My first interview with Myra A
1. Preparations
Description of
preparations:
Before
beginning the interview, we wrote an objective in class. This objective answered the questions “why”,
“with whom”, and “how” referring to the interview with an international
student. We also wrote ten questions
together as a class. I then added five
of my own questions to the ten core questions.
After I completed these tasks and bought my recorder, I began to search
for people to interview.
How did I approach
people?
I live in Mitchel Hall and am a
floor representative. Because I am a
floor representative and also enjoy speaking with people, I get to know a lot
of people in my dorm. I was speaking
with my friend about this project, and she told me her roommate is an exchange
student from Pakistan. Her name is
Myra. I had met her roommate once
before, so it was not weird to approach her and ask if it is okay to interview
her. When I asked her if she would be
interested in doing an interview with me, she actually was really
interested! Before we met to interview,
I did some research on Pakistan to make sure I did not offend her with anything
I said.
When, where, and how
did I conduct the interview?
I conducted the interview on
Wednesday, October 16th at the Caribou Coffee inside of Atwood. We enjoyed some coffee and made small
talk. I told her more information about
the interview, such as I was doing it for my English 191 class. I also asked her if it was okay for me to
record the interview, so I could transcribe it later. She gave me permission, which allowed me to
begin the interview. I used a recorder I
had just purchased at Office Max. I
began with small talk, which included an explanation of why I was interviewing
her, then used my questions to conduct the interview, and slowly winded down by
asking if she wanted to ask me anything.
I also thanked her for her time.
During the interview, I made sure to not be strict with following the
questions and let her converse with me as much as she wanted. Some of what she said did surprise me because
I did not know there are still arranged marriages in Pakistan. I was also surprised by how much she wanted
to speak. The interview went very well!
Whom did I interview?
Myra is an international student
from Pakistan who is involved in the business program. She did not choose Saint Cloud State
University; however, this is where her international studies program placed her
because she wanted to travel to the United States. She loves the American culture and has found
that any stereotypes she held about Americans to be gone. She also finds school to be a lot easier at
Saint Cloud State University because she only has twelve credits compared to
the 21 credits she had in school in Pakistan.
In Pakistan, she did not realize how much following the Islamic faith
impacted her choices and everyday life.
Being in the United States has made her faith strong and shown her how
much faith influences her decision making.
For example, she does not eat the meat at Garvey because it needs to be
cut in a Halal manner, and she needs to make her own reminders to remember to
pray five times a day. She enjoys
reading and other sorts of activities.
She likes shopping more in the United States than in Pakistan because
the clothing style in America is easier to choose from than in Pakistan. She also loves history and therefore has
enjoyed the historical sites.
2. Interview
report
Description of the
interview:
During the interview, I made sure
to have good posture, so she would know I am interested in what she has to say
and am also respectful. I also made sure
I let her talk for as long as she wanted about a topic. Sometimes, I would ignore my question list
for a little bit if we were becoming engaged in conversation from a previous
question. The interview went very well
because she was very open and willing to talk about both her personal
experiences in Pakistan and more of a generalized description of what she knew
about Pakistan. There were no topics
that made her uncomfortable and not want to discuss.
The questions covered multiple
topics. Through these topics, I was able
to learn that Pakistan is very traditional in many aspects, such as
conservative clothing style, many mosques located throughout the country, and
religious customs and celebrations that occur.
Even though Pakistan is traditional in these aspects, it is also
modernizing. As the literacy rate rises,
more women are working outside of their homes and fewer marriages are being
arranged. Because Myra was so thorough
with her answers, I was able to receive a lot of interesting information. Because she was willing to discuss a lot, the
interview went very well.
I met with Myra in Atwood’s Caribou
on the 16th of October. We
talked for about 40 minutes. I think the
interview went very well.
What surprised me?
I was surprised how funny she
thought it was when I asked about dating.
