The Second Interview: Bangladesh

Interviewer: Quyen Tran

Interviewee: Walid Bin Rafiq

Preparation

The person whom I interviewed this time is Walid, a person that I have never met before. He is one of my friend’s friends. I thought that there would be a lot to get to inform from a person who I totally not know. To be prepared for this interview, I had researched about Bangladesh in brief to get a little bit of ideas because I’ve not known much about this country. I made an appointment with Walid in a studying room which was an appropriate place to do an interview because a studying room in the library is a separate space, so that we would not bother or be affected by anybody. After getting into the room, I set up my recorder and did some trials to make sure the volume and value of the sound is good enough to be listened to. I gave Han a page which has pretty much all the questions that I was going to ask, so that it would be easier for him to follow. After that, the interview was conducted as it’s recorded.

Country Report

Bangladesh is located in Southern Asia with its capital Dhaka and a population of 144,319,628 (July 2005 est.) (Kwintessential) It’s a developing and populous country. The climate here is tropical. Among a year, it has a mild winter; hot, humid summer; and a humid, warm rainy monsoon. Bangladesh has its own language which is Bangla and the predominant religion is Muslim. There are a lot of festivals and holidays in this country based on religions. People here usually communicate in an indirectly way and gender is still somewhat matter but not really a gender discrimination currently. The nature here is diversity with lots of rivers and large forests. “A major part of the coastline is marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the Royal Bengal Tiger.” (Wiki) 

  

1. "Bangladesh - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette ." Kwintessential. N.p.. Web. 4 Nov 2012. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/bangladesh.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh

Interview Transcript

Me: Hi Walid, can you tell me a little bit about the value of family in your country?

Walid: It’s the very big thing back home. Father is the head of the family. He’s going to take care of the whole family and it doesn’t matter how many children you could have, no discrimination. It’s just a very valuable thing and sometimes, if you have a really big family, like you have your father, uncle and aunt living all together, doesn’t matter how big the family is, they will take care of themselves and help and help each others, so I think it’s a valuable thing in our country.

Me: What is your family structure like?

Walid: The head of my house is gonna be my dad and my mom also but mostly my dad works, so it’s not like in America, both of them gonna work. My mom is a house wife. She’s gonna take care of us, make food, do laundry, take care of our education, and she’s goona work as a money provider with everything else. That’s pretty much it.

Me: Dose gender matter in your family?

Walid: Yes, it does, especially when guys are the head, so men gonna take care of the family. In some points like some exceptions such as when the dad is absent like he’s working outside of the country, then the mom’s gonna be the head of the family. But for mine, it’s my dad, so gender is pretty much matter in my family, actually in my country. Mostly guys are head of the family, it depends on the circumstances.

Me: How does your home country culture different from the US culture?

Walid: Very different. In the US, you have the freedom of everything, like you can do whatever you want, doesn’t matter ages, doesn’t matter gender, doesn’t matter sex, and doesn’t matter anything you want but in our country, guys get the  most privilege because our country follows Islam, it’s predominant. They actually follow the rules of Islam, so guys are privilege and powerful more than girls a little bit, but girls also have to maintain like, you know, cover themselves. If you are talking about culture, then the same thing, US is the free country whereas my country is not. You need help from other people but in the US, you can do everything by yourself. I would say our home country culture is very different from the US.

Me: What are the highlights in your culture?

Walid: First of all, our country is a developing country you know. It has suburb, but lots of rural areas. Those are very beautiful, green, and that’s the best part of our country. The nature is very diverse. There are different kinds of forests that I know such as the largest men grove forest. You also get some rare animals there. That would be the biggest highlight I would say. Also the people, recently, we have a statistic in the world which is our country Bangladesh has one of the eleven most happy people. I’m very proud of it because I didn’t know about it and I found out. That’s amazing to see that no matter how poor you are, how rich you are, you are happy. It’s the biggest part. Those would be the highlights of our country.

Me: What’s your hometown? Where do you live?

Walid: My hometown in Bangladesh is Dhaka but I live my whole life in Saudi Arabia.

Me: Ok, could you tell me a little bit about the city Dhaka?

Walid: It’s very crowded and everything that could be bad is in that city. People are kind of messed up because they have lots of corruption and I don’t like it at all. The worst thing I would say is the crowd like when it’s in rush hours. Suppose like you want to go from the library to Atwood, it’s gonna take you half an hour if you go by a truck or a car. If you want to go from campus to Cross Road mall, it’s gonna take four hours.

Me: Okey, I see. So what do you think about the music culture in your country? Is it significant?

