2011年2月28日星期一

My First Interview

Interview #1
2/26/2011
ENGL191
Interviewer: Shan Lu
Interviewee: Miryung Sung

 


Report on country and culture
       During the whole interview, I noticed that Sung really like her own country. She lives in north part of Korea. Mostly it have hills and mountains; wide coastal plains in west and south. The capital of Korea is Seoul. The population of her home country is smaller than America. “The age from 0 to 14 years occupy 16.8% (male 4,278,581/female 3,887,516). The age from 15 to 64 years occupy 72.3% (male 17,897,053/female 17,196,840). The age from 65 years and over occupy 10.8% (male 2,104,589/female 3,144,393).” “South Korea lies in a temperate climate region with a predominantly mountainous terrain. Its territory covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of 50 million”. The official language is Korean, and the official scripts are Hangul. English widely taught in junior high and high school. Lee Myung-bak is a president of South Korea. The government type is republic. The national holiday is Liberation Day, 15 August (1945). “The nationality flag of Korea, the blue section represents the negative cosmic forces of the yin, while the red symbolizes the opposite positive forces of the yang; each trigram (kwae) denotes one of the four universal elements, which together express the principle of movement and harmony.” She likes her home country much than here. Not only the weather is warmer than here, but also includes other aspects from Korea. For example, she likes eating Korea food. Korea food has many choices, but the food in America makes her feel bored. Because she thought American diets is not healthy and almost are fast food. She thought the welfare in Korea is not developed. The policies is in a condition of developing because poor people can’t get more welfare from government, but rich people can get many welfare and get the maximum benefit from policies. Korea currently is among the world's 20 largest economies. “The South Korean economy's long term challenges include a rapidly aging population, inflexible labor market, and overdependence on manufacturing exports to drive economic growth.”

Text from WIKIPEDIA is in quotation marks:

Preparation of Interview
       My preparation for the interview looks simple because I have finished preparing the entire fourteen questions in class. I found a friend from Korea on face book. We decided to meet in Hill Case 1:00 P.M. Saturday. Before the interview, I came to library earlier and printed two pages of questions. One is for me, the other one is for interviewee. I started to look through each question, and consider which two questions can be connected together because I want to seriate all questions that make interviewee feel comfortable to be asked. In addition, I estimate the time that to be used in interview. I thought the time of interview can’t be very short, so I need to prepare counter plan. I also prepared some another questions about personal life. Actually, my questions for the interview are full enough, and the time for the interview is to be calculated. Then I bought two bottles of apple juice and some snacks to meet her in Hill Case on time. I also used my cell phone to record the entire interview. I didn’t spend much time on transcribe notes because I don’t want the interviewee to wait for me. I just write down some key words. 

Description of interview
       I thought this first interview went very well. The interviewee is my friend from Korea. We just talked as friends without nervous and strange. I thought the importance for a good interview is interviewer’s preparation and comports. We should keep our purpose in our mind; we need learn how to use mild tone to communicate with interviewee; we might do our best to make them feel comfortable and interested to talk with us. During the whole interview, I also found some interesting topic to talk about. For example, we talked a kind of Korea food, it is called Kimichee. We talked about the steps to make it. That’s truly interesting. I do learn a lot about Korea’s culture and educations. This make me feel impressed. As I am an international student, when we talked some question, I also felt we have understandable similarities. Interviewee’s experience made me find some similar point. Last but not least, interviewee might not good at to describe the history of Korea. She told me she doesn’t know a lot nationality flag’s meaning. Anyway, I felt achieving a lot knowledge from the interview.

Below is my transcription of entire interview:

Me: Hi, my name is Shan Lu. You also can call me Susan. Today, I will ask you fourteen main questions about your country and life in America. I appreciate that you accept this interview, and you can feel free to talk with me. First, could you introduce yourself?
Sung: Hi, I’m Sung. I am studying in IEC (Intensive English Center). I’m from Korea.
Me: How many people are there in your family?
Sung: well, there are four members---my mother, father, younger brother and me.
Me: ok, do you have any cousin?
Sung: In America or..?
Me: um. Do you have any cousin or relatives in America?
Sung: Yeah, I have a lot of cousin in America. They are living New Jersey and California. The main city is Los Angles.
Me: Oh really, that’s pretty good coz relatives can help a lot when you in a country alone. How old are they?
Sung: They are very older than me, and they have children.
Me: Have you visited your cousins’ homes?
Sung: I have been their last summer vocation and last winter break.
Me: How do you think the differences between Los Angles and here?
Sung: I think Los Angles has more buildings than St. Cloud, and warmer than here.
Me: yep, I agree. Why did you decide to come to SCSU instead of studying or working in your own country?
Sung: um. Because this is my dream when I was young, I really want to study in U.S.A. I want to improve my English.
Me: Do you like America’s life?
Sung: yes, I like. When I was young, I often imagine the life in U.S.A. I liked here, but a little bit boring.
Me: yep, I think it’s different from many big cities. What’s your opinion of the American diet?
Sung: When I was in Korea, I really like American diet. For example, hamburgers, fired chickens, and subway. I am living here, and I eat fast food frequently that makes me feel really tired.
Me: That makes you feel uncomfortable and unhealthy?
Sung: Yep
Me: What’s your favorite food in Korea?
Sung: I truly like Korea food. There are many choices in Korea.
Me: I know a kind of Korea food that called Kimichee, do you know how to make that?
Sung: It’s really difficult. I know every mother in Korea know how to make Kimichee.
Me: lol, maybe we can learn together. How does the climate in your home country compare to here?
Sung: Korea has four seasons. Summer is the same as here. Winter is warmer than here.
Me: Did you attempt to go to ice skating here?
Sung: I want to go to there, but I don’t know the skills of ice skating.
Me: What are some cultural differences between your country and here?
Sung: Language is of course different. Korean and English are our main language. Some good students can speak English very well. Before enter into Universities, we have an examination about reading, listening and grammar.
Me: All right, when did you start to learn English?
Sung: When I was in elementary school.
Me: Is so early, right?
Sung: Yep.
Me: Do you know what the population in your contury is?
Sung: The population is smaller than here.
Me: Can you describe your city in Korea?
Sung: My city is a part of northern in Korea.
Me: At what age do men and women spend private time and at what age do they consider marriage?
Sung: I think the private time I can’t defined exactly. Normally, when men and women consider get married, the age of men is from twenty-nine to thirty and the age of women is from twenty-seven to twenty-nine.
Me: What are your personal experiences with racism since coming to the US?
Sung: Actually, when I came here, I lost a box and I tried to take off the box, my feet were tripped over by an America girl.
Me: OMG, why she do that? It’s impolite and rude. Forget that! How did you solve this problem?
Sung: I can’t, I couldn’t to think anything at that time because it was in a sudden. I didn’t get any reactions.
Me: Take it easy, let’s change to another question. What were your preconceptions about the US before coming here and how have they changed?
Sung: Before I was in Korea, I think America is very freedom. They have open mind. But right now I am living there. I think it is really different to people. Some people have a lot of freedom, but some people have less freedom. Compare the food, I felt so tired about America food because I eat fast food every day. I like Korea’s environment than here because I think it’s cleaner than here. When I was in Korea, I really like snowy, but the snowy make me felt tired everyday here.
Me: That’s true. I also don’t like the weather.
Me: If you could visit any place in the U.S. where would it be? Why?
Sung: I want to go to Florida. I heard a lot of good things about Florida. It is not only the weather is so warmer, but also it has a lot of places for fun.
Me: Well, did you face any language barriers? How to solve it?
Sung: I have been there one year. I have to reading, I have to listening videos and I have to speaking. If I read an essay, it’s a little hard for me to read because I can’t understand all of it. Language barriers are very difficult to solve.
Me: Which part is the most difficult part in English for you?
Sung: It’s difficult for us to catch the view of American because we cannot speak English like native and we have different education system when we were young.
Me: I think we need be confident, and do more exercise on English. Trust yourself, you will be improved.
Me: What is the most interesting thing you have experienced during your time studying at SCSU?
Sung: Halloween impress me here. It’s really interesting because everyone dresses up and there are many activities on campus.
Me: What’s your major?
Sung: Biology, I will transfer to medical school because I want to be a doctor.
Me: Why you want to be a doctor?
Sung: Because it’s my dream when I was young.
Me: You know, doctor is a nice career. I hope you can accomplish you dream in the future.
Me: How many countries have you visited?
Sung: America and Philippines.
Me: Which city or country is you most like?
Sung: New Jersey. I have cousins there, and it also has a lot of Korea’s food. It’s delicious.
Me: You missed you country and parents, right? So how do you contact with your parents?
Sung: I often call them. Almost every day my mother calls me.
Me: Will you go back to Korea when you graduated?
Sung: I don’t want stay here. I will go back.
Me: How would you define freedom in America?
Sung: I think America has more freedom than Korea. In Korea, everyone have to work. If they don’t work, they will have no money to live. In contact, welfare in America is pretty good. But in my country, poor people can get less welfare, and rich people can get more welfare. I think it is not fair.
Me: Well, I know your mean. Can you describe your country’s flag?
Sung: I am not sure about describing the meaning of patterns. I just know the red part maybe means sun, and the dark blue part maybe means sea.
Me: Ok, do you have anything you want to talk with me?
Sung: No
Me: That’s all my content of interview. Thank you so much, I do learn a lot of parts about your country.