Interview transcript:

 A (ME)
M(interviewer)

A: hi, my name is A, I’m doing this interview for my class I would to ask you some questions if that is ok with you.
M: I would please to help
A: let’s start here, tell me where you from
M: I’m from Mogadishu that’s the capital city for Somalia.
A: alright, what can you tell me about Somalia?
M: Somalia is a small country in east Africa, our capital city is Mogadishu like I told you, and Somalia has been in civil war since 1991.it’s really sad because the situation hasn’t been any better ever since, that is why, you always see Somali people everywhere…hahah
A: hahah, you can say that again. If it’s not too personal how did this situation affect you?
M: oh yeah it’s not a problem. I consider myself one of the luckiest, because I left Somalia at a really young age, my family and I, left for a refugee camp in Kenya, after that I stayed in Kenya until I came to the united states 5 years ago, so sometimes it is really hard for me to identify myself because I don’t know if I feel more Somali or Kenyan, I mean Kenya was my country, I went to school over there, I speak their language, even if my parents always tell me to keep my roots, they have to understand that I have at least 2 cultures that I have to refer too.
A:waouh…now I’m confused, the questions that I have are more on people’s culture, so now on which country would you like me to ask you questions on Somali or Kenya? It is really up to you…
M: like I said I grew up in Kenya so I will feel more comfortable if you ask me questions on Kenya.
A: not a problem, ok can you tell me about the basic stuff in Kenya? How is life over there? How do they greet for instance?
M:ohhh Kenya is an a mazing country, it is hot all the year, it does rain a lot like in summer, I know weird, they have these beautiful places like mobasa,a place with only beaches and views on the Indian ocean. And about the greeting, umhh… I don’t know I guess they greet like in most western countries, we shake hands and then we hug but that depends on the relationship you have with the person.
A: it does sound like a beautiful country. What kind of government do they have?
M; it’s the republic of Kenya so it’s a democratic country, but most African countries you know they claim to be democratic when there are really not. A country where there’s no freedom of speech, ethnicity, religion, elections are fake, among other things I don’t call that democracy.
A:I know what you are talking about, myself I’m from Burundi and it’s really hard over there too, anyway how did coming to the US a democratic country affected your life?
M: oh man it is really cool you have all the rights here, I mean like people can do whatever they want as long it’s not illegal, and not being scared of going to jail at any time.
A: and how was school over there?
M:we start school at 3 years you get done with primary school at 10 then you go to high school at 11 and we graduate at 18.the school there it was nice I had many friends, and I was kind of smart so I can’t say that it stressed me that much.
A: how do you like SCSU so far? What can be done to make students more comfortable here?
M: I really like this school but the dorms are really expensive, and the classes too, so if they could lower the expenses that would be great.
A: ok, thank you very much for your time; I learned a lot from you.
M: the pleasure was all mine, I’m glad I helped.

Second interview

Interview preparations:

My second interview had to be better than the first time so I put more work into it, I did it at the library with a guy from Somali, I wanted something different because the first I interviewed a classmate from china, I wanted to hear about other cultures.

Interview report:

The interview took about thirty five minutes, because I had trouble with my recorder, so I borrowed a better phone from a friend. The interview was pretty good I should say, there was no awkwardness, he gave me some personal information about him, his country religion, and politics, how Somali doing right now, it’s like I was asking the good questions at the right time, it’s like he wanted to share the information as well. I had fun doing it, hopefully he did too and I think he did.

Country report:

The Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory. The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world.Somalia lies in the easternmost part of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.

The history of Islam in the Horn of Africa is as old as the religion itself. The early persecuted Muslims fled to the port city of Zeila in modern day northern Somalia to seek protection from the Quraysh at the court of the Aksumite Emperor in present-day Ethiopia. Some of the Muslims that were granted protection are said to have settled in several parts of the Horn of Africa to promote the religion. Following World War II, Britain retained control of both British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland as protectorates. Somalia is the only African country that was never .