Walid: Yes, music is a really big thing right now in our country. Our music industry is really good comparing to our movie industry. Our movie industry is a little bit messed up. We have really good music. People love Bangladesh music as well as they are following English music and now after the Gangnam Style is released, I’ve seen a lot of flashmobs in Dhaka. It’s like they have every kinds of music, English, Indian music, and our Bangladesh music is really good. People also follow it. I think it’s pretty significant.

Me: Do people dance a lot?

Walid: Oh yea, they do dance a lot, but not publicly. In America, if you have permission, you can do a concert everywhere, but I would say our country is a Muslim predominant country, so they have to be in-door. If you have a dance party, it has to be a private in-door dance party. You can do concert like singing concert and music concert but not dance concert. So, they do dance a lot, but privately.

Me: Is marriage important that everybody pursue?

Walid: Yes, marriage is a really important thing. Especially, I would say about ten to twenty years back, marriage was a very big thing. Love marriage was actually not accepted by the society. If you do that, you will be looked at as a really bad person. Parents were going to look for brides and grooms. You have to get marriage and you have to spend the rest of your life with that guy or girl. However, things are changing now. The society is getting westernized, so now they are accepting love marriage. If somebody is going to get marriage according to his/her parents, it doesn’t matter because it’s his own choice.

Me: Is there still gender or race discrimination in your country?

Walid: Not now. In the past, there was a very common discrimination in the villages because most people were uneducated that time. They had a thing going on which is if they get marriage, they actually expected sons rather than daughters. They would accept daughters but I know that in some families, they don’t like their daughters because first of all, girls back home, they don’t want to work that much because they have an idea of themselves as house wife. That’s why the parents especially the father, he expected sons, so that the son can help his father earn money and compute in the family economy. That would be the only gender discrimination. There is no race discrimination actually.

Me:  What are the top three social pastimes in your country?

Walid: First would be sport which is Cricket, it’s like baseball but it’s a little different. That’s the biggest sport in our country. They are crazy about this sport. And then the second one is going to be soccer. Then if I talk about hobby, people mostly they do a lot of fishing. There are a lot of rivers in our country, like it’s totally covered with rivers, so that’s one of the hobbies.

Me: Do you think that people in your country generally reserve when meeting new people?

Walid: Hm… Not really, they don’t. They do like to meet new people but they are not like people in here America, you can go to a random person and you gonna say: “Hey, how are you? How’s everything?” and other stuff but in our country, If you do that, they gonna give a weird look like: “What? I don’t know you. Why are you asking me this?”

Me: So, how can you get to know new people?

Walid: The only thing I know is that suppose I’m having a party in my place, I invite you and you get along with my friends who you don’t know. That’s how people get to know others. Or if you feel like working or going to another party, that’s the only way you meet new people. Otherwise, if you walk on the street by yourself, no one is gonna come to you and say “Hi”.

Me: Okey I see. How many children can each couple have in your country?

Walid: In the present, we have education which encourages people to have one child. We have a policy that each couple should have one child. It’s not mandatory, you could have more but one is the best and it doesn’t matter if that’s a son or a daughter. Before, it used to be a little different. Personally, my dad, he has twelve siblings and my mom has seven. The good thing is that my grandfather didn’t merry two or three wives. They are from the same mother. People didn’t do family planning but now they do and it’s changing everything.

Me: So men can only merry to one wife?

Walid: Yes but there are some exceptions you know. They can have two or three wives and the other wives have no problems with this.

Me: Is that illegal?

Walid: No, it’s not but people don’t do that actually because the woman who left everything to go with the man, so they would share everything.

Me: Where would you suggest people to travel to in your country?

Walid: I know that we have the longest beach called Cox’s Bazar. Also, we have one place; it’s a small island but it’s really beautiful because the island has white sand and it’s very clean.
Me: What’s the name of the island?

Walid: It’s Saint Martin. Also, we have a men-grown forest. That’s the biggest men-grown forest in the world. We have the Bengal tigers. It’s called Sundarban. The best part of this forest is that it has some rare tigers which are Royal Bengal tigers. It gets more than 150,000 of those and the most are in Bangladesh. That’s one of the most beautiful place that you can visit as a tourist. Most tourists actually go there.

Me: Which age is considered adult in your country?

Walid: 18 is adult as usual but it’s not like in America that after 18, you can do whatever you want. Still you have to be under expectation of your family. For me, I’m 21 years old and still, my parents are paying for my everything so still I’m under their expectation. If I go home, I will stay with them. It’s not like I will have an extra privilege. So, as long as you are done with studying and start working, I would say that’s the time they call you adult when you earn money by yourself.

Me: Do you think that people in your country are hard workers?

