Malaysia, which used to be a British colony. The country has around 5.000 years of history, the official language is Malay and it currently is a federal constitutional elective monarchy, where the king is elected for a five-year term, and where chief ministers govern the states. There is a big Chinese and Indian population. This influences a lot in religion, language and business.
Then the country in focus was Saudi Arabia, which is the largest Arabic country of the Middle East. Its capital is Riyadh, and their constitution is also their bible, it’s called the Qur’an. There are no political parties or national elections. This government is based on the Sharia, which means the Islamic Law. Saudis pray five times a day, and weekends begin on Thursday due to Friday. The country’s biggest holiday is called ‘Ramadan.’ After that, Turkey was mentioned, and the most interesting aspect I found was about its first president, Ataturk, who was responsible for separating state and religion in Turkey.
Another group came to speak about Senegal. It was said that French is the major language over there, although only 15% of the population can speak it. Wolof is another official tongue, now spoken by 80% of the people. Muslim is the primary religion, and the main foods are rice, spices, and vegetables. Society is family oriented. Portuguese were the first to reach the country, after its natives, in 1444. In 1963 Senegal elected its first President. This group also talked about Kenya, which national language is Swahili, but most speak English. Kenya consists of a slow paced society where citizens have daily breaks from work so they can spend time with their families. Nationals eat mostly fresh food, having little refrigeration procedures. It became a British colony in 1890, and reached independence in 1963. Citizens have the right to choose for their religion. The third country mentioned by this group was Ethiopia. It is one of the few countries in Africa that has not become a European colony. There are more than 80 ethnic groups, and Amharic is the official language. Others like English, French, and Italian are also spoken. The main religions are Orthodox and Islamism.
The last group, talked about Burundi and Togo. About the first nation, I learned that its population is something around 9.9 million and that beer is an important drink in many occasions, much more for the way nationals drink it, which is with a straw. The Germans went up there and claimed the land as theirs, although, England and France were the most important in the dispute for Burundi. The biggest genocides in human history took place in Burundi, more precisely in Rwanda. About Togo, I learned that is used to be a small kingdom, until the British took the west part of the country, and the French go the east. Voodoo is an approved religion and soccer is the most famous sport in the nation.
Again, it was a really rich experience to hear a little about all of these nations, especially when there were natives from some of the mentioned countries present in class. Right now, I feel excited to hear more about my classmates’ reports of their second interview, and we will again be able to share experiences and cultural interactions we have acquired.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Challenges and benefits of interviewing international students - A General Report of Students' experiences
When listening to my classmates' interview reports, I found out that we all had a lot of opinions and situations that were common. One of the most cited ones was about how difficult and awkward it was to approach someone who they didn't know.
Another factor that was often mentioned was the country of origin of most interviewees. There was a majority of people from Africa and Asia, which are also the two continents that send the largest number of students to St. Cloud State's campus. Also, most of these students live inside the dorms, which made it easier for my classmates to reach them. Most interviews took place either in the library, or in Atwood. They also lasted in a range of forty to fifty minutes. There is an interesting aspect with the report said by the U.S students towards the international students, as well as from the international students and the peers interviewed. Writing as a foreign student, it seemed that the interviewees felt more comfortable when talking to persons from countries other than the U.S. It is understandable, once both in the conversation are able to comprehend some points made during the talk.
Now, the transcription process was also challenging, according to students. It is not always easy to catch every single word it was said, even with the support of a recorder. However, there were some interviews who were benefited by the fact that the international student attended the same class as we. In this case, he would know what kind of questions he would need to answer, thus, not being caught in surprise and not requiring too much time to think about his answers.It gave him the chance to better elaborate on them and make a rich process for both.
Particularly, I much enjoyed listening to my classmates' experiences, and confirming that they were not very different from the one I had. Right now, I am excited to see how my second interview turns out, and hopefully I can learn by my friends mistakes.
Another factor that was often mentioned was the country of origin of most interviewees. There was a majority of people from Africa and Asia, which are also the two continents that send the largest number of students to St. Cloud State's campus. Also, most of these students live inside the dorms, which made it easier for my classmates to reach them. Most interviews took place either in the library, or in Atwood. They also lasted in a range of forty to fifty minutes. There is an interesting aspect with the report said by the U.S students towards the international students, as well as from the international students and the peers interviewed. Writing as a foreign student, it seemed that the interviewees felt more comfortable when talking to persons from countries other than the U.S. It is understandable, once both in the conversation are able to comprehend some points made during the talk.
Now, the transcription process was also challenging, according to students. It is not always easy to catch every single word it was said, even with the support of a recorder. However, there were some interviews who were benefited by the fact that the international student attended the same class as we. In this case, he would know what kind of questions he would need to answer, thus, not being caught in surprise and not requiring too much time to think about his answers.It gave him the chance to better elaborate on them and make a rich process for both.
