Top Three Interview Reviews

First
Nick Carroll-Anderson - 19 points http://en191f12s28nickca.blogspot.com/
This interview scored the highest because ut fully covered almost all the points. Topics were covered in paragraph form and welly written. Points were deducted on the how does the interview read question because the transcript was not rewritten to make it more understandable. This interview included a audio link and was awarded the extra point.

Second (tie)
Jonathon Ouedraogo - 18 points http://en191f12s28jonaou.blogspot.com/
This interview scored very high and covered the topics fully. This interview included pictures but didn't cite them costing them a point. The interview did not include an audio file and was not awarded the extra point. Also, even though points weren't deducted, the transcript had very similar shortened names (I1, I2) which was slightly confusing.

Mohamed Toure - 18 points http://en191fl12s28mohamedto.blogspot.com/
This interview also scored high and covered the topics very well. The presentation of this essay was very good in that there were sub categories that made the essay very readible. A point was deducted because of plagarism of pictures in the essay. The writer did not include an audio file which would have boosted this essay to near perfect.

Review of interview 1

My scorecard

Interview 1

Interview 1

11/21/2012

Eng 191 section 28

Interviewer: Nick C-A

Interviewee: Xianping H

Country: China

Audio: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B__8FzSF3IZcb3dUWFlJZVk3Z3c

Document form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10LlPZ8xWl__TIz1tgLmC51TUC21uiknRoBjOCpspGZc/edit

Preparations:

                Before interviewing, I set up my questions, objectives, and technology. I begin by looking through the class set of questions to find ones that I felt would help me learn the most about China. I rearranged these questions in a way I felt would make sense to ask and put them into three sub categories: Intro, Questions about China, Concluding questions. The intro questions were designed to be personal and easy questions to help the interviewee open up. The Questions on China all related to cultural values to ideas that would teach me about the country. The Concluding questions were courtesy questions for the interviewee allowing them to ask me questions to feel that they had gained something from the interview. The objectives of my questions were all related to subcategories of Chinese culture. My first objective was different though because it tried to understand how the interviewee fit into Chinese society. The five other objectives were about Chinese youth, education, religion, holidays, and foods. Due the required transcription, I needed to find a way to record the interview. My iPhone has a built in application to record audio so I decided to use that.

                One of the most difficult parts of this assignment is finding a Chinese exchange student, approaching them, and securing the interview. As of the time of writing this I’ve only secured two of the three required interviews. For Xianping though, I first had to find a place to where I could talk to a Chinese student. In our class there are about ten Chinese students so with the professor’s permission, I looked at the other section of students for English 191 section 27 for Chinese students and found three. I sent them all an email asking for an interview and Xianping accepted. Another student also replied to the email and accepted. 

Interview Report:

                Once I had found my interviewee, we had to set up a date and place to do the interview. Communication was easy using email and we both had time free on the weekend so we decided on a Sunday interview. We also decided the library would be a good place to go. I brought a sheet of paper with my questions to use a guideline during the interview. I arrived early to find that the majority of library was not open on Sunday, so I looked around the building for a quiet private spot for the interview and waited for Xianping to arrive.

                The interview went pretty smoothly because Xianping opened up and answered my questions well. From what I learned through the interview, she comes from a city called Louli that is located in central southern China. She decided to become a foreign exchange student because she knew people who had done it. She decided St. Cloud because it was where the person she knew had gone and she also had relatives who lived in the twin cities. She’s twenty and wants to graduate with a degree in nursing to allow her to help people. This is currently her second semester attending St. Cloud.

                From my perspective, I felt that the interview went over quite well. There were parts of the interview that I felt went very well, some of the information was very interesting, and some parts of the interview went very poorly. The first I noticed that was going well in the interview was just me and Xianping communicated very positively. Before I ever started recording we exchanged a few words and it made the process feel more natural. This allowed for Xianping to answer questions easily and not feel obliged to stay exact. The question that I felt that was answered most in depth was the about major religions in the country. We covered the most popular religion, who practices, different age groups and their practice, and how religion ties in with family. All this more then answered my question.