Walid: Yes.

Me: Like Japanese people?

Walid: No, not like that. They are not that hard workers. They work hard but it depends on people. If the economy condition is really bad, they will work hard. In our country, majority of people are poor, so they work really hard for 15 to 17 hours a day. It depends on the economic conditions of the family. If they are poor, they would work hard; if they are middle class, they would work hard but just like normal.

Me: What is the education system in your country?

Walid: Our education system in Bangladesh is mainly Bangla curriculum which is like British curriculum but we have our own exams, our own education board, and our own syllabus. There are also schools based on Cambridge and Oxford. They also have American schools too. In American schools, they follow American curriculum, so it’s pretty much like in America. In British schools, they follow British curriculum like A level or B level.

Me: Is it like primary schools, middle schools, and then highs schools?

Walid: Yes it is.

Me: What is the most important subject in your country?

Walid: The most important now, I would say it’s English. English is our second language, so English has to be in every curriculum. Generally, American schools have their policy that students are not gonna use Bangla for communication. They speak English all the time. The students, they keep practicing by themselves. That’s why when I have friends here who from Bangladesh, they used to study in British schools back home, they are more fluent than me because I was in Bangla schools. So, yea, English is the most important subject.

Me: Do students have to wear uniform?

Walid: Yep, they do. Personally, I had uniform. It was white shirt with black pants and tie. That’s the standard uniform in every schools.

Me: Do you like wearing uniform?

Walid: No, I don’t. It looks weird like all the guys wearing the same thing. I prefer it here in America, everybody can wear anything. I like that because you can be yourself and that time, you can concentrate more because you are feeling good about yourself.

Me: Do a lot of people get a chance to attend colleges in your country?

Walid: No. For some reasons, after tenth or twelfth grade, it’s enough to get a job. But now it’s changing. Most of people are going to universities to get a higher degree and they are somehow encouraged to study abroad. But usually ten years back in the days, the highest education level in our country would be twelfth grade. You are done and you could really find a decent job with that degree too. It’s not good enough, but still enough to maintain a family. Now most people are going to universities and higher education, and even in abroad.

Me: Is it hard to get into a college?

Walid: Yes, it is. If you are going to a medical college, it depends on the seats available. If there are 100 seats, it’s gonna be like 10,000 people running for 100 seats. So it’s pretty hard to get into colleges.

Me: What are different religions in your country?

Walid: The predominant religions are gonna be Islam, and also Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist. These are pretty much four main religions in our country and Islam is the predominant one.

Me: What is your religion?

Walid: I’m Muslim.

Me: What are some holidays that you celebrate in Bangladesh and how do you celebrate them?

Walid: We have lots of holidays. The Islam is the predominant one. We have two big holidays in our religion. Those are called Eids, very festive. They are the two major religious holidays in out country. They are like governmental holidays. Also we have holidays for Hindu. I think it’s called Dulga. That’s the biggest holiday in their religion. Also, we have Christian and Buddhist holidays. There is also one more major holiday which’s gonna be Mareh, the Independence day. That day we got our first independence.

Me: So what is the biggest holiday?

Walid: The biggest is the Independence Day and the two Eids days. And we have one more which is 16^th Dee. It’s our victory day.

Me: What you gonna do on that day?

Walid: We basically have parties, lots of food, and people just gonna go out and have fun like in the parks and concerts such as music concerts. And the significant thing about Eid is that on this day is that you will buy new clothes and you go out with your new clothes and you are gonna show off the clothes. Eid is very sifnificant for kids too because the kids will actually get money from the elders. That’s the most amazing part about this holiday like you get a lot of money and you can spend them for yourself, go outside, eat somewhere with friends.

Me: That’s exciting. So, what is the most famous food in your country?

Walid: It’s rice. We eat a lot of rice. That’s why we are so fat. Fish and rice are the main food in our country because we have lots of rivers and we have plenty of fishes. Personally I don’t like fishes but all people in Bangladesh they love to eat fishes. Also, they eat lots of chicken, beef, and lam.

Me: Do people eat pork?

Walid: No, we don’t. For Hindu, they don’t eat beef. Muslims they don’t eat pork but Christian they do sometimes.

Me: What are your meals like? What is the size, number, and times of day?

Walid: Size is huge. I would say that the amount of three American people is gonna go for one person. We love to eat and we have three times a day. Breakfast is pretty small. It depends on the person who makes it. But sometimes they have really delicious breakfast. And then, lunch is the biggest one.

Me: You put all the stuff in one dish?

Walid: Not really. We make five or six dishes and then you get food for yourself and put all the things together. I forgot to tell you that the size of the dish is three times bigger than American dishes size and people usually eat two plates of them, so usually, one person in Bangladesh eat six times more than American.

