Preparations For The First Interview

Due to a great number of Somalis in Minnesota, the goal of my interviews and even my country report is to get to know Somali culutre, such as their customs, foods, family structures, body languages, and those types of thing.

I would will be conducting the interview in the simple way. The main technology I would be using was just a recorder.

For this interview, I came up with 7 main questions and several subsequent questions.

For the interviewees, I would want to start with my friend – Issa Gure who is a Somali. Issa has been here in the United States for almost 5 years. He lives with a couple friends in Sauk Rapids. He went to Apollo High School in St. Cloud. He graducated from there at May, 2009. We took the same class, MME-101, last semester. Therefore, we would have more connections and a long conversation, which, I thought, would help my first interview go smoothly.

Then I contacted him through email. A couple of days later, he replied me back saying he was willing to be my interviewee. So I sent him some types of question I would be asking and let him be prepared. We also made an appointment on when and where we should conduct the interview. 

After finding a interviewee, I began preparing the interview for myself. I went online to do some research on Somalia, mainly about Somali history, geography, culuture, and customs so that I could have some more connections, which may would make him feel liking talking with me, and try to avoid some questions that were inappropriate to ask.  

Before conducting the interview, I borrowed a recorder from another friend of mine. I also brought my loptop just in case.

Finally, the day came, Issa and me met in the cafe in Miller Center. Then we began conducting the interview.  

Description of The First Interview

It seems to me that this interview went surprisingly well. I didn’t expect it that my interviewee was so prepared and talkative.

I was a little nervous at the beginning part of the interview because as an international student as him I don't speak English fluently and I was worried about whether or not the language problems would hinder the progress of the interview. However, my friend, Issa,  was very relaxed and seemed to ecacty know what we were doing.

With time going on, I felt more and more comfortable because of him. During the interview, he answered my questions at length. I realized that as a Chinese, I had some connections with this African friend.  He told me that Zheng He, an explorer and diplomat in Chinese history, once commanded voyages to his country – Somalia, which I didn’t know about. He said Chinese people were helping Somalis and he appreciated it. We also have similar recent history but I feel sorry that his country is not doing well after the independence. We have some similar customs, for example, he has Ramadan is his religion and in my religion we also have similar event. What also surprised me was that their longstanding ties with the Arab World and how the Islamic culture has significant influence on their public life.

After this interview, I realized that having a talkative interviewee and having some connections with the interviewee would help the interview process much more smoothly. To be honest, I conducted an interview for another class before, and it went terribly. The main reasons that it didn’t go well were 1.I am not very prepared for the interview, 2.I randomly chose a person on campus who I barely, 3. The interviewee didn't felt like talking. Thus we felt awkward half way through the interview when we didn’t have much to talk. As a result, we ended the interview rushly.

With those experiences, I will be more prepared for my next interview.  

Transcription of The First Interview

Interviewer: Heqiu Liu

English 191

Interviewee: Issa Gure.

Interviewee's country of origin: Somaia

Interview date: 10/23/2010

Interview #1

Me: Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself, such as your name, the country you are from, how long have you been here, and your major?

Issa: Ok, my name is Issa Gure. The country I’m from is Somalia originally. But I came to Kenya, then to America, to the United State of America. I have been here for almost five years. Uh, my intended major is mechanical engineering.

Me:  First, I would like to know your greeting customs. We know that people in the United States say, “Hi, how are you” and shake hands when people first meet.  But, how do you guys great each other? Is there anything special there? Could you tell me in English?

Issa: Uh, when we meet someone, we differentiate the people that we meet. If he is male, we shake hands with him and say in Arabic, “Asalama Alaikum WarahmatuAllah Wabarakat.” That is how Muslims greet each other.

Me: What does it mean?

Issa: It means “Peace be upon you”. And you shake hands, and you repeat the same thing he say, “Peace be upon you, too.” And if she is a female, you say the same thing in Arabic but you don’t shake hands. You just say, “Asalama Alaikum WarahmatuAllah Wabarakat.” And she is a relative of yours, like a mother, a sister, one woman that you cannot marry, for example, your mother, your sister, your ants from mother’s side from father’s side, uh, grandmother, those type of things, those type of females or women, you can shake hands with them, but one that you can marry, like you cousins, any other females or women, you cannot shake hands relagionally. According to our religion, and you only say, “Asalama Alaikum WarahmatuAllah Wabarakat (Peace be upon you).” And she repeats the same.

Me: If I was a good friend of yours and I want to pay a visit to you one day, how would you treat me as a guest in your house?

Issa: We usually treat guest the same as every culture do. If he is a best friend, or I guess, it would be the same. If you are my best friend, and you would be my guest in my house, I would just treat you the same as any guest.

Me: Will you cook food?

Issa: We will cook food.

Me: Who will cook the food?

Issa: If I have a wife, then she will cook it. If I don’t have a wife and I live with my mother, then I will tell my mother my friend is coming, then she will cook food. If he come at our home without the notice, then I might take him out somewhere, for example a restaurant, and make him feel welcome. And if he is new to town, if he is in need of anything, I would support, and try to show what I get. I can do anything that he needs as possible as I can.

Me: Next, I want to know what you guys usually do for entertainment.

Issa: Usually, we just, as speaking for the boys respectively, or males, me and friends would play soccer, video games, or just sit in a place and just chat. But, there is nothing special we do. Particularly, we never go parties like people do here. In our religion, going to a party is against our religion. So we don’t usually go to a party, we don’t drink, we don’t dance, and we are supposed to listen to music. But there are some who may try that, but it is not allowed in Islam.