This is because dating does not happen in Pakistan. Instead, marriages are arranged. I did not know that still happens in current
times, so that really surprised me! In
order to prepare for the interview, I had done some research on Pakistan, so I
would make sure not to offend her with anything I might say, and none of the
websites mentioned arranged marriages as being a part of the Pakistani
culture. Other than the topic of
arranged marriages, I was not completely shocked because of the research I had
done prior to the interview.
3. Country
Report
Country and Culture:
Pakistan is
located in South Asia. According to the
Heritage website, “The Pakistani Government states that English is the official
language” (1). Aside from English, Urdu
is the other official language.
A majority of the population
practices Islam. Ira Marvin Lapidus explains how Islam
is the most practiced religion in Pakistan because during the medieval period, “Sufi
missionaries played a pivotal role in converting a majority of the regional
Buddhist and Hindu population to Islam” (2).
Great Britain had ruled over Pakistan during the colonial period. As stated in the Library of Congress- Federal
Research Division, this was because the British East India Company had “gained
ascendancy over South Asia” (3). The major armed struggle against the British
was in 1857 and is known as the “Sepoy Mutiny”.
Pakistan is a democratic
parliamentary federal republic with Islam as the state religion. The bicameral legislature includes a
100-member Senate and a 342-member National Assembly. The prime minister is the leader of the
largest party and serves as the head of government. The Pakistani military establishment is a
major influence of politics. (4)
According to the Library of
Congress- Federal Research Division, Pakistan includes three geographic
areas. These areas include the northern
highlands, the Indus River plain, and the Balochistan Plateau. Weather will vary throughout the year because
there are four seasons. The seasons are
as follows: a cool, dry winter from December to February; a hot dry spring from
March to May; the summer rainy season from June to September; and the
retreating monsoon season from October to November.
Pakistan requires the state to
provide free primary and secondary education.
Education is divided into six main levels. These levels include pre-primary, primary,
middle, high, intermediate, and university programs. There is an increasing rate of the
development of universities. There are
now 136 universities. Literacy rates
vary by region and gender. There is a
higher percentage of literacy of males than females, and literacy in tribal
areas is lower. (5)
According to the Library of
Congress- Federal Research Division, 97% of the population is Muslim. The majority of the Muslim population is
Sunni. The rest of the non-Muslim
population includes Hinduism and Christianity.
Other religions include Sikhism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and
Jains.
Stephanie Koerner and Ian Russell
mention how Pakistani fashion is distinctly different from Indian fashion. The national dress is the shalwar kameez and
is worn by both men and women throughout all four provinces. (6) The Indian subcontinent has influenced
cooking traditions. Rice is common to
serve with dishes. A popular drink is
black tea with milk and sugar, and sugarcane juice is the national drink of
Pakistan. (7)
Works cited:
(1) http://heritage.pk/english-as-an-official-language-of-pakistan/
visited 10-17-13
(2) Ira Marvin Lapidus (2002). A history of Islamic
societies. Cambridge University Press. p. 382–384.
(6) http://books.google.com/books?id=7li2jpQgYvAC&pg=PA382&dq=national+dress+of+pakistan&hl=en#v=onepage&q=national%20dress%20of%20pakistan&f=false/
visited 10-17-13
(7) http://www.findpk.com/Culture/html/cuisine_of_pakistan.html/
visited 10-17-13
4. Interview
transcription of my interview with “Myra A”
V = Valerie (me)
M = Myra
V: How do you communicate with each other in your home
country?
M: In my home country, we have very different languages in
our country. You have one official language. That is English. One national language that is Urdu. Urdu is spelled “U, r, d, u”. And then we have four provincial
languages. It is like a state and each
has their own dialect, so Pakistan pretty much has a ton of different
languages. The communication channels,
you might assume, are mostly verbal because a large population of our country
is not literate. You can assume about 43
percent of the people of Pakistan can read and write. The others converse using verbal
communication. About 5-6 percent of the
really urbanized population use communication methods, like social media and
blogs.