Particularly, I much enjoyed listening to my classmates' experiences, and confirming that they were not very different from the one I had. Right now, I am excited to see how my second interview turns out, and hopefully I can learn by my friends mistakes.
Monday, March 15, 2010
International Student Interview I - Report followed by literal answer transcription
Andre Tavares Silva English 191 Section 99
Jiawen Wang (Run)
Changsha, China
Monday, March 15th, 2010
First Report
Interview Transcript
My efforts on looking for an interviewee were entirely affect by the way I relate to people in this country. For those who may not know, I am also an International student. Then the first impression was that it would be an easy task, once I would be interviewing a person with, in most cases, similar story than mine. That is true. However, when I first came into the U.S, most of the people around my environment were actually Americans. With the exception of the other exchange students in the school, whose stay in the country would expire and they would return to their home countries. Not by choice, but as a recommendation, in order improve my English skills.
Therefore, almost a hundred percent of the people I know in this city are U.S citizens. This surely appeared to me as an obstacle, once I would have to really approach some unfamiliar people, in contrast with those who have foreign friends living in the same floor at the dorms and/or who choose to hang out with people other the U.S nationals. Nonetheless, my work as a Spanish tutor in the Department of Foreign languages of SCSU at Lawrence Hall gave me the possibility to reach some other tutors who occur to be citizens from other parts of the world.
I decided to use my session as a tutor, which usually is not very busy, allowing me to have flexibility of my time, to carry on the interview. Coincidentally, a Chinese tutor, which happened to be a person who in fact was my Chinese teacher during the spring of 2009, had the same scheduled time as me. We have talked before, and we both exchanged experiences and cultural differences between Brazil and China, especially after I learned a little of his language in his class.
The interview was conducted inside the tutor room of the Department of Foreign languages at Lawrence Hall, on Monday, March 15th, at 3:00 p.m. I arrived some minutes earlier in the room and set up my laptop with the questions, so he would be able to read them. I decided to keep the same questions we have produced in class, making some adaptations according to the way I put my speech. Also, I recorded the conversation, though, as a form of support to the ideas I produced while I listened to his answers, and not as a literal transcription. This is due by the fact that I believe that if the person who is asking the questions make comments or speak in between the answers, the final argument of the interviewee can be affected, or even influenced by my opinions. Therefore, I decided to hear him in silent, and after we were done then I made comments about the whole process, with the recorder turned off. Again, I believe that during this kind of interview, the interviewer’s opinion does not really matter; my report will be my written judgment about how it all went. It is a simple process: There are the questions, and then the answers. No matter how briefly his words were, that is what he thinks.
The way I approached him was directly. As soon as he entered the room, I waited for him to sit down, greeted him as usual, and talked about the interview. I asked him if he would not mind answering some questions and talking about his culture and country. I had one hour to do the whole process. I might have talked to him for about forty minutes.
The person, who I talked to, is Jiawen Wang, from China. When talking about China, a huge and typical culture appears and leads most people to believe there is a homogeneous set of traditions and customs all along this country. Particularly, most of the facts I heard during the interview were already known to me. This is because I have been ,for a couple of times, in the same classroom as other people from Asia, and often times the professor would stop the class and randomly ask the international students how different or similar was a determined custom in their home country. Making reference to the large number of Chinese students in this campus, I had a lot of chances to hear a little about this culture, especially after I took Chinese classes with the native students, in the past. There was however, one fact that caught my attention during the process, and it was the detail that within the families the father is the one responsible for getting money to fund every member, however the mother is the one who takes care of the expenses, in other words, she decides what the money will be spent with. This seems a little different from what happens in my country, where both of the parents work, and thus, they have a flexibility to make major financial decisions, without requiring opinion from each other.
It is important to recognize that even inside China, it exist a great diversity, as well as a variety of races, dialects and, thus, differences that for outsiders might be unperceived. Run, as he adopted himself the American name, comes from a Southern Province in China. He once told me, that in contrast to the weather in Minnesota, his city could reach really high temperatures along the humid summer, and which contributed for him to want to give a break from the heat and easily adapt to the Minnesotan reality.
Run’s home city, Changsha, according to the info provided by him plus some of my research, is the capital of the Hunan, which consists of a Province located in South-central China. According to Wikipedia its population goes a little over six million people, and about 2.7 million of the total population lives in the urbanized area of the city, leaving the rest to country areas and rural communities. As many Chinese cities, it brings the contrast of urban and rural, the modern and antique, intensely laying side-by-side in that nation.
Interview Transcription:
Interview Questions
1. Who are you and where are you from?
“My original name is Jiawen Wang, but I use the American name ‘Run.’ I’m 19 years old and I come from China, my city is Changsha.”