Me: Then, I would like to know something on your family structure. What are some of the roles that family members play?

Issa: Uh, the mother is usually the head of the house.

Me: The mother, not the father?

Issa: Yeah, when the father is away or out maybe out in a job. The mother is the head of the kitchen. And if she has daughters, they will be helping her. And when the father is around, he is the head of the family.

Me: Make every decision?

Issa: Every decision is not based on him. But when he has to make, he has to consult the mother, usually his wife. They consult each other, then the father make the decision. He is the head of family structure. Like if you are president, you cannot make decision by yourself; usually you have to consult the vice-president and your advisor. So the mother is the advisor, the vice-president.

Me: How many family members usually live together?

Issa: Almost all! There is nothing like when you get eighteen, twenty, twenty five, and you are not married. You just live with the family if you want to. And it is also your choice if you want to move out. You can move out. As a religion, women don’t usually, when they are not married, they don’t usually move out. Until she gets married, she never moves out of her mother’s house or home. And when she gets married, she will follow her husband. There is nothing like when she is eighteen, she can move to an apartment like men do. Women don’t do that.

Me: How many children do you usually have in one family?

Issa: There is no restriction in Islam which is my religion. So as many as you can have.

Me: How many wives you can have?

Issa: A man is allowed to marry four wives. No more than four wives. You can marry one time four wives; you cannot marry more than four wives. But in the Quran, that suggests to marry only one wife. If you have the ability, and you have more money, and you can balance their needs, than you can marry four. You are allowed to marry up to four. But it is always good to marry one. If you can’t balance it and you don’t the financial support. But when it comes to children, we don’t have restrictions. A husband and a wife can have as many children as they can. My grandmother from my mother side, she has ten children. As long as the women can give birth. There is nothing to think about like how and where I am going to get my food, or college finance, or shelter for them. As many as you can have… As it says in the Koran, leave the food, (shelter and finance?) to me.

Me：Next, I would like to know something on your food culture. What do you have for your diet (such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner)?

Issa: Our breakfast, as a Somali, consists of pancake. Usually, we eat pancakes. It’s a traditional pancakes, it’s not like ihop pancakes. We usually cook it our own designs. But they have the same characteristics. They have the same shape, and the ingredients are the same, flour, add some soda, that is how you make it. Then for lunch, we usually have white rice or pasta with stew. Sometime you put the rice in a different part and the stew in the different part. And then you put them in the same plate. And sometime you cook them together in part, stew and white rice, or pasta, same as the Italian. Because Somalia was colonized Italian, so we eat pasta. It is a part of our diet. And for dinner, maybe the same, sometime rice, sometime plaster, sometime, we eat, uh, maybe, it is called bugali in Swahili. I don’t know what is called in English. It is made of flour.

Me: Are there any types of food you usually don’t eat in your home country, but you eat here?

Issa: No, every meat that I usually ate in my country, I eat in here. The only meat I don’t eat is pork. As a Muslim, Muslim does not permit eating pork. So we do not get pork, never, never in our lives. We are not supposed to eat it. But any other meat, we eat. We eat camel, goat, chicken, turkey.

Me: You must like American food a lot? Because a lot of American food came from Italy.

Issa: Yeah, pizza. I usually like pizza. And maybe McDonald’s, without the pork thing.

Me: Finally, I would like to know your body languages. Do you have any special and interesting body languages?

Issa: I can say Somali when they talk, they usually use their hands. When we are talking, we use hands to demonstrate like what we mean by saying. We use body language a lot.

Me: So when you are giving a presentation, do you still use them a lot?

Issa: Yeah, if you are not nervous. You are nervous, your forget everything. When you are with your friends, you use body language a lot, like shaking hands, many things. I can’t name them.

Me: Do you have different rules of eye contact in your country? For example, do you look directly into people’s eyes like people over here do when you talk each other?

Issa: if he is a friend of yours, someone in your age group, and he is male, then you look straight into his eyes. If someone is younger than you, you could look straight into his eyes. But if someone is older than you, doesn’t matter it is male or female, you don’t look straight to his/her eyes, you look down, just to show respect. But is someone is your age group and she is female, you don't look straight into her eyes, even she is younger, older, or same as your age group. We will look aside or down when we talking to a female.

Me: How does your body language when you say someone is out of his/her mind?

Issa: We do this. (Using his right index finger making a circle around the right side of his head)

Me: Well, I think we are done. Thank you, Issa. I appreciate it.

Issa: Thank you Heqiu. You're a welcome.

My first interview experience in class

I worked with Hale and Chris. What I learned Hale was that we have plenty of cultural similarities and I got a chance to know that how Confucianism has significant impacts on Asian cultures. We have a lot of common on culture, educational system, and religious beliefs and so on. What I learned mostly from Chris was something on American high school educational system and his interests, which was interesting to know.

I had a lot of fun. They were cooperative and open to talk, which made the interviews went very smoothly, which was great. And more importantly, in those practice interviews, I learned many interview skills and techniques. I learned some ideas on how to be a icebreaker, how to use small talk to open an interview, how to watch interviewees' body language and notice when they feel like taking and when don't, how to go from one question to another question smoothly, how to appreciate what they have done for me, how to be respectful, polite, and friendly, how to make the interviews look more natural and relaxing, and what I should avoid and focus on during the interviews and sort of things. And I am looking for some nice experience working with three international interviewees.