V: Is English a common native language for people?
M: No, actually, English is not. Pakistan was part of the larger subcontinent,
and it was under the British colonial rule.
That is why when the British left we inherited educational
institutions. It is the same in India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, a little bit in Nepal too, and Sri Lanka. We have some of those inherited institutions,
and then because we gained our independence in 1947, we had started to mingle
and globalize. We sought to retain that
language, but mostly English is the language of the offices and of the
elite.
V: That is really
cool. What is the clothing style for men
and women?
M: The clothing style for men and women, again because the
country is divided linguistically and geography varies all across the
country. Our national dress is called
shalwar kameez. Shalwar is a name given
to traditional trousers and kameez is given to shirts. Men essentially wear shalwar kameez as
simpler and thicker and dull colors.
Whereas women wear colors, flashy, and shawls called the dupatta, so it
is kind of similar to but not the same as Indian sarees. But it is sort of flashy and colorful like
those dresses. That is what we usually
wear. However, in urban centers, people
wear a lot of western clothing. In the
rural parts of the country, there is a lot of casual, like skirts with small
shirts because it is really warm in the countryside. But it varies from place to place
V: How do you think that clothing compares to how people in
the United States dress?
M: Primarily, the
difference is because of weather.
Pakistan is essentially a very warm country. So our dresses are made out of cotton and lawn
and made out of very thin material because otherwise you cannot really survive
wearing thick clothing. You will not
find boots or wool stuff a lot. The
winter is small and sometimes some areas of the country will not experience
winter at all. So there is that
difference. Another difference is that
people do dress a lot more conservatively if you compare it to the United
States. That is definitely there. Although, because Pakistan is a Muslim
country, people do like to wear headscarves.
We are not really fans of veils in Pakistan, so you will not find a lot
of that, but you will find headscarves.
It will be made of really thin material suited to weather. And men generally dress the same with jeans
and shirts and pants and stuff like that.
V: That is cool!
Sorry, this is an intriguing topic for me because I like clothes. Because it is more typical to dress
conservatively, how do you dress for bathing suits or do you not really go
swimming?
M: That is kind of a tough question. On beaches and stuff, people do not really
like to go swimming, like that. People
will just wear t-shirts and trousers and just take a stroll on the beach or
something like that. However, there are
women and children and everybody will swim as a hobby because we have
gymnasiums and swimming pools and all of that.
So you have different kinds of swimming suits made. They are usually one piece. And sometimes they will have, instead of
being sleeveless, short sleeves. Or
instead of leaving your legs bare, they will cover a little bit of the
legs. They are basically tailored in
Pakistan. You can find them easily.
V: How are the women
and men treated differently?
M: I come from a very
urban part of Pakistan and a very developed area, so I am probably not the best
person to comment upon it. However, men and
women are treated differently because they have very set traditional roles that
they are expected to follow. So men will
be breadwinners, and they will go out of the house for their livelihood, and
they will be expected to be more vocal and interested in public affairs,
politics, government, and all of that. Women,
on the other hand, are expected to take care of the house and be very
traditional. Not necessarily suppressed,
but women will be extremely traditional as in they will stick to a kind of lifestyle
at home. And if they work, they will
somehow manage to work by keeping a balance between work and home. However, for most women, work rarely ever
takes the first priority, so that is certainly a difference. Now, these things are changing because as
people gain more literacy and awareness, people treat their boys and girls
exactly the same. They go to the same
school. They dress the same way too. Like, in urban centers, you would find girls
wearing the same baseball t-shirts as their brothers and stuff like that. And increasingly now, women are more
interested in their careers and pursue their education more. Again, there is a very strong urban and rural
divide in how men and women are treated in different places.
V: How has your
experience here helped you to interpret and respect cultural differences?