Me: Can you eat that much?

Walid: Yea, I could eat four plates, so I actually ate 24 times more than American do. It depends on the people; if you want to diet you will eat less.

Me: Do most people eat spicy food?

Walid: They love spicy food. Our spicy food is gonna be really hot. The most popular chili we have is called Ghost chili. It’s so hot, like ghostly spicy. I saw American who has that chili, when they eat it, they have the mask on because literally it goes in to your eyes. It’s gonna burn.

Me: In conclusion, what things that you don’t like about your country and what things make you proud of?

Walid: First thing that I hate about my country is corruption. The counry is pretty much really corrupted. There are also a lot of criminal in our country, lots of murders, robbers, and everything. That’s what I hate about my country and also I told you about the crowd. In rush hours, if you are driving a car, like for 7 to 8 hours, it’s unbelievable hot in Bangladesh even in winter, it still get hot and really humid, so you sweat like crazy. What else do I hate about my country?

Me: You can tell me what you like about your country.

Walid: Oh yea, actually, I like a lot of things about my country. Sometimes you would see some really good people and the best part is family. For me, I have a really huge family. My grandfather village is actually full of my family members. It’s a very long distance family member. We have more than 1200 family members. One village has more than a thousand people and all of them are related to each others. It’s a very long cycle. I love that part when you go to every place and say “Hi”. And then the second thing which I’m proud of is my language. In 1971, we have a war with Pakistan for language. I heard that no other languages actually shed that much blood. There were three millions people died in that time just for the language. We got our own language and I’m proud of my language. For that, the Feb 21th is our International Mother Language Day which is celebrated everywhere to honor those people who died in the war. Also the nature, I love the nature. That’s what I’m proud of.

Me: Alright, thank you for the interview.

Walid: No problem.

File Recorded: http://soundcloud.com/quyenkit/bangladesh-interview

Interview Report

One more time I luckily got such a great interviewee. Out of what I expected, Walid gave me plenty of information about Bangladesh. He tried to not only answer my questions but also tried to explain and refer to many other sources, so that the answers that he gave me are so meaningful. After interviewing Walid, I could see that Bangladesh has its very own culture. Holidays, lifestyle, and dinning etiquette are so different from other countries. In Bangladesh, each religion has its own holidays. Muslims is the predominant religion, so its biggest holidays are also the whole country biggest holidays basically. If in America, people play baseball, Bangladesh people would play Cricket, a sport which is similar to baseball but a little different. They love this sport. Bangladesh love their music and love to dance. However, they don’t dance in the public but in a private space. One more thing is that, gender is somewhat still matter in this country. And then about the dinning etiquette which I think is interesting that most people eat a lot as what Walid said. A Bangladesh person could normally eat six times more than an American do which is so surprising. Those are some facts that I think are unique about Bangladesh. I was really enjoying asking questions and listening to Walid’s speaking. I definitely got a lot more knowledge about Bangladesh, a country which I had not known much about.

Review of Interview 1

My Scorecard

1st: Chancelvie Louzolo  (20 points)

Chancelvie has very good elements. I was impressed at the first side due to the plain and clear organization. All of the elements are plain and not too long but it doesn't mean they don't get enough important information. The length of all elements are just well enough. The interview she did contains every required questions basically and beside, Chancelvie ask more questions to make the interview flow smoothly. I could say that the interview generally is a well organized, providing all information that could be expected, and plus, there is a audio file attached in it. It seems like she did put effort in and thought critically. Those are the reason why I could choose Chancelvie's interview as the first place. 

2nd: Jon Madden  (20 points)

I was very impressed by Jon interview. All elements are shown up in a vey well-organized way. The transcript shows that they really enjoyed talking and it is an interesting interview. I couldn't expect anything else from the interview. The only thing that make me not choose this interview as the first place is because Jon doesn't have an audio file, just like Chanceivie does.

3rd: Jonathon Gerry  (20 points)

This is an exellent interview. I couldn't say anything else; everything is perfect. However, the same with Jon, he doesn't have the audio file and all the elements could be briefer but still contain important information.