2. What is the family structure/social life like in your country?
“In my family my father takes care of work, he gets the money for us and my mother takes care of finances and sons, house works.”
3. What type of government does your country have? How is it different from the US government?
“China is Communist. In this kind of system the President works more with out of the country issues, and the Prime Minister takes care of domestic ones. Currently, there is more freedom of speech than in the past. Media has more liberty to talk about the government.”
4. How did you find out/decide to come to SCSU/US?
“Minnesota was the first state I knew when learning English. The first things I learned about the U.S were from Minnesota. Also, SCSU is the second larger school in the state, and I think it is a nice place to live.”
5. What do you plan to do, where do you want to go after you graduate? Will you go home?
“I plan on travel around the world. Give a break from school. Maybe work while I’m abroad and gather some money. I don’t know yet where I wanna live. It depends on which country can I get the better job. My major is Business.”
6. What is your daily life like in your home country? How is it different from your life here?
“Actually, it is pretty much the same. Go to class, then homework, then go home and watch TV on free time, however, high school in China goes from 7 am until 5 pm, which takes most of our days.”
7. What is the greatest influence the US has had on you?
“Since I got here I Improved my communication skills, in terms of what way do I use to approach people. Here in the states people have a really good sense of how approach and socialize with community.”
8. What is the image of the US in your home country? What do you think now?
“I used to think the U.S was a place with many job opportunities. It is not quite like that anymore, though. This is because I thought of how it used to be some years ago, but recent economic crisis changed this scenario. People in my city have a stereotyped image of this country as of college students partying all the time, as seen on many American movies. Soon, I found out that exists, but of course it is not all like that.”
9. What is the food and clothing like in your country?
“In my province we eat rice both for lunch and dinner. Almost everything thing is cooked, like Chinese cabbage, green peppers. That is specific from the southern part of my country. Clothing can be diverse, once there are the people who live in the rural areas, and those who grew up in the city, like me. This latter kind will tend to dress more westernized clothes, even being similar to the dressing manners in this part of the world, including the U.S.”
10. What are some of the social "norms" or "customs" in your home country?
“It is hard to think in one right now. Actually, I know there are many, but one of those is that in classroom, we are not allowed to ask direct questions while the teacher is talking, such as interrupting him, because this is considered not polite. If it happens that one student does so, there will be pure pressure from the others, like people instantly saying: “Don’t do this! That’s rude!
Another one I can remember is that children are not supposed to talk when adults or older people are having conversations, like within a family. This is because the youngest ones should learn with the older ones by listening only. It’s like they have no opinion because they are inexperienced.”
Jiawen Wang (Run)
Changsha, China
Monday, March 15th, 2010
First Report
Interview Transcript
My efforts on looking for an interviewee were entirely affect by the way I relate to people in this country. For those who may not know, I am also an International student. Then the first impression was that it would be an easy task, once I would be interviewing a person with, in most cases, similar story than mine. That is true. However, when I first came into the U.S, most of the people around my environment were actually Americans. With the exception of the other exchange students in the school, whose stay in the country would expire and they would return to their home countries. Not by choice, but as a recommendation, in order improve my English skills.
Therefore, almost a hundred percent of the people I know in this city are U.S citizens. This surely appeared to me as an obstacle, once I would have to really approach some unfamiliar people, in contrast with those who have foreign friends living in the same floor at the dorms and/or who choose to hang out with people other the U.S nationals. Nonetheless, my work as a Spanish tutor in the Department of Foreign languages of SCSU at Lawrence Hall gave me the possibility to reach some other tutors who occur to be citizens from other parts of the world.
I decided to use my session as a tutor, which usually is not very busy, allowing me to have flexibility of my time, to carry on the interview. Coincidentally, a Chinese tutor, which happened to be a person who in fact was my Chinese teacher during the spring of 2009, had the same scheduled time as me. We have talked before, and we both exchanged experiences and cultural differences between Brazil and China, especially after I learned a little of his language in his class.
The interview was conducted inside the tutor room of the Department of Foreign languages at Lawrence Hall, on Monday, March 15th, at 3:00 p.m. I arrived some minutes earlier in the room and set up my laptop with the questions, so he would be able to read them. I decided to keep the same questions we have produced in class, making some adaptations according to the way I put my speech. Also, I recorded the conversation, though, as a form of support to the ideas I produced while I listened to his answers, and not as a literal transcription. This is due by the fact that I believe that if the person who is asking the questions make comments or speak in between the answers, the final argument of the interviewee can be affected, or even influenced by my opinions. Therefore, I decided to hear him in silent, and after we were done then I made comments about the whole process, with the recorder turned off. Again, I believe that during this kind of interview, the interviewer’s opinion does not really matter; my report will be my written judgment about how it all went. It is a simple process: There are the questions, and then the answers. No matter how briefly his words were, that is what he thinks.