M: Well, my
experience here has been quite fantastic actually. The purpose of my program, I am on a cultural
exchange program, was to come to the United States and see and appreciate the differences
that exist between our cultures. Essentially,
the world we live in, especially in a society like Pakistan, there is a lot of
stereotypes that exist about Americans or the west. This is the same in America. People do not perceive things as they really
are. We rather conveniently resort to
stereotypes. So when I came here and saw
the average American, I negated the Hollywood stereotype because that is what
everybody grows up thinking that is the real American when it is not. And second of all, the negative stereotypes
that we have in our minds of American people traditionally considering
themselves superior or not welcoming to foreigners, etc. All of that went away. And it really has taught me how to appreciate
cultural differences because it has told me that no matter how much news you
watch or how many news articles you read or how much you surf the web, you
cannot really appreciate how good or nice a culture or country or its people
really are unless you actually live amongst them for a certain period of
time.
V: Do you enjoy
speaking with other exchange students?
M: I actually do
enjoy it a lot. There was a special
orientation for international students here, and before that there were a
couple of exchange students already living on campus when we arrived here in
the summer. So that was a lot of
fun. I think it is really interesting
you get to know so much inside information you cannot possibly get off of the
web or through any other second hand experience. It is really amazing you get to know about
various foods, clothing, religion, and what people think about my country or
about the United States, and that is all very good. I have met people from countries I never
thought I would. I have made such good
friends with a girl from Georgia, and I never assumed I would be a friend with
somebody from there. I have friends from
Russia, Nigeria, China, and it is absolutely fantastic.
V: How many different
countries have you noticed are represented by exchange students that you have
met here on campus?
M: I do not know if CIS has a different section for exchange
students; however, there are about 85 countries represented in all of the
international students that are here. So
some will be here for two years, four years, and some will only be for a
year. But as for exchange, especially
for a semester long exchange, that number is quite low, but Pakistan is one of
them. Georgia is one of them. Those are the only two that I know.
V: So for the program
that you are involved with from Pakistan are there any Pakistani students in
the same program at all or did you not know any of the Pakistani students?
M: Well, I have come
here through a state department program, so they matched me up with Saint Cloud
and the business school and everything.
But Saint Cloud offers in state tuition to international students, so a
lot of Pakistanis, I think there were about seven or eight Pakistani students
here on campus who are here for a four year undergraduate program, have applied
through independent applications and procedures so everybody is gone depending
on the amount of time they want to spend in the United States, or depending on
how much they can afford, or if they want to settle here, or depending on
whatever suits them. They pick the right
amount of time they will be spending here.
V: So then are you involved in organizations where you have
met exchange students?
M: Not organizations, per say. Not student organizations because all of us
have different interests, but we all met during the international students
orientations. This was a four daylong
event where we all, about 100 people, became friends during that time. And after that there are cultural cafes and
stuff that happen every Friday on campus and get to meet people from different
countries while holding those cafes.
That is usually how you get to become friends with these people. It is not really through student
organizations.
V: How long have you been in the United States?
M: I have been in the United States for approximately two
and a half months now. I arrived here on
the fifth of August, and since I am on a semester long exchange, I will be here
until the 21st of December.
V: So then are you thinking about coming back to the United
States after you go home at all or are you kind of taking it one step at a
time.
M: I would not mind coming back to the United States. I really like it. I think the people here are really good. However, I have to work out exactly how in
sync I will be with my degree back at home.
That is kind of a challenge for me at the moment, and I suppose it is
for most exchange students. But once I
can figure that out or maybe I can come here for my masters or something, but
yes I am taking it slow at the moment.
V: So then I know you said for your program they matched you
up to Saint Cloud in the United States, so is there a program that can match
you to a different country other than the United States?
M: The program I am a part of is especially for the United
States. What happens in Pakistan is we
have an educational foundation called USEFP, which is for the United States
Educational Foundation Program in Pakistan.
They ask for applications from all across Pakistan every year, and they
receive a very heavy number of applications.