The First Interview: Korea

Interviewer: Quyen Tran

Interviewee: Hanju Chae

Preparations

The person whom I interview name Hanju Chae. He is one of my accounting classmates who sit right next to me. I have been talking with him few times and when the interview assignment came, I thought it would be a good opportunity to interview him about South Korea, the country I chose and also where he’s from. Actually, I was going to interview one of my English classmates. She is the only Korean in the class and I knew that a lot of people in the class choosing the same country which is Korea to do interview of, so she might be the interviewee of lots of people in the class. Therefore, I thought of Han. I asked him to be my interviewee after an accounting class and he said yes. We made an appointment in the library the day after and decided to reserve a studying room which was an appropriate place to do an interview because a studying room in the library is a separate space, so that we would not bother or be affected by anybody. After getting into the room, I set up my recorder and did some trials to make sure the volume and value of the sound is good enough to be listened to. I gave Han a page which has pretty much all the questions that I was going to ask, so that it would be easier for him to follow. After that, the interview was conducted as it’s recorded.

Country Report

South Korea is a beautiful country located in Eastern Asia with its capital Seoul and a population of 48,598,175 (1). This is a top developed country over the others in Asia. Its capital, Seoul, “is the world's second largest metropolitan area with more than 25 million inhabitants.” (2) There are many famous companies in here such as Kia, Samsung, or Daewoo, which have been affect the world and make Korea GDP improve considerable. About the culture, family could be the most significant part of Korean life; it’s priority. Elder people are specially respected here. The Korean ancestors “are based on the male family line” (3) and people worship their ancestors.  

“Education in South Korea is regarded as crucial to financial and social success, and competition is consequently fierce, with many participating in intense outside tutoring to supplement classes.” (4) “South Korea's education system is technologically advanced and it is the world's first country to bring high-speed fibre-optic broadband internet access to every primary and secondary school nation-wide.” (5)

Coming to Korea, there will be many exciting places to visit. Seoul is the number one place. It’s an “an amazing mix of Ancient and Ultra-Modern” and is “One of the most dynamic cities in the World” according to Squidoo. Seoul is a convenience city with variety kinds of services such as shopping centers and restaurants serve 24/7. Another exciting place to visit is Jeju Island which is considered Hawaii of Korea. It has the most beautiful views and beaches in Korea.

In the free time, Koreans would go sauna for relaxing and baseball is the most popular sport here. People also play pool and bowling for fun and young people go to karaoke for entertaining.

Generally, Korea is a convenience and developed country with a strong and unique history of heritage.

Bibliography:

(1), (3): "Kwintessential." South Korea - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/south-korea-country-profile.html.

(2): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul

(4), (5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea#Education

"Top 10 Places to Visit in South Korea." Squidoo. N.p.. Web. 22 Oct 2012. http://www.squidoo.com/top-10-places-to-visit-in-south-korea

Interview Transcript

Me: Hi Han, can you tell me a little bit about the value of family in your country?

Han: Yea, simply, the value of the family means to me is priority. I just realized that nothing is really matter. It really is about the ones you love, so I have to kind of appreciate this fact more and more as a son, a member of my family.

Me: Okey, so what’s your family structure like? Who is the head of the family? What is the value?

Han: I personally think that my Mom has more power over my dad because she stays at home doing housework and stuff and my dad is always busy at work. Well, it doesn’t apply to every South Korean family but in my family, my Mom is the head of power.

Me: So, does she go to work?

Han: She does not go to work. She does not have a job. She’s just a house wife. This is great for the whole family because she cooks and takes care of the house very well.

Me: Okey, so is that the reason why she’s the head of the family over your dad? I think normally, men are the head of the house.

Han: Well, simply, I think my dad is a nice guy.

Me: Generally, in your country, does gender still matter in a family?

Han: Technically not really, but you know, even in America, gender is kind of a matter. I think everyone would like to have a son rather than a little girl and that is kind of same thing happening in Korea, too. It doesn’t come into face to face, but behinds, people kind of want to have a son rather than a girl.

Me: How does your home country culture different from the US culture?

Han: I think Korean is more conservative than American, so they are less liberal; they are more like Republicans. They are not as open minded as most of the Americans are. 

Me: What are the highlights in your culture? (What things will make people immediately whink about your country? Please tell more about its history).

Han: The recent one is the song Gangnam style by Psy. It reminds most people in the world as a style which is equal to South Korea.

Me: So, what does Gangnam style look like? How about it?

Han: It’s the area which the richest people in South Korea live in. It’s a district. It’s basically Beverly Hills of America in Korean version.

Me: Does Gangnam represent all people in your country or just a small area?

Han: It’s a tiny area, which probably between 100 to 200 hundred thousand people live in.

Me: What is your home town? (Where have you been growing up? And where do you live?)

Han: My hometown is Seoul. As I mentioned, Gangnam is a part of Seoul, but I am not from that area. I grew up in Seoul until when I was 15 years old. I moved to the US and live here for the last seven years.

Me: Could you tell me a little bit about Seoul?