                As we went through my questions the religion topic came up and I found something she said very interesting. This was that she had came over to the United States and had adopted Christianity which I find to be quite interesting. This jumped off the page because if I became a foreign exchange student, I strongly feel I would not adopt any religions. This is because I was raised Christian and switching in a foreign place would seem odd to me. So I asked her had she been not been raised in a certain religion and she replied no and that her parents had given her responsibility to choose her own belief system. This is quite a bit different from American normality where American families will teach their children to follow their religion.

                Not all parts of my interview went as good I had planned and turned out poorly. I wasn’t too attached to my reference sheet but I did try too much to get the questions off. The problem with this is that I tried to keep the question in context of what we were currently talking about in way she would understand. I tried to rephrase questions but realized the way I was wording them didn’t make much sense would change my sentence mid sentence which led to her having to ask me to repeat the question a few times. Also there was a definite language barrier which caused her to have to look up a few words online which would stop conversation. I tried to stop this from happening by asking her little easy questions while she was looking them up like when asked her how long she had been the school while she looked up the word Idol. Also I didn’t repeat any of what she had just said which is a good way of letting the interviewee know you are listening.

Country Report:

                The country China is known for its enormous size and population which causes it to be very influential from a global perspective. China is the most populated country with 1.3 billion citizens making it have about 18.5% of the world’s population (2). By land area china is the second largest country in the world (1). Both of these statistics allow for china to have a long history, large world economic influence, and large cultural differences throughout the country.

                Anthropological study of China points to civilization first sprouting in china sometime before 3.5 thousand years ago. (1) Modern China is a massive country in land area that could not all be governed by an ancient society. The most populated area being in eastern China was split up into dynasties which would commonly fight for power and resource. This dynasty styled governance lasted until 221bc when the Qin Dynasty conquered and unified the dynasties (1). The Qin Dynasty eventually fell to others which would hold power for only a few hundred years and lose it. Dynasty ruling style led all the way through to 1912 when civil revolt led to the forming of the Republic of China which lasted until 1949 (1). After civil war modern day China, People’s Republic of China, was formed.

                The formation of the People’s Republic of China led to the installment of a communist party led government. Under strong leadership, China has become the second largest economy in the world in terms of GDP (1). Under strong leadership, Chinese economic growth has been rapidly growing, when compared to other major economies around the world, since 1978 (1). Prior to China’s modern economic policies China went through some economic shock while forming into a communist style country. This caused starvation and little economic growth until they figured out how to successfully run a state controlled economic system.

                Modern day china is a massive country with many subcultures.  In China there are fourteen major ethnic groups (2) and many other minor ethnic groups. This diversity causes there to many languages throughout China but their national language is Standard Chinese or Mandarin. Even though the country has no official religion the largest religions are Daoism and Buddhism. The Chinese Education system is a lot like the American system with twelve primary grades and secondary options available. High School systems differ because the students only attend class twice a week on the weekends and are normally working during the week.

                Through a mixture of economic strength and sheer size, China has come into the spotlight a world super power. With this foreign power China has taken the opportunity to create trade and create international influence. As a way to help strengthen relationships with other countries China has a large foreign exchange program which is nice because it allows firsthand experience through talking and interviewing these international students.

Observations:

                As brought up earlier, one of the most striking things to me was that Xingping had decided to convert to Christianity. She also talked about how it was normal for parents to allow their children free choice of religious belief. This I feel is a major difference between the two countries and should be noted. Also in the interview I felt that the youth of China are culturally defining themselves and that they are more liberal then the hardly conservative American youth.

Lessons Learned from International students:

                From this interview I learned some of the difficulties and positives of being a foreign exchange student. Something that Xingping felt was important was to make friends in America and to really mingle with American students to really start understand American culture. The only thing is that this is not easy because there aren’t any really good ways to go about meeting and befriending people in a foreign land. A positive theme brought up was the complete immersion in a different culture and that you distance yourself from home forcing you into new situation. This immersion is wonderful as a tool to understand the culture of another country.