After that, they put the candidates through screening processes, like
college essays and stuff like that and end up selecting about 100 people each
semester. So 100 people out of those
thousands of applications come to the United States every year and then go back
as part of the program. Such programs do
not happen for other countries as in other programs that are so well organized;
however, we have Internship Abroad or Social Service Abroad type of programs
that are student run and are sometimes sponsored through universities. But we do not have a very strong external
education foundation working in Pakistan apart from USA.
V: Have you been able to visit any other parts of the United
States?
M: I think the only other part of the United States that I
have been able to visit is the east coast.
When I landed here, we came to Washington. We had a five-day workshop there and then we
got time to look around Washington and go through all of the historical and
crazy and amazing buildings. And then I
came here. For my fall break, I went
back to the east coast and spent some time in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New
York. There is also the cities if you
count the cities as something, but they are in the Midwest.
V: So do you have any fun stories or anything that is worth
remembering about your trip to the east coast?
M: I am a sucker for historical sites, museums, and all of
that. I was very sad when I went there
that it was the government shut down.
And those museums and all of those places were government run, so they
were not open. I remember the time I had
in Washington was really great because everything was open, and we went to all
of these places, such as Capitol Hill.
We went to the White House, and then we went to the Lincoln Memorial,
and I absolutely loved that. However,
this time of round, I think I enjoyed Philadelphia a lot. It was very different from other mainstream,
huge places of the US. I mean there is a
similarity between Minneapolis and Chicago.
Some parts of Minneapolis even resemble New York. Downtown Philadelphia is something very, very
different. It is very community
oriented, and it is very traditional, and I like that a lot.
V: So when you were thinking about all of the sites you know
you were going to see when you traveled to the United States, were you kind of
shocked at all by how they looked or was it pretty much how you expected
everything to look?
M: The statue of liberty was exactly as I thought it was,
but I think I was most in awe of the White House. I expected it to be a lot more, and I do not
know maybe I am paranoid, security and have a lot more security. I expected the streets to be cornered off and
traffic rerouted or something like that.
It was amazing really and made me feel really nice that people are able
to see it, and it is accessible. And
that was the only difference I saw because the rest of things were as great as
I imagined them to be.
V: What are your home country’s major religions?
M: That is an easy one to answer. 95 percent of the Pakistani population is
Muslim, and Muslims have two main sects, which are the Sunnis and the Shi’ites. Most of the Muslims are Sunnis, but there is
a majority of Shi’ites as well. Then,
three percent of our population is Christian.
And two percent of our population is Hindu and other minor religions,
like Zoroastrian. We have a very
insignificant number of Jews, unfortunately.
We have a representation of quite a lot of countries.
V: For the holidays that are celebrated, for Muslims since
that is really popular, is work and school closed?
M: Yes, definitely.
In fact, as you and I speak, there is a three-day festival going on in
Pakistan. It is an Islamic religious
festival, called Eid Al Adha. All of the
schools and government offices and everything are closed. There are two Muslim festivals during the
year, Aid ul Azha and Eid ul Fitr. Both
of them last for three days and offices are closed. As for minorities, when it is time for their
festivals, such as Christmas, they can take leave from the offices, but it is
not a public holiday. However, they are
given exceptions during those days. We
have mass prayers and stuff like that to incorporate the minorities, but the
state keeps running.
V: There are a lot of churches in town here, so are there a
lot of mosques or worship centers back home?
M: We have a lot of mosques back home because traditionally
it is the requirement of a Muslim community to have a mosque where people can
actually commute by walking. So you can
imagine people like to have mosques nearby and in walking distance. In the cities, we also have a significant
Christian population. There are a lot of
churches there. A lot of them are historically built too since the time of the
British. So we have historical churches
as well, and we have Hindu temples too. You
will find abundant places of worship and mosques obviously proportional to the
number of population. You will find
mosques on practically every major street, and every few blocks there will be
mosques.
V: What influenced you to come to the United States? Especially, Saint Cloud State?