Han: The city of Seoul has ten million populations just by the city itself. The metropolitan area is about 24.5 million inhabitants which becomes the second largest in the world. South Korea has the highest and fastest broadcasting system in the world called DMB. And then I recently researched about the GDP per capital. It was 32,000 dollars per capital, so it’s pretty not that bad but not too great economic. Seoul also has headquarters of hundreds companies such as Huyndai, Kia, and Samsung. Those are all headquarters located in Seoul.

Me: Can you tell me a little bit about the lifestyle there? What make it unique?

Han: Oh, okey. My city has the unique culture which I think is really great. The city never sleeps. If you want any kind of food, you can order it and it will get delivered to your house 24/7, so it’s really convenient.

Me: Okey, so how a young person considered troublemaker in your country?

Han: I think it depends on the person. When I was young, I personally thought troublemakers are not cool, but all the others would think that it’s cool.

Me: Ok, so what do you think about the music culture in your country? Is it a significant part?

Han: I would say that it’s pretty significant but I’m pretty sure it’s not as a big deal as the other high musical cultures such as Australia and America. However, Korean has our own music called K-Pop which I think is pretty popular in the whole Asia.

Me: Do you like K-Pop?

Han: Well, not too much but I like Gangnam style, yea.

Me: Is marriage important in your country that everybody pursues?

Han: Yea, absolutely nobody wants to be alone when they are at ages 40 or 50. They want to keep in track with their heritage, so I think everyone pursues marriage.

Me: Are you sure? Because in the US, marriage is not really the most importance, not everybody pursues it.

Han: Every situation has exception but most of people, since they are conservative, even when they there are conflicts within the marriage, they would try to figure it out rather than just break up and divorce. 

Me: Is there still gender or race discrimination in your country?

Han: Comparing to the US, absolutely not but I saw some discrimination. Seoul, the city where I lived in, has a lot of Chinese and some Africans immigration such as Nigerians who came to South Korea as labor workers. We treat them kind of bad but nothing as bad as in America like kill them or punch them on the streets.

Me: What is the most famous food in your country?

Han: Bulgogi, the very thin slide beef with our own unique sauce, which tastes very similar to Teriyaki. I personally think Bulgogi tastes better than Teriyaki.

Me: What is the traditional food then?

Han: Bulgogi is one of the traditional foods in South Korea but there is also the one called Kimchi which made from cabbages and twenties more ingredients go in. I don’t know all the elements but there are a lot of things go in Kimchi.

Me: Are Bibimbab and Kimbab traditional?

Han: Yes, Bibimbab is steam white rice mixed with the chili paste sauce and a bunch of different kinds of vegetable and also ground beef. That’s very traditional. Every single time when I came back home, on the flight, I always chose that food to eat. Kimbab is Korea version of Sushi. It’s not traditional but it’s for high school students to bring with when they come to the library and feel hungry but don’t get much money. Kimbab is one of those kinds of food applied to the high school or middle school students who do not have lots of money but fill out their hungers.

Me: Do most of people eat spicy food?

Han: I would say yes. I actually have trouble big time when I went back to South Korea last summer. I got too much of American food which is just sweet and salty. I was not eating any spicy food, so when I went back to South Korea, I had lots of spicy food and I got sick for three days. So yea they eat a lot of spicy food.

Me: What are your meals like? (size, number, and times of day)

Han: We have a lot of soups, a lot of steam food, and a lot of barbeques. We just have a variety of different kinds of food that very uncountable. When we go to restaurants, there are at least five different sizes of dishes. The size of the meal is not as big as American meals but at least the five different sizes of dishes really make that up to get full. There are some big meals that people will share with each others. It’s the one big part in the middle. It’s kind of the unique thing but you get your own bowl right in front of you, so you just pick it out from the big part. It’s kind of the big size for families, about six to seven people.

Me: What is the education system in your country?

Han: It’s pretty much the same with the United States, but one different thing is about the high school system. We have two different ways. One is for the students who are preparing to go to the college. We are focusing on those kids to just train them harder. On the other hand, the other kids who don’t want to go to the college and just want to get a job, teachers are focusing on training them the working skills for what they are interested in rather than just educate them. Plus, high school in Korea is three-year-system instead of four and middle school, we also have three years but the US has two years. Those two are probably the only differences. Other than that, everything is pretty much the same.

Me: Do a lot of people get a chance to attend college in your country?

Han: Actually I researched this. The percentage of high school-ers in South Korea applying and enrolling to colleges is higher than the US. By the percentage, more Korean are willing to go to colleges than students in the US.

Me: So is it hard or easy to get into a college?