Work Cited: Cited references have been paraphrased

(1) "China." wikipedia.org.  N.p., 22 2012. Web. 23 Oct 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China>.

(2) "The World Fact Book." China. CIA, 4 2012. Web. 23 Oct 2012. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html>.

Interview Transcription:              

N: Nick

X: Xianping

N: Maybe I should test, eh. Ok, um… I guess thanks for coming to the interview. Um... Yeah. I guess can you tell me about yourself and where you’re from?

X: Hmm. My name is Xiangping and I’m from China.

N: Where from China?

X: Actually, I’m from very small city, it is in the middle of China but I think it it is a very beautiful and quiet place for people to live and study.

N: Nice, I guess is that gunna be, I know China is very large and It gots a lot of different, a lot different areas just because of the size like tropical deserts and forests. Is it, is it green or a dessert?

 X: Could you report your question?

N: What is it like there, is it really wet there and green or is nice in your home city?

X: My home city, I think although my home city is very small but the people in my city is so friendly and um. And I think that for my city we have a lot of people who devoted to maybe, how do you say it? And I think that the food in my city is very famous in my country and you can, if you visit my city you test a lot of delicious food and you can meet very friendly people and you can. And also it is very nice place to live because it is very quiet so you don’t need to bother other people who can rest.

N: What’s the name of the city again?

X: My name?

N: No the name of the city.

X: Louli, L-O-U-L-I

N: Sounds nice, sounds really nice. Um, why did you choose saint cloud, if it’s nice there. I mean this place is meh.

X: Yeah, actually before I came here, I had some friends who studied here before

N: O

X:  And my uncle he lived in Minnesota in Minneapolis. Yeah and I know Saint Cloud is a very small city and I like it because I like the people here and I like the environment here. It is very quiet so it is a good place for our study.

N: Nice, nice. Yeah it’s nice here. I guess what’s your major and what do you plan on doing after school?

X: Actually my major is nursing. I know it will very challenging major but I like it because I think that for my major for when I graduate from this school I can find a job easily and I can also help a lot of people and I can help them to refuse their pain.

N: Nice, is that a two year or just a four year program?

X: It a four year program.

N: I must thinking of a different thing. I guess do you want to tell me about your country and just can you give me a brief description of China? It’s vague but…

X: Um, I think that for the beliefs, I think maybe the belief in China is very different from the that in America. Such as in America you will see a lot of people that are Christians and they will go to church every Sunday and for me, I think I don’t have. I no religion in China but when I came here I became a Christian and I went to church with my friends and we pray for people who need, who have any needs and we can be more tolerant when, I think we can be more tolerant we I became a Christian so..

N: alright

X: but in China, it is not popular for people who became Christian because maybe they will think that Jesus is not a good person, Jesus doesn’t have any power to support you or to encourage you or to help you.

N: That’s, that’s pretty crazy, switching. Did you, were you religious before you?

X: I had no religion before I came here.

N: That’s pretty crazy. I never thought about people converting when coming over, that’s awesome.

X: Yeah.

N: What did you, when you came to, or. Before coming to America, what did you do in your free time and what were your hobbies?

X: Actually, for me I like reading in the library and sometimes when I have readin, I think the activities in China is very different from that in America. Such as we have a lot of places to go such as KTV. We can see, we can sing songs with our friends in KTV but maybe it is very hard to find KTV in America and sometimes we will hang out with our friends. We will go shopping with our friends. Maybe we will just find a place to sit together and talk together and study together

N: Nice, nice. Is that, is that what most people are doing? In America we pretend that we have a lot of things to but really we just sit around watching TV. Um, for young people in China, is there, what is just a normal activity? Do they just study, what’s just a Saturday night activity?

X: Actually, for the, for the people in elementary school, middle school, maybe they can have their weekend. But for the people who are in high school, they don’t have weekend actually.

N: Really?