M: I guess you can go back to the exchange program
answer. I applied because I thought it
would be a good exposure for me, and plus it would be counted as a semester
abroad, I would get to learn a lot about American culture, so that is why I
applied for it. I had no clue whether I
would be picked or not. Matching up with
Saint Cloud State is the part played by the USEFB. I especially requested that I do want to
continue business studies here. And
since most of the exchange programs happen in the Midwest because there is less
exposure to immigrants from different parts of the world they looked up
business schools here. The Herberger
business school was on board with them, so I am here.
V: So kind of backing off from the school topic, how do you
usually spend your free time back at home?
M: Do you want a personalized manner or a generalized
description?
V: You can do both or whatever you want to do!
M: Okay. Personally,
I like to spend my free time, you can call me a nerd or whatever, doing a lot
of reading, but I do go out with my friends a lot. We go to movies. I like eating out. That is definitely something I do in my free
time. I do not like shopping for some
odd reason. I like shopping in the
United States but not back at home, which is very, very strange. This is just because Pakistani dresses are so
complicated. So much work goes into them
that I get frustrated. I would rather
just go out and buy a nice shirt and say this is it. Most people in my country’s favorite past
time is watching television. It must be
at the top of the list. Women have their
own soaps and drama shows that they want to watch. And men like news and politics. Kids have their own movies. People really are fans of eating out. In the town where I am from, any new eating
out place, or restaurant, you would expect it not to work out or be out of
business soon because there are so many already, but they never go out of
business because people just love to eat in Pakistan. Apart from that, I think shopping is a big
national past time. People also like,
well unfortunately because of the weather that causes blistering heat, outdoors
is not really a good option for people.
People do a lot of outdoors activities in the north where the weather is
more pleasant and cooler, but the large majority of the country is warm;
therefore, outdoor activities are not popular.
However, cricket is something that boys in Pakistan will kill for. It is like American football. Like how crazy people are about it is how
crazy people are back at home for cricket.
That is definitely how people like to spend their time.
V: I know soccer is
common in many countries in the world, except in the United States it does not
seem to be that popular. Is it at all
popular in Pakistan or is it more about cricket?
M: Well, cricket is in its own league. I do not think you can compare it to
anything, although I am not really a fan of it.
People like soccer. People follow
soccer. They are fans of the English
league. People will know all sorts of
players and go crazy during the world cup.
Our own soccer team I do not believe is that good. I have never heard about them. But you will have soccer at college level and
school level. The boys are definitely
enthusiastic about it. Girls are more
enthusiastic about tennis and volleyball, so girls do not engage in soccer that
much, but boys definitely like it.
V: What are important festivals and how do you celebrate
them?
M: There are a couple I have already talked about. They are called Eid ul Fitr and Aid ul
Azha. They are religious in nature, and
they happen once a year and are each three days long. Most of it is meeting with relatives and
friends and having good food together and shopping and gifts and all of
that. Because people in Islam are a
little more conservative there is almost no singing and dancing during
festivals, but there is a lot of food, dressing up, and exchange of gifts. There is also a festival called basant. It is the opening of the spring
festival. People fly kites in that
festival, and they wear colors like orange and yellow and bright colors to
welcome spring, so that is definitely a festival that is worth talking
about. Apart from that… I cannot believe
we do not have that many! We celebrate
more independence days or important historical days. We are sort of slow on festivals I
believe.
V: What were some of the important events you mentioned at the
end? I am curious about that.
M: One of the biggest events is the 14th of
August because it is our independence day and is the equivalent to the fourth
of July here. We have the same stuff,
like fireworks and parades, stuff like that.
Then we have the sixth of September, which is the defense day of
Pakistan, so we have parades with our armed forces and speeches and stuff like
that. For an important event, the
founder of the country whose name is Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday is
important. Pakistani weddings are an
extremely festive affair. They last for
weeks if not months. There are three
major ceremonies associated with the wedding.
The first ceremony is called Mehndi.