The way I approached him was directly. As soon as he entered the room, I waited for him to sit down, greeted him as usual, and talked about the interview. I asked him if he would not mind answering some questions and talking about his culture and country. I had one hour to do the whole process. I might have talked to him for about forty minutes.
The person, who I talked to, is Jiawen Wang, from China. When talking about China, a huge and typical culture appears and leads most people to believe there is a homogeneous set of traditions and customs all along this country. Particularly, most of the facts I heard during the interview were already known to me. This is because I have been ,for a couple of times, in the same classroom as other people from Asia, and often times the professor would stop the class and randomly ask the international students how different or similar was a determined custom in their home country. Making reference to the large number of Chinese students in this campus, I had a lot of chances to hear a little about this culture, especially after I took Chinese classes with the native students, in the past. There was however, one fact that caught my attention during the process, and it was the detail that within the families the father is the one responsible for getting money to fund every member, however the mother is the one who takes care of the expenses, in other words, she decides what the money will be spent with. This seems a little different from what happens in my country, where both of the parents work, and thus, they have a flexibility to make major financial decisions, without requiring opinion from each other.
It is important to recognize that even inside China, it exist a great diversity, as well as a variety of races, dialects and, thus, differences that for outsiders might be unperceived. Run, as he adopted himself the American name, comes from a Southern Province in China. He once told me, that in contrast to the weather in Minnesota, his city could reach really high temperatures along the humid summer, and which contributed for him to want to give a break from the heat and easily adapt to the Minnesotan reality.
Run’s home city, Changsha, according to the info provided by him plus some of my research, is the capital of the Hunan, which consists of a Province located in South-central China. According to Wikipedia its population goes a little over six million people, and about 2.7 million of the total population lives in the urbanized area of the city, leaving the rest to country areas and rural communities. As many Chinese cities, it brings the contrast of urban and rural, the modern and antique, intensely laying side-by-side in that nation.
Interview Transcription:
Interview Questions
1. Who are you and where are you from?
“My original name is Jiawen Wang, but I use the American name ‘Run.’ I’m 19 years old and I come from China, my city is Changsha.”
2. What is the family structure/social life like in your country?
“In my family my father takes care of work, he gets the money for us and my mother takes care of finances and sons, house works.”
3. What type of government does your country have? How is it different from the US government?
“China is Communist. In this kind of system the President works more with out of the country issues, and the Prime Minister takes care of domestic ones. Currently, there is more freedom of speech than in the past. Media has more liberty to talk about the government.”
4. How did you find out/decide to come to SCSU/US?
“Minnesota was the first state I knew when learning English. The first things I learned about the U.S were from Minnesota. Also, SCSU is the second larger school in the state, and I think it is a nice place to live.”
5. What do you plan to do, where do you want to go after you graduate? Will you go home?
“I plan on travel around the world. Give a break from school. Maybe work while I’m abroad and gather some money. I don’t know yet where I wanna live. It depends on which country can I get the better job. My major is Business.”
6. What is your daily life like in your home country? How is it different from your life here?
“Actually, it is pretty much the same. Go to class, then homework, then go home and watch TV on free time, however, high school in China goes from 7 am until 5 pm, which takes most of our days.”
7. What is the greatest influence the US has had on you?
“Since I got here I Improved my communication skills, in terms of what way do I use to approach people. Here in the states people have a really good sense of how approach and socialize with community.”
8. What is the image of the US in your home country? What do you think now?
“I used to think the U.S was a place with many job opportunities. It is not quite like that anymore, though. This is because I thought of how it used to be some years ago, but recent economic crisis changed this scenario. People in my city have a stereotyped image of this country as of college students partying all the time, as seen on many American movies. Soon, I found out that exists, but of course it is not all like that.”
9. What is the food and clothing like in your country?
“In my province we eat rice both for lunch and dinner. Almost everything thing is cooked, like Chinese cabbage, green peppers. That is specific from the southern part of my country. Clothing can be diverse, once there are the people who live in the rural areas, and those who grew up in the city, like me. This latter kind will tend to dress more westernized clothes, even being similar to the dressing manners in this part of the world, including the U.S.”
10. What are some of the social "norms" or "customs" in your home country?
“It is hard to think in one right now. Actually, I know there are many, but one of those is that in classroom, we are not allowed to ask direct questions while the teacher is talking, such as interrupting him, because this is considered not polite. If it happens that one student does so, there will be pure pressure from the others, like people instantly saying: “Don’t do this! That’s rude!
Another one I can remember is that children are not supposed to talk when adults or older people are having conversations, like within a family. This is because the youngest ones should learn with the older ones by listening only. It’s like they have no opinion because they are inexperienced.”
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