X: Yeah, we have to work; we have to go to school on weekend. So we have little time for activities. And I think that the education in America and China is very different because I think for me when I was in high school I felt very stressful and I needed to keep studying and studying all the time. Even on weekend. So, I think the major activity for high school is just studying. When I went to college or university, we can have a lot of free time so we can do what we like maybe some students, they’ll enjoy sports, maybe they’ll play basketball or basketball with their friends together and some people maybe they will join some club such as music clubs or maybe with, they will do anything they enjoy.

N: Yeah, yeah. It’s kinda, it’s really different that high school you have five, you just work five days a week?

X: Yeah.

N: That’s quite a bit different

X: Yeah. We have a lot of homework to do every day and we need to get up at maybe six am and we will finish our class at maybe ten pm. So…

N: That’s crazy, I didn’t know about that.

X: Yeah. It’s different.

N: I guess, sorry… We just kind of covered a question. Um what, Education systems, like you said, I guess, K through. Elementary School, Middle School are about the same? Is it just five days a week compared to high school? Who goes to university in your?

X: You mean for the life in university. Actually I went the one year university in China and I think that the life in university is also different from the life in America. We just have two or three classes every day and we have little homework to do every day so we can have a lot of free time to do what we like to do and we don’t need to be stressful because we just needed to pay attention to our final exam but in America we needed to do, you needed to pay a lot of attention to your homework and you needed to pay attention to the exam during your semester but in China you just because our teacher, our professor just care how many scores you get in your final exam. So maybe some students maybe don’t study or will skip the classes during the semester, they just pay attention to maybe when the, such as, maybe they’ll just have maybe one week or two weeks or two weeks left before the final, they’ll study very hard and will go to the library to review their textbook to review the exams and maybe some of them will get a very higher score and for the. Maybe for our grade in America we get a A, B, C, D we have a different classes for the for the grade. But in China we just have one result, whether you pass you pass your exam. Such as if you get maybe seventy, it’s okay, you can pass your test. But if you get fifty, you failed for your exam, so you need to retake your exam.

N: That’s a lot different.

X: Yeah. So, I think that the study in America is so stressful because you need to study every day, you need to pay attention to your homework every day, you need to do your homework carefully everytime.

N: I’d probably would leave it of for at least a month before, I’d probably fail. That’s great. Um, you talked about coming to America and learning, adopting Christianity. Back home you weren’t religious. Is that normal or is there a major religion in your region.

X: Actually, Christian is not a major religion in China. How do you say it? Sorry I need to (look this up).

N: Yeah, Christianity never really spread.

X: Yeah but it’s a major religion in America.

N: Definitely.

X: How do you say it? Buddhism?

N: Yeah, Buddhism.

X: Yeah Buddhism is the major religion in China. Yeah and maybe some such as my grandparents and my parents are Buddhism.

N: Buddhism?

X: Yeah

N: Is there a reason your parents didn’t teach that to you or is not a religion that is passed down?

X: I think that if your parents, family or maybe something will ask their children will be Buddhism together but it is fine for family to have parents to think that if I want to be a Christian that’s ok. They can accept it.

N: That’s awesome

X: Yeah

N: I, it’s just normal here for the parents to, they will, here parents always teach them their religion. They want to pass it on.

X: Yeah

N: That’s awesome that it is free thought and I don’t know, that’s awesome. I guess, I really don’t know a lot about Buddhism. What, what’s the church system. Is there churches around or is it private, private prayer or?

X: Actually we don’t have any church for Buddhism but for some people, how do you say it? Such as, for my grandparents before I took my exam, maybe they will, sorry.

N: That’s cool. Is this your first year here? Just real quick, is this your first year in America.

X: Yeah, first year.

N: Nice

X: Actually, it is the second semester.

N: Your English is very good.

X: Thank you. How do you say it? Burn… sticks before I.

N: O, before an idol.

X: So, if I need to take an exam and my grandparents will do this. Yeah. Burn before an Idol. This will help her to pass her exam and.

N: Nice.

X: Yeah, it is very different.

N: I guess it’s kind of the same. It’s like one prays.

X: Maybe for this question I can send you some information, I can check to make sure it is correct for my answers.