You might have heard of Henna, how people use those temporary
tattoos. Girls put that on, and there is
a lot of singing and dancing. There is
an instrument that has a nice beat that people sing to, and girls and guys
dance. It is very nice. There are flowers everywhere. It is a pre-wedding sort of dancing
celebration. The next step is the actual
wedding itself. It is called a
Nikah. It is basically a signing of the
contract between the bride and the groom.
The bride’s clothes is beautifully embroided and very heavy. The skirt of that dress is called a
lehenga. It weighs somewhere between 7-8
kg, which is approximately 16 pounds.
You have to wear that on your wedding day, which is dreadful but looks
very beautiful. There is a lot of
jewelry, and the groom dresses up too.
It is very beautiful. The Medndi
lasts for about a week, and there is singing and dancing and a little bit of
chit chatting and a little bit of celebration everyday. Nikah is a one-day affair. After the Nikah, there is the Walima. It is an official reception given from the groom’s
side. They announce the fact she is a
new member of their family, and they introduce her to every member of their
family. It is also a very festive
affair. It is more like a formal
reception. That is the closest to an
American wedding where things are a little bit more formal, and you might
actually have speeches to the equivalent of toasts. The Walima comes closest to that. After that, there is a series of dinners
given by different members of the family.
For example, if I were to get married, my mom’s sister would invite a
lot of people and me and my husband for food one night. And then one day it will be my dad’s brother
and sister and so on and then they go on forever basically. You mark the beginning of the wedding by
Medndi, but you have no idea where it is going to end. It is very long but also very enjoyable
too.
V: What is the most popular food?
M: The most popular food of Pakistan, Pakistanis are very
meat loving people, is biryani. I might
be biased because I love it a lot. It is
definitely the most well known. It is
like spicy rice and meat cooked together.
It is absolutely delicious, but barbeque is also really famous. It is very different from the kind of
barbeque that is done here. It is a lot
more spicy. I am assuming here barbeques
are more like hot dogs and use sauces and ketchups and all of that kind of
stuff. We have our own assortment of
food and little pickles and all of that that goes with the barbeque. The barbeque is very spicy and is eaten with
different kinds of bread. You will have
something resembling tacos, specifically the soft shell tacos. You will also have naan. Barbeque is definitely second. And third kind of food would be curry. Veg, non-veg, beef, chicken, and all kinds of
meat cooked in different curries with different sauces. That is definitely one of the favorite
foods.
V: I know the British were in Pakistan for a little bit, do
you think they had any influence on the food at all?
M: They were not there for a little bit. They were there for almost 300 years. It was a really long time ago. Are you asking specifically on food?
V: Yeah! Food or anything!
M: Well, traditionally yes the British have had a lot of
influence on Pakistan. Especially our
affinity for English is from them. We
teach English in schools and in our offices.
All of that has been inherited from the British. When the British were there, they would stay
on the northern plane during winters.
They would go up north during summers because it would be cooler. A lot of Pakistanis like to spend their
summer vacations up north because it has become a tradition that families will
go up north for cooler weather. The
British aristocracy left a very strong mark on the affluent families in
Pakistan. We still have a lot of
Pakistani families who have settled abroad, especially in English, so there is
a lot of influence there. I do not know
if we have that much influence with food because our food is so traditional and
honestly, I think the British might have taken something away from us rather than
giving us something. As Pakistanis, our
taste buds are so accustomed to spicy food and accustomed to curries and that
kind of food. You know, I think it is
hard for us to adjust to plain food or even shift to a different form of
carbohydrate for that matter. We eat
wheat and rice, and nobody would like to have potatoes with their lunch or
dinner, so I do not think food is influenced that much, but I think language
and other things definitely are.
V: How does dating work in your home country?
M: Dating does not work in my home country. This is a very interesting question! Traditionally, 85 percent or even 90 percent
of all of Pakistan, urban and rural included, have arranged marriages. So families set you up with people, but as
times are changing and globalization and all of that and education and
awareness that people do. For example,
my parents have had a love marriage, and there are numerous instances I can
quote. What happens is you do not
exactly date. Mostly people starting
together, or childhood friends and stuff like that, would at some point in
their lives say they like that person.