Han: I think getting into a college in Korea is extremely hard, but when you get in, it’s not that hard to graduate. So I would say just only getting in is way harder than in the US.

Me: What are the top three social pastimes in your country?

Han: I think baseball comes as number one over soccer. People in SK go to sauna as a hobby, they play pool; they play bowling; and they also play a lot of video games. But my family, especially my mom and my dad, they hike mountains a lot, at least twice a week. That’s their hobby and my mom’s hobby is cooking food in general. She tries to cook different meals, different stuff. My dad, actually, he enjoys hiking to the mountains. That was just my family hobbies but in general, people hobbies are going to bowling, playing pools, going to karaoke for teenagers, and they go to sauna for relaxing.

Me: Do you think that generally, people in your country reserve when meeting new people?

Han: If that’s for occasion or business, yes, they do. Otherwise, they do not. It’s pretty much the same thing as in here in America.

Me: In which way people pay a bill? “Saparate?”  or “together?” Who would be the person pay the bill?

Han: Generally, it’s used to be elder guys paying for the meals or whoever the person asks the other to go out. But now, most of people pay separately. Unless the really elder people ask you to go out, then they will pay for you.

Me: How many children can each couple have?

Han: Ok, well, South Korea is a completely different country from China, so Korean couple; they can have as many kids as they want. They can have twenty of them if they want to.

Me: What are your views on tattoos? What are the views your country has on tattoos? Is it considered bad if a girl has tattoos?

Han: Elder people, older generation, they are really conservative, so they think it’s not good. But our younger generation, they think that’s pretty cool especially women, they have tattoos and when we see them with tattoos on at the pools with bikini, we think that it’s sexy. But I personally do not like to get tattoos on my own skin.

Me: Where would you suggest people to visit when they come to your country, and why?

Han: Obviously the number one is Seoul which is my hometown and the capital of South Korea. I’ve already mentioned about the city before so I’m going to skip that. There’s also the other part is called Busan. It’s the second largest city in Korea; it’s really far, in the southeast at the edge. It’s famous for seafood, beautiful beaches, night lights and partying, just kind of like Miami style. And then, there is also an island called Jeju Island, on the southeast part of South Korea. It’s the island made by volcanoes. Especially in the winter time, there’s a lot of snow and it’s really beautiful but I would say that in the summer time, since that’s an island, a lot of beaches and a lot of summer activities. It’s kind of like Hawaii in Korean version.

Me: Which age is considered adult in your country?

Han: Officially, the age is 19, but people still rely on their parents, so I personally consider it’s 25. But the legal age to be adult is 19 years old in Korea which means they can drink, smoke, and drive.

Me: Do you think that people in your country are hard workers?

Han: Generally yes because Korea, I think is a developed country but still not quite as much as the US, so we are still trying to achieve, to become a better country. So, I think they are hard workers. They are trying harder than most of Americans, not every American.

Me: Do you think it’s normal for girls to ask boys out? Or it’s better for boys to ask girls out?

Han: This question really depends on situations and individuals. Korean girls are kind of being shy to ask guys out but if you meet them the bars or clubs, they act as much as guys do.

Me: What are the different religions in your country? What is the predominant one?

Han: I also actually researched this, about the religions. The predominant religion is Christian. It’s about 45%, Buddhism is about 38%, and the rest is non religion. So, the most popular, the predominant religion is Christian in Korea.

Me: So, is there any other religion beside Christian and Buddhism?

Han:  I’m sure there are some but not that I know among my friends or any people.

Me: What’s your religion?

Han: My parents are Buddhist, that’s one of the reasons why they actually very enjoy hiking because all the temples are on mountains. I am not really religious, but I am trying to be Buddhist.

Me: What are some holidays that you celebrate in Korea and how do you celebrate them?

Han: The biggest one is called Seollal. It’s the Chinese New Year; I think what it is same thing in Korea, too. We make dumplings, all relatives get together, just like any other countries holidays. All relatives get together, having a huge meal, talking, just catching up with the things. That’s how we celebrate. And then, the one which is different from American holidays is that we actually do worship and stuff prays for our ancestors at night. That’s the one thing different.

Me: Is there any other celebrations?

Han: Yes, there is another one called Korean Thanks Giving. It’s two months before the Thanks Giving in America. We go out at night, watch the full moon together, and wish out hopes.

Me: Is Thanks Giving in Korea similar to American Thanks Giving?

Han: Gathering relatives and families together and then having a big meal are similar. The different thing is that we actually watch the full moon, praying, and wishing things for the future.

Me: In conclusion, what things you do not like about your country and what things you feel proud of?