N: Sure, I guess. I have to study the question, it would be very helpful.

X: Yes, it is very different.

N: That is different. Um, yeah sure. Buddhism, nice. Um, is, when Christianity. Well you know America was like founded by western civilizations , most western civilizations are Christian so we celebrate all their holidays, Easter, Christmas, is there any major religions, I mean any major holidays in your country that you guys celebrate.

X: Actually, maybe we, maybe now with the development of the society, Christmas day will be popular in my country but our major, the most important festival is the spring festival. It is the most important festival in China. And we, our family will stay together and for some, our relatives work in another city, they will come back home and stay with their family together and eat dinner together, stay together and have a talk together. And because the spring festival, it will be at the end of one year. So maybe it close to the Christmas day, so maybe the people will talk to the and say they have in this year and the families they have in this year and they will share their experience. And for the students, they will have a long holiday for these festivals, no class, no homework. Maybe the children will have. The people, their parents of their, relatives or their maybe their grandparents will give them gifts during these holiday so the children will be very happy with this holiday.

N: Yeah, yeah. Christmas we give gifts.

X: Yeah, yeah I think maybe the separation of Christian and spring festival, it is very similar. For the family to sit together and sometimes we will visit our friends or relatives during this holiday.

N: That’s awesome, everyone comes home and?

X: Yeah, yeah.

N: What is exactly is that to celebrate, is there any traditional reasons? New Year’s maybe? Religious or?

X: I think that um, We will regard as a new year begins for the spring festival because it is at the end of one year, so it can means a new year will come so we will have a new start. Yeah.

N: So just the mark of the New Year?

X: Yeah.

N: Quick time check. Um, you talked about your town is known for, for it’s food? Is there, what are, what’s traditional food from?

X: I would like to know if you’ve tasted Chinese food before. Chinese food is very spicy. If you go to a Chinese restaurant, you will find the food. In Chinese restaurant, is so different from that in America because American food is very easy to make and is very convenient but if you want to cook some Chinese food, it takes a lot of time for cooking. Yeah, but for me, I prefer Chinese food because I like spicy food. So sometimes I can, I don’t go to Garvy or at the center to have dinner or to have my lunch. I just go back home and cook with my friends together because it is very convenient to buy, find some Chinese market here so we can buy a lot of Chinese food and cook it by our self.

N: Nice.

X: Yeah.

N: Have you ever been to an American Chinese restaurant?

X: Yeah, sure.

N: Is it just nothing like that, is it? Or is it like that?

X: Actually, such as it in Saint Cloud, it has Chinese restaurant, called Chinese Star. Chinese Star.

N: I’ve never.

X: Yeah, so I think it is very good restaurant if you want to taste some Chinese food and it has a lot of special Chinese food such as the fish and the tofu and the. A lot of food you can taste in American restaurant and you taste in a Chinese restaurant.

N: Nice, nice. Sorry, going back to. Going back to religion kind of, does religion tie in with the whole religion process? How do people go about getting married in China?

X: You mean for the age when people getting married in my country or?

N: Sure. Like when do they get married? Yeah, just.

X: For this question, I think it depends on people. Such for, I have some classmates in high school, they didn’t attend college or university when they graduated from high school. Some are getting married and maybe some they have their children.

N: Wow.

X: Yeah, so when I heard that, I was very surprised when I know this news. But in general for the students, for the people if they attend college or university maybe they will be getting married after their graduation from college or some will continue attend master to get their master degree. And I think that for the average age for people who get married it is twenty five, twenty six. But, maybe I think it is different in China, if you are under twenty, you can’t get married. You can’t, it is illegal to get married. But when you are twenty or twenty one or twenty two, you can get married you can get married legally.

N: Yeah, that’s different.

X: Yeah but I know in America, you can marry at maybe sixteen you can if you get permission from your parents you can get married.

N: Yeah there is some weird rule about that that I really don’t know. Yeah that’s kind of a weird question to ask because just like in America there is such a, there’s no set age. In marriage, is it religious like in America it’s usually tied in with the church? It’s some spiritual or non-religious in China?