My top 3 for the second interview are:

1.Barron Justine, L 19
2.Tiffany Smith 18
3.Tyler Patterson 17

The first and second interview

My second interview was much better than the first one; in the first I interviewed a classmate from china.it was really difficult because I dint know how to proceed or how to approach my interviewer, it’s true that after the first questions it got a lot easier but at the beginning we were not that comfortable. For my second one it took place at the library the place is quite, I did a student from Somali.

The differences were huge; of course china is different from a small country in east Africa, while I have china this huge country from Asia, the world most powerful country after the United States. The culture was different, the religion, politics, governments, way of living, everything was different from the first interview. Somali is a small country in east Africa, Somali has been having a civil war for more than 20 years now, the capital city Mogadishu is a town where most of the things, towns, buildings, schools, and hospitals have been destroyed by the rebels during the civil war. Somali is a collapsed state, the government is based in a Nairobi city, the capital of Kenya another east African country that shares the border with Somali, this same Kenya has been receiving refuges from Somali for about 10 years, so many Somalia’s people live in refugee camps in Kenya. The country is not improving in any way, the situation still the same ever since.

What I liked most about this second interview was the comfort, because my questions were really simple, but my interviewer dint have any problem sharing personal issues, like it was not a problem for him to tell me about the situation in Somali, the refugee camps where he spent 5 years with his family waiting to come to the united states. The problems he had, his life over here how it is different from Kenya or Somali. Which was really cool for me, I learnt a lot in how to interview people, how to proceed with my questions, when to stop or when to continue. I really had a good experience, first of all this helps me to know more about countries in war as am majoring in international relations, I really appreciate knowing about other cultures, I’m pretty sure this will help me for my future job hopefully which is working with refugees if I work for the United Nations. Overall it has been a good experience for me.

my top interview are

1.Karna Ashley
2.Gedara Pakara.
3.Wang Yue

Review of class interviews

My spreadsheet is here.
My top three interviews are:
1
2
3

first interview part 2

In 1986, China set the long-term goal of providing compulsory nine-year basic education to every child. As of 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China. In February 2006, the government advanced its basic education goal by pledging to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees.Free compulsory education in China consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for 9 years (ages 6–15); almost all children in urban areas continue with three years of high school.

Religion:In mainland China, the government allows a degree of religious freedom to members of state-approved religious organizations. An accurate number of religious adherents is hard to obtain because of a lack of official data, but there is general consensus that religion has been enjoying a resurgence over the past 20 years.A 1998 survey found that 59% over 700 million of the population was irreligious.
                                              
                                                        The  interview
Hi my name is Ariane Muhimpundu i'm doing tjis interview for my class would you give about 30 minutes of your time if it is not too much to ask.
AM: Hi,what's your name?
girl: my name is MengyaoDing
MD: Mengyao Ding
AM: Ariane M

AM: Do you have any daily rituals in regards to your religious beliefs?

 

MD:  For my religious beliefs, I require to self-examination every night. It is a very important progress that requires in my religion. They think self-examination is the best tool to review your day. During the self-examination, you will know what thing you did right for the day and you will keep it up. For the thing that you should improve, you will be reminded by yourself everyday. Then, you won't have the same mistakes again.

 

AM: Could you tell me a secret about yourself that very few people here know about and that shows us well, who you are and what you stand for?

 

MD: There was a secret that very few people know, which is i often ran away from home when i was young. Everytime i ran away from home, my dad and mum would find me and bring me home. However, one time, i ran away from home again. But, this time, my dad didn't come out and find me. In a stormy night, i was very scared and cold. Suddenly, i wished my dad and mum would come and bring me to my warm home. I cried terribly at that time, because my dad haven't find me yet. After several hours later, i saw my dad with wet clothes ran around and yelled my name. At that time, my tears ran out again, ran towards him and hug him as hard as i can. He said that he have found me all night and he was very worry about that i got kidnapped by strangers or bad guy. From that time, i promised to him that i never run away from home as i can feel how hard to be a parent and how worry is he when i ran way form home.