Han: The one thing I dislike about my country is that even though you disagree with someone older than you, you can’t tell your opinions because our own culture thinks that’s really rude. So that actually makes way less opportunities to be a creative person, to be a minded person. It’s close to minded person. I actually hate about that thing. However, what I like about my culture is that the food is great; nothing is fried much, really healthy, and really tasty. And I am kind of proud of our economic situation. Yea, that’s pretty much it.

Me: Thank you for the interview.

Audio files recorded:
http://soundcloud.com/quyenkit/interview-part-1
http://soundcloud.com/quyenkit/interview-part-2

Interview report

The interview length is about 33 minutes. I asked Han the questions that I had already prepared in the page but sometimes I made more questions because things that I wanted to know just jumped into my head and I did it following the flow of the content. At first, I thought Han might not answer clearly all of the questions or it might be hard for me to catch up because we haven’t talked too much before. However, out of what I expected, Han was very open and was trying not to just simply answer my questions but also to explain and refer to his own experiences. It seems like Han had put some times on researching and getting prepared for the interview. This makes his answers more clearly and much more interesting.

To not miss any important questions, I divided the questions invisibly into seven parts. All of the parts are family, culture, food, education, social, religion, and finally, religion. From the interview, I found out that Korean culture is the combination of Asian style and American style. It is pretty similar to my country Vietnam, especially the way people celebrate some holidays and the way people having meals. Koreans worship their ancestors and in a meal, they get a big meal or some dishes in the middle of the table and pick food from the big part. About the education, it’s hard for people to get in but not that hard to graduate. However, on the other hand, just like American, approximately half of the populations are Christian. Korea has been the top developed country over the other countries in Asia. Its economic is big and its lifestyle has a considerable effect on many other cultures. The technology and music culture are some instants. Koreans are now confident, open minded and integrate to the development of the world. The fact of some popular companies such as Huyndai, Kia and Samsung, whose products are used all over the world, has shown it. Generally, Koreans have characteristic of Asians and keep their tradition similarly to the other Asia cultures but they are trying to integrate to a developed environment.

The interview just kept flowing smoothly. I was really enjoying asking questions and listening to Han’s speaking. I definitely got a lot more information about South Korea culture and lifestyle through personal thoughts of a native Korean, beside what I had researched on websites. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Individual thought on Challenges and Benefits of Interviewing an International Student

Since there are a lot of differences between countries, people are usually curious and get question marks in mind. Interviewing a person who comes from another country is a solution, which brings both challenges and benefits to the interviewer. As an undergraduate student, interviewing an international student means the interviewer has to consider who would be the interviewee and then might face a hard time to find the ways approaching a person due to differences in lifestyles. However, besides those challenges, interviewing an international student is a great way to achieve knowledge about different cultures. Interviewing bring us benefits of discovering other cultures as well as lifestyles and on the other hand, reflect our own culture by looking at people ways of thinking.

To interview an international student, the first step is looking for an appropriate person obviously. However, this is a concern since a lot of people have never been interviewing or even talking to an international student. According to a research from an International Students Interviewing classroom by Alderman, “two-third of the students had infrequent or rare interactions with international students”. Therefore, finding an interviewee is hard, approaching him is even harder. Due to the differences in lifestyle, each person has his own way to start a conversation. In this case, the interviewer might not know if the student would open and welcome questions or not. According to Alderman, “Students were very apprehensive and stressed until they actually approached somebody”. However, “once they did, they were pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the international student to participate in the interview, and enjoyed the rest of the exercise”. At this point, an interviewer will achieve benefits of interviewing an international student. He will get an opportunity to discover another culture by getting closer to the interviewee and asking questions. “She was super friendly, and I learned a lot from her culture”, a girl from Alderman’s research said after she had interviewed a Chinese student. On the other hand, by openly talking to an international student, interviewers would see ways the student think about the two cultures and from that reflect their own cultures.

In conclusion, interviewing an international student make people face some challenges finding and approaching interviewees at first but obviously, the interviewing process would bring many benefits since interviewers will be able to achieve knowledge about another cultures as well as their own culture.

Worcited:
Alderman, Derek. "academia.edu." Border Crossing in the Classroom:. N.p., 01 2004. Web. 15 Oct 2012. <http://www.academia.edu/1029548/Border_crossings_in_the_classroom_The_international_student_interview_as_a_strategy_for_promoting_intercultural_understanding>.

Interview Objectives

Hopefully by interviewing some people in the class, I will achieve my objectives which are know more about cultures and people in other countries, know how the interviewees view their culture personally, be able to conclude some differences between my home country and the other countries, get a chance to learn what I haven’t taught in my home country, and most important, get to know more about the interviewees as my classmates.