X: No, actually maybe in the big cities they will have a lot of church in the big cities in China. But if you go to a small city maybe it is very hard to find a church. People didn’t go to church and yeah.

N: Ok, so I guess um. Just kind out of curiosity, this is kind of a fun one. What’s considered offensive in your country?  Is there anything you could say or do to really tell someone off? Like in America you can, you can, you know, flip them the middle finger and that is saying to say go screw yourself?

X: Can I see your question?

N: Sure, it’s this one right here. Like, is there anything you can do to… What shouldn’t, If I went to China what shouldn’t I do because I’ll offend someone?

X: Oh, you mean if you went to China, what should you do?

N: No, what shouldn’t I do? What should I not do because um, what would people, what would make someone mad that I could do? It’s kind of a question.

X: Actually for this offensive, I think that for China if you, although you are foreign if you went to China for the first time, maybe you will vary with all kinds of systems you can’t do in China. Actually, I think that most of people in China are very friendly and they can understand the different cultures between different countries. So it is ok for you to do some stuff that I think that for some people they don’t want to maybe, some people don’t want to share the bathroom with the people they aren’t familiar with. And some people don’t want to live in the same room with different people. If you go to the hotel, maybe you would need to share a room with some people you don’t know each other before. And some people maybe cannot accept it. But I think most of things; the people of China can accept it. But maybe I think it is not good if you go to a foreign country and you talk about some politic. Politic issues because maybe different people will have different opinions about this so maybe they will bring some argument and some maybe.

N: Yeah totally.

X: And I think except for the politic issue, I think anything is okay if you want to talk.

N: Yeah, yeah. I guess is there anything you would like to tell me about China that you can think about off the top of your head?

X: Yeah, actually I think in China I think, it is a very big country that has a large population but such as I found very strange for me because facebook is very popular in America but it is forbid in China. You can’t use facebook because maybe our government will think we can spread a lot things on facebook so they just control the facebook. But we have another way to talk and to share with our friends. Such as QQ, is the function of QQ it is similar to facebook. We can post our feelings, post our ideas, post our pictures and we can share our pictures, our opinions, ideas with our friends. Then we can talk, we can talk with our friends face to face. So I think the function is the same with facebook. I think that in China, for me I think I like Chinese food and different cities in China have different special food. Such as you go to Beijing you will taste Beijing duck. Yeah Beijing duck and if you go to Hong, how do you say it?

N: Hong Kong?

X: If you go to Shanghai, will taste some very delicious noodles. In some cities, they are very famous with their noodles and some cities are very famous with their rice. Yeah. And maybe, I think most people know China, it has a very long history. I think it is almost five thousand years, so it has a lot of ancient cities such as Beijing, Shehai, Hongo, and Shanghai and Yongo. So you can visit a lot of ancient cities in China and you will have different views when you have a traveler in America. So, I think such as in America, maybe most people speak English for their native people but in China we have different language in different cities. Maybe mandarin Chinese will be a very popular language in China but we will also have different dialect in different cities. Such as I attend my college in my home town but for the people who lived in, how do you say it? Although the cities is very close, but the language is very different and people, I can’t understand what you are talking about for dialect. But if you speak mandarin Chinese then most people can understand it.

N: Nice, nice. Is that, what you are taught? Is mandarin Chinese taught throughout all the schools or how did you learn? Do you know how to speak mandarin Chinese?

X: Yeah, I think most of students, they can, they know how to speak mandarin Chinese.  But for, maybe for our parents or our grandparents, they don’t know. They just know the dialect, so it is a little hard for them to have communication when they go to another city or are going to big cities.

N: Nice, nice. China is just so huge, like a lot of people, lot of cultures; it’s kind of hard to ask these questions about specific things.

X: Yeah.

N: It’s gunna change. Before we end the interview, yeah I’m all out of questions; it’s only fair that do you have any questions for me?

X: Yeah, sure. Yeah, actually I am very curious about America because I think it is so different from China and at international students, I needed to live here for a very long time, I need to study here for a very long time because I want to know more about American culture because I want to make more American friends. I want to make more foreign friends. Yeah so.

