Final Report on Interview 3

Interview 3

Vishal Gurung

ENGL 191 SEC 21

Prof. Specht-Jarvis

Date: 11/16/09

1. Preparations made

   For my last interview, I was excited to have my interviewee from Bangladesh. As we were supposed to have countries from similar region, Bangladesh ahs many things in common with India and Nepal.

The questions I asked him were:

• Where you from? What part of the country are you from?

• What is one biggest issue you face while living away from home?

• Why did you choose to study in an American University?

• What is your immediate goal after you graduate from the University? Are you planning to stay around here or you want to go back as soon as possible and help your country?

• How can you contribute back to your home country with the skills you have learnt over here?

• How much successful do you think you/your national organization have been to make the people here culturally aware?

• To what extent do you think you can adjust to the American culture and lifestyle? (Is the culture too open for you because of the background you come from?) What are the pros and cons of living in a new culture?

• What kind of food do you eat back home? Is it easy to find food from back home over here? Have any local people commented you for eating foods from back home?

• Which one is easier? Making friends with international students or American students? Why is it so?

• Have you felt any awkward moments while talking with American students because you don’t know what to talk about? Can you explain about it?

• Is intercultural marriage a good idea or a bad idea? Support your answer.

• My objectives for this interview was:

  First and foremost, I would like to be prepared myself for the interview by picturing what its motivation would be like at the end and do some quick rehearsal too.

• Next, I have to convince three international students with similar physical and cultural backgrounds for the interview. They have to be eager and interested to be actively involved with their ideas and perspective.

• Then, I should arrange for a quiet place, date and time suitable for the interviewees.

• My next target is to do a thorough background study of the students' countries so that I won't be embarrassed myself by asking culturally-awkward questions.

• As I would be mostly asking questions to them related to their culture (cultural stereotypes, things they like or don't like about their culture) and perspectives on different issues, I also want to compare and contrast these aspects to the American culture and perspectives. At the same time, I would want to make them feel relaxed and comfortable about what they are saying.

• I would also ask them about any problem they have been facing in and out of class and what did they do from their side to minimize it.

• Another interesting question to ask would be coming to St. Cloud State University (SCSU). Why did they choose to come to this part of the USA and not other states?

• Again, as English is considered as an international language, I am eager to know when they started to learn English. Was it in middle school or only later in high school or not at all? How is that helping or affecting them in their class performance right now? Does their professor address these issues while teaching in a classroom?

• Another big issue would be to find out if they had been a victim of racism at any phase at SCSU. Were they verbally offended or was it more than that? How did they respond to it?

• At the end, I would be going through all of my interviews, transcribe the 2 best out of 3, write a detail analysis of it with additional ideas and a suitable conclusion (and probably the objectives at the beginning of the paper again).

Location

The interview was conducted on one of the group study rooms in t he third floor of the SSU library.

Technology used:

I used Nikon Digital camera to record the entire interview.

2. I had a couple of International friends from Srilanka who knew my interviewee and that is I how I approached him.

3. I took the interview on November 1^st, 2009 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Along with asking the biography questions.

   The interview took place in one of the study rooms on the second floor of SCSU library. The study room was nice and quiet and so the interview went smooth.

4. Interviewee's Biography

   Name: Morshed Alam

   Nationality: Bangladesh

   Age: 21 years

   Place of Birth: Kuwait

   Zodiac Sign: Virgo

   Educational Experience: High school

   Major at SCSU: Information Sysytem

   Hobies: Watching movies, exercise

   Places traveled: Minnesota, North Dakota

   Language fluent in: Bangla, English

   Describe yourself: Quiet, contemplative, hardworking, honest

   Any memorable incident: Satisfactory academic performance in the last few years, coming to USA

   Any kind of phobia: Lonliness

   Source of inspiration: Friends, siblings, rivals

   Do you write a day-to-day diary: Sometimes

   Message for people in general: There is no such thingas luck

5. My last interviewee surprised me with some of his answers. When I asked him if marrying and living with people from another culture is a good idea or a bad idea, he told me living with people from other culture is thrilling and you always get to learn and discover interesting things. In addition, his ideas were strikingly similar with my ideas.

6. About Bangladesh

   Bangladesh is a parlimentarily democratic country first formed by its separation with India in 1947 A.D. and later on by its separation with West Pakistan in 1971 A.D.(Bangladesh was east Pakistan then). Its area is comparable to the Iowa state of the USA. The official language of Bangladesh is Bengali.

   Bangladesh has a hot, humid summer and a mild, tropical winter. Being mostly a flat country, many people do farming and agriculture. The population of the country is around 156 million and the majority of this population is muslim (83%) eventhough there are Hindus there (16%).

   Bangladesh's economy is growing day by day since 1996.

   Since Banglades was a part of India before 1947, there are still many resemblance between Bangladesh and India's west Bengal. Bangladesh has a very rich culture and the food are mainly derived from Indian and Middle Eastern origin. Women wear “Saris” and men wear “Kurta Paejama” as their dresses in day to day life. Western clothes are also increasingly popular nowadays.

7. Transcript

   None ( Chose not to include the 3^rd interview due to techincal errors in the recording of the interview)

Observations and lessons learnt:

From my interview, I learnt that international students are as frank, honest, and open as any other American students. They just have a little bit of language barrier. Also, they are pretty much decided on what they want from their college classes and how to utilize them.