AM: At what age do you start school? Are you under a lot of stress in school??

 

MD: I started school at age 6. I wasn't under a lot of stress in school. It is because the school was kindergarten, and we only learnt basic stuffs. In my memory, we had nap time when we were in the kindergarten. We had lot of fun during the class. We can draw and color everything in our creativity.

AM:  What kind of government is in charge of your home country, how did it affect your life and how has democracy in America been a change?

 

MD: In China, we are governed by communist party. From long time ago, there were a revolution in China. It was between democracy and communisty, and at last, communism won. Communism make us share everything together,therefore, wealth and poor won't be too diverse. Also, it affected our life. If there was no communism take part, our country's economy won't improve in high speed, which surprise everyone. Democracy changed United States, too. It gave American the freedom of speech and freedom of many things, like owning our own property. Those are forbidden by Chinese government.

AM: What could SCSU do to make your stay on campus better?

MD: I think food's choices are too limited, therefore Gavery should develop more various recipts.  As St.Cloud State is a cultural diversity, people from different countries are hard to familiar to American food. Sodexo can try different kind of food, then we can have choices to choose whatever we want.

AM: What different modes of transportation are used in your country?

MD: In my country, we have many different kinds of transportation. First of all, we have buses that run everyday. People ususally ride the buses to work or attend school.  Some people may have a motorcycle, too. Motor cycle are very popular transportation in China, because they don't take a lot of gas and they are faster than vehicles. Taxi is one of the transportation, but it isn't used a lot by the citizens, but it is mostly for the tourists. Recently, China built train, too. It is more convienent for the citizens, as there are no traffic underground.

AM: What religious holidays or other cultural events do you or others celebrate; can you explain your traditions for each? 

MD:  We have Chinese New Year that we put in a very important place. Chinese New Year are not like the normal new year. Chinese New Year is the first day of the year that based on our own chinsese calendar. Every year's Chinese New Year started in a different date. Two days before the Chinese New Year, we have to clean our house and put the useless thing into garbage. It represents bring the good luck into the home and the bad thing will be removed. On the first day, all the people need to wear the new clothes to welcome the good luck and new year. People usually wear red color, as it represents luck in China. During the Chinese New Year, we will eat a lot of traditional food with all the family members, that represents family reunion in China.

AM: Which country`s food do you like the most? What are the similarities and differences between it and your own culture`s food?

 

MD: Janpanese food.is one of my favorite in various traditional cusine. In my own countries, i ate chinese food everyday. People may think chinese food is simliar to japanese food. Actually, they does. For example, both of them require fresh ingredients such as fresh raw fish and vegetables. Also, both of them are concentrated on the beauty of the food like how the food set on the dish. However, they still have differences between them. Japanese food are mostly cold food, on the other hand, chinese food are mostly done in a warm temperature. 

AM: How would you describe famous sports in your country?

MD: In China, we did a very good job in Diving and Gymnastics. We won a lot of prizes in Olympics game and most of them are champion in both men and female. People in China will practice very early when they were young. They usually practice diving and gymnastics at age 5 and 6. This is because these two sports requires the flexibility of the body, therefore, the earlier you start practice, more flexible you get. This is one of the reason why our athlete are very young and in a good condition.

AM: Can you describe a typical day for a child in your country?

MD: A typical day that i have in my childhood is like this. First, i get up at 6, then my mum will help me to brush my teeth and wash my face. Then, i dressed up and were ready for the school. At 7, my school started. At first, we required to do a healthy fitness before we started the class. After tha, we went back to our classroom and started the day for the class. First, we would have 2 classes, and then, we would eat lunch. After lunch, we would watch a movie or tv show to relax for a little bit. Following activity would be nap time for 2 hours, after the nap time, we will have classes again. After finishing class, my mum would help me on the homework. Then at 10, i would have to go to bed.