You would tell that other person that I like you. And if that other person agrees, they would
also tell you that they like you back.
And then you would sort of continue in a quazi or pseudo relationship
basically. It is not at all like
relationships that are here in the United States. They are very few boyfriend girlfriends that
you can find. So it is basically two
friends who like each other, and then if these people decide they really are compatible,
and they would really like to spend the rest of their lives together they do
not just tell each other, but they tell each other’s families. So the families essentially have to be
involved in everything. It is a very
family based system. I feel like I have
given you some kind of 18th century version of what used to happen
here, but that is definitely true.
V: Do you follow a religion?
If so, how does it affect you, such as beliefs, daily life, and
preferences?
M: Yes, I follow a religion.
I am a Muslim, and I am a practicing Muslim. Can you see that? Can you see what that spells? (She is
pointing to a word on a notebook she carries around with her) It spells
“Namaz”. Namaz is what we call our
prayers, so this is like a reminder I have put on here, so I would not forget
to pray five times a day. Most
practicing Muslims do that. It does
actually change everything in my daily life.
I did not realize that so much back at home because you are part of a
crowd and everybody does the same thing, so it really is not that
significant. When I got here I was the
only one praying. Or for example,
Muslims are only allowed to have Halal meat.
That is like Kosher. Jews have kosher
meat, and we have Halal meat. Believe it
or not, for the past two months I have never had meat at Garvy. I can only go to a Halal place and get meat,
so that affects me. It also sort of
dictates, because I do not drink as well which is a religious as well as a
personal decision, which makes a lot of a difference. I cannot really hangout a lot with a certain
kind of people or I cannot go to bars.
Even if I choose not to drink, I would rather avoid not going to bars or
places where people would drink. It does
also alter my preferences as well. I do
try to make friends who, even if they are not religious, would not just me for
being religious. They would need to be
open and accepting, so I am a lot more cautious when meeting up with people and
making friends than how people ordinarily would be, or even I would be in my
home country.
V: Has it been hard to follow your religion with daily life
here or is it not a big deal?
M: It certainly has been hard, but I think it has been worth
it because as I said back home I prayed five times a day, I did not think it
was that big of a deal. Here, it has
actually sort of tested me, and I have come to realize that this is something
really important and is a very important part of me. It has also made me realize that here there
is nobody to watch over me, like my parents are not here, and I do not have
pressure from society, nor do I have peer pressure, but I still like to follow
my religion. That shows me that that
holds a very important place in my life.
Otherwise, I would have sort of withdrawn from it and gone back to it
when I went back to my home country, but it has been tough. I am glad I am dealing with it. Not only has it been tough, but I have seen
people appreciate me for it because even if they are not Muslim and cannot
understand why I am doing certain things, they would still appreciate that I
would take out my time during the day to do certain things or refrain from
certain things. That is very
encouraging.
V: Do you have any questions for me? I have asked you so many questions! Thank you so much! This is so cool.
M: I would like to ask you if by the end of this interview,
because a lot of people do not know anything about Pakistan, if you had any
prior perceptions of Pakistan or eastern women have they changed in any way? Or have they been restructured or
anything?
V: My thoughts about
Pakistan? I did not really know a lot
about Pakistan, but I did research it a little bit before interviewing you just
because I was interested. I did know the
religion of Muslim was a huge part of it.
I assumed there would be fun festivals and stuff like that, but I
thought it was really cool that even though you are modernizing you keep
holding onto your traditions. I think
that is really cool. I thought it was all
really interesting. I think it would be
really cool to go to Pakistan and see the mosques and stuff like that. It would be really cool. Thank you again so much! Is there anything else you would like to ask?
M: No.
V: Okay! Thank you!
You created a first rate interview, Valerie! Excellent job!
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