N: Um, Yeah. Thanks for you know.

X: You’re welcome.

Interview Objectives

The most objective while doing these interviews is to gain an understanding of the country. Since doing China, my questions will try to stay about China. In a more specific manor, I would like to learn about an average Chinese person and how life differs between theirs and mine. I'm too educated on the subject so I don't know what makes cultures different so as a anticipated outcome, I would like to learn what are some of the key differences between American and Chinese cultures. Some objectives I would like to accomplish to help understand this are:
1) Where does the interviewee and interviewee's family fit into society
2) How youth act and what they do
3) How education systems differ and who goes where
4) How are religions set up and how many people carry religious lifestyles
5) What holidays there are and how they are practiced
6) Local and country foods

Our exchange student review google doc

Strength and Weakness of the group and best essay
Comparrsion Document

Benefits and Challenges of interviewing an exchange student paper

                Learning about new countries and cultures can help to give you a prospective from around the world. But who is the right person to talk to to get a firsthand source? Exchange students. Growing up and living in a country helps to give a very good understanding of a country making exchange students an outstanding source of information. When interviewing an exchange student there are benefits and challenges involved that will be discussed in this paper.

                The amount of knowledge acquired through living for years in a country is staggering. Firsthand experience is the main reason to interview an exchange student. As the interview progresses, some things will be learned through answered questions and some things through the way they answer the questions. Learning and observations start before the talking does, you may notice the interviewee may show up a few minutes late without apology being natural to them. They might call an hour ahead to confirm or just show up. These things reflect the culture of the native region of the exchange student. If the interview was presented as formal and the interviewee shows up in a sweatshirt and jeans this shows how the culture may feel about same age activities and how they should be approached.

                If the reason for the interview is to learn, the interviewer may want to keep the mood of the interview formal. Talking to someone with a different native language may cause the conversation to be less understandable but not necessarily less informative. By talking to someone of a different country we can find it difficult to find small talk topics that can lead you away from desired information. Comedy also won’t easily transfer between cultures which can cause the speaking manner to be more formal and to the point. It is to be noted that even though a language barrier may keep the conversation more formal it can also cause communication to be difficult.

                A major problem with interviewing a foreign exchange student is that their native language will probably not be yours. These students probably have been studying English for a few years but this isn’t enough to make speaking an ease. In an interview it is desired to have the interviewee talking naturally and flowingly. This flow can be disrupted if the interviewer has to stop the interviewee to get them to clarify their thoughts. If this happens multiple times it can bring conversation to a halt. As a person of a different culture, the interviewee will also have difficulty understanding the interviewer in language and in connotations of words used. A question that may seem natural to you may come off as offensive to the interviewee. Before the interview even starts there may be problems caused prior.

                Before an interview can take place it has to be set up. This may seem like a straight forward task but cultural differences may stand in the way. Timing and schedule conflicts can prevent an interview from ever happening. Foreign exchange students carry different obligations then local students. Once the interview is set up the native culture of the student may not carry exact on time standards that are natural to a local student.

                Foreign exchange students are an excellent way to get firsthand experience and a look into a culture. There can be great benefits and challenges in interviewing a foreign exchange student. Don’t forget, after you’re done asking them your questions they might just have some for you too.

Challenges and Benifits of interviewing an international student list

Challenges:

1. Difficult to find an international student

2. Language barrier

3. International student may be shy to talk

4. Might slip and say something offensive

5. Not a high level English speaker

6. International students might not know some words

7. International students may have difficulty in expressing what they want to say

8. Some actions could come off offensive on accident

9. Some questions might scare/offend the interviewee

10. Body language could be offensive

11. Certain questions may be misunderstood

12. International students may have troubles continuing a thought because it is not in their native language

13. Mispronunciation on words

14. Miss use of words

15. Might have to stop the interview to ask a questions because might be unclear on the answer

16. Starting the conversation

17. Not on time (culture difference on what “on time” is)

18. Trouble finding time on when to meet – conflicting schedules

Benefits:

1. Firsthand experience with a country

2. Meet a new person from a different country

3. Learning about a new culture

4. More professional – less small talk

5. Arrange and execute a professional meeting

6. Learn how/where/time they will want to meet

7. Learn about new customs

8. Learn new Traditions

9. Learn how a different culture goes about a professional meeting

10. Learn about clothing

11. Learn about their food

12. Learn about their educational background

13. Learn about their family

14. Won’t speak in local small talk – helps stay on subject

15. Talk more professional due to lack of common interest

16. Learning about nonverbal communication

17. Learn about their manners

18. Learn about the foreign exchange process

Interview Objectives and Questions

I feel the reason for the interview is to find a deeper an understanding of the country. This means that even though personal questions are important to make the interviewee feel comfortable and have them open up, these type of questions aren't that important. There will be some phase objectives that I'll try to meet. The first phase is getting personal with the interviewee and try to get them talking. The second phase involves questions about the country they come from. The third phase is allowing them to ask me questions.

The twelve questions I've choose and the phases I'll attempt to associate them with are:
Phase 1:
Could you tell me about yourself?(your name, home country)
Why did you choose to study at St.cloud University?
What are you planning to do after school?
(Transition) 
Would you like to tell me about your country?
Phase 2:
Can you tell me about activities that young people like to do in your country?
What is the difference in educational systems between your country and North America?
What are your country's major religions? 
What are major holidays in your country? 
What is your traditional food? 
Could you tell me about your country's traditional process regarding marriage? 
What’s considered offensive in your country? 
(Transition)
Is there anything you would like to add before we end our interview?
Phase 3:
Do you have any questions for me, now that I have had the pleasure of asking you about so many things?

Country Report preview

The three areas I’ve decided to do are China, Saudi Arabia, and Laos. I chose these three countries because I’ve seen a lot of students attending St Cloud who are from these countries. These countries also interest me because of the large physical distance that causes cultural differences from what I’m used to.

                China should be an interesting place to learn and interview about because of the governmental differences and how that affects every day citizens. Also there is a religious barrier in that in the United States, my native country, there is mainly Christian influence which isn’t the case in China. Although the US is a very large country in size and in population, it is dwarfed by China which should lead into some questions.

                Saudi Arabia I didn’t know (and might be wrong about) had a large amount of exchange students here but in our class there are quite a few. This country brings up a whole lot of questions based on the US’s foreign policies. Also the large Islamic influence should make for a decent comparison between Christian and Muslim cultures.

                I chose Laos because I worked with a Hmong student who I’m pretty sure came from there in a math class last semester. I didn’t know they had a lot of students here until I attended a banquet where there must have been at least fifty students. This topic is more about the Hmong people than Laos so I will have to look into the Hmong. The Indochinese peninsula has seen it’s fair share of war over the past fifty years which I could ask about.

                I started at Wikipedia.org on the three sources to find some broad topics to cover. Not the best site for detailed or accurate information but a good place to start. For china I found http://www.chinatoday.com/gov/a.htm which is a nice site covering their government. Also http://www.asia-planet.net/china/religions-social-customs.htm is a website about Chinese customs and religious information.  http://www.chinatoday.com/data/china.population.htm is a site that will give information related to population and geography. Encyclopedia of China : the essential reference to China, its history and culture is a book in the SCSU library I can use to cover my topics.

                For Saudi Arabia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Saudi_Arabia was the best source of information about foreign policies of Saudi Arabia. http://www.asiarooms.com/en/travel-guide/saudi-arabia/culture-of-saudi-arabia/religion-in-saudi-arabia.html  is a nice website covering religion and cultural values. A brief history of Saudi Arabia is a good reference book in the SCSU library.

                For Laos http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_946.html is a US government site covering generals of Laos. Laos Culture, Development, and Heritage Protection  is a book about Laos in  the library. http://www.hmongculture.net/home is a very well put together website about Hmong culture and locations. A people's history of the Hmong is a book on the Hmong.