My third interview with Aoun B
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 Mitchell Hall, and
Aoun works as night security. We were
talking because he was bored, and he mentioned how he is from Pakistan. I explained to him how I have to interview
people for my English class, and I was focusing on people from Pakistan. I asked him if I could interview him, and he
agreed!
When, where, and how
did I conduct the interview?
I conducted the interview on
Sunday, November 3rd at the Caribou Coffee inside of Atwood. We enjoyed some coffee and made small
talk. I told him more information about
the interview, such as I was doing it for my English 191 class. I also asked him if it was okay for me to
record the interview, so I could transcribe it later. He 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
him, then used my questions to conduct the interview, and slowly winded down by
asking if he wanted to ask me anything.
I also thanked him for his time.
During the interview, I made sure not to be strict with following the
questions and let him converse with me as much as he wanted. I found most of the information he said to be
comparable to what the other people said in the other interviews; however, his
personal responses were different from the others because he is very liberal
Pakistani.
Whom did I interview?
I interviewed Auon who is an
international student from Pakistan studying at Saint Cloud State
University. He describes his political
views as being left liberal. His two
languages are English and Urdu. He is
not traditional and considers himself to be similar to a typical American
college student. He works for SCSU
residential life as night security. He
enjoys living life as what he considers to be a typical American person and
loves American college life.
2. Interview
report
Description of the
interview:
During the interview, I made sure
to have good posture, so he would know I am interested in what he has to say
and am also respectful. I also made sure
I let him talk for as long as he 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 he was very open and willing to talk about both his personal
experiences in Pakistan and more of a generalized description of what he knew
about Pakistan. There were no topics
that made him 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. The two interviews I had done
prior to Auon’s interview gave a little bit more of a conservative view of
Pakistan, so Auon’s interview was unique in that it gave a more liberal
view. He showed me a side of Pakistan I
did not expect, such as he said it is very common for Pakistani teenagers to
secretively date without the parents knowing.
I thought it was very interesting!
I met with Auon in Atwood’s Caribou
on the 3rd of November. We
talked for about 30 minutes. He was not
as talkative as the previous two people I had interviewed, but I think the
interview went very well.
What surprised me?
Because I had previously
interviewed a Pakistani student, I was not very surprised by what Fahad was
telling me. I was surprised, however, to
learn about how liberal he is! I knew
the cities were more liberal than the rural side, but I did not expect it to be
as liberal as he had described it. For
example, he mentioned how there are sometimes parties, which surprised me
because Islam is so popular in Pakistan, and Islam prohibits alcohol. This does make sense, however, because it is
globalizing and modernizing. It was
interesting and surprising to learn about Pakistan from a liberal point of
view.
3. Country Report
Both of my
interviews are of students from Pakistan, so please refer to my first interview
to view my country report and cited sources of Pakistan.
4. Interview transcription of my interview with
Auon B
V = Valerie (me)
A= Auon B
V: How do you
communicate with each other in your home country?
A: We communicate
mostly in the same way as we communicate in the US by talking. When you greet one another, you might have
more touching than compared to the US.
Other than that, people communicate using messaging using text messages
and phone calls, and the youngsters use social networks, such as Facebook and
Twitter. That is mainly how we
communicate.
V: What language do
you primarily use for communication?
A: Our national
language is Urdu, so most of the people speak Urdu. The first language is English, so people do
also speak English. I think about 10
people speak English while 90 speak Urdu.
V: What is the
clothing style for men and women?
A: The clothing style
differs from person to person. We have a
national clothing style, which is called Shalwar Kameez, so many people wear
that. As far as the elite goes, they
usually wear fancy clothes. For normal
everyday stuff, they wear jeans and t-shirts.
V: How does that
clothing style compare to what you have seen in the US?
A: The national
clothing style would be different from the US.
Other than that, the rest of the clothing style is the same because
everyone just wears jeans, shirts, and jackets.
V: How are women and
men treated differently?
A: Men are the same
as in they do everything and whatever they want to do. As far as women, they might be restricted in
doing some things because in some places we have a conservative society. Apart from the major cities in Pakistan, if
we go to the rural areas, women are kept at home as house wives and are told to
take care of the kids. They cannot drive
or go outside. The men do basically
everything. They go out and bring the
stuff back to the house, and women just take care of the family. As far as the major big cities go, they have
equal rights. The main difference is the
literacy rate. If the literacy rate is
good in a specific place, then women and men are treated equally. Other than that, men have a preference over
women.
V: How has your
experience here helped you to interpret and respect cultural differences?
A: My experience
here? This is a tough one! This involves a lot of stuff. What I have learned in the US is that it is
so multi-cultural. The first thing that
comes to my mind, and I find so fascinating is that there are so many different
cultures, and you get to learn a lot about how other people live. There are differences, but overall I think
the people are the same. It is just the
way they live and try to live their lives (that makes them different). Otherwise, everyone is the same. That is what I personally think.
V: Do you enjoy
speaking with other exchange students?
A: Yeah, I do enjoy
speaking with other exchange students.
That is because they come from different cultures. I, personally, am a person who likes to know
about different kinds of people and know their cultures. Exchange students are basically cultural
ambassadors, so they are technically representing their cultures. Speaking with them would be the best way to
get to know about their culture.
V: How long have you
been in the United States?
A: I have been here
for one year in the US.
V: Have you been able
to visit any other parts of the United States?
A: I visited
Washington and New York. Apart from
that, I have just been in different airports of the US. That is it.
V: When you came to
the United States, did it look like how you were expecting it to look or did it
look different?
A: No, I was
expecting it to be the same. When I came
to the US, I was expecting New York to be the way it was supposed to look
because I landed in New York first. I
was expecting New York to look like how it does in the movies, and I was not
disappointed. New York is an amazing
place. As far as Minnesota, I was not
expecting it to be this cold. It is
really cold! I was not really expecting
people to be nice and be such a welcoming society. It is an amazing place. That is it.
V: Are there any
other parts that you want to visit?
A: For sure! There are so many places that I want to
visit. I would love to go to Chicago and
Florida and California. These are in my
top list. They are my top three.
V: What are your home
countries major religions?
A: Major religions
are Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism or Buddhism.
V: Is one more
popular than the other?
A: Yeah. Islam is way more popular than the
others. It consists of 95 percent of the
total area that other religions consist.
95 percent of the people are Muslims.
V: Are there a lot of
mosques from the town you are from?
A: Yeah. There are basically mosques everywhere. The way the infrastructure goes is, I think,
there is one in the radius of every one or two kilometers.
V: What influenced
you to come to the United States?
Especially, Saint Cloud State?
A: What influenced me
to come to the United States is opportunity.
Being an economic and finance major and wanting to go to a place where I
had a lot of opportunity, I came here.
It has the biggest economy and all of the fortune 500 companies. It has a lot of jobs in economics. That is one.
Secondly, there was a lot of exposure, and I knew the way a person could
get accustomed to working in the US by working in their professional
environment. I do not think that any
other country could be more helpful than the US. I came to Saint Cloud State because I had a
friend who was studying here at Saint Cloud State and told me it is a good
university and have good employee ratings and have good teachers and good
faculty and it was cheaper. Those are
the things of why I chose to go here.
V: How do you usually
spend your free time?
A: I hardly get any
free time. I have work and college, so
that usually takes all of my time. Apart
from that, my free time would be… If I took out the sleep time, which is a must… I would go and play soccer or
volleyball. If not that, I would hang
out at my frat house. That is it. That is pretty much what I do. I would also play PS3!
V: How do people your
age back in Pakistan normally spend their free time?
A: In Pakistan, the
culture is a bit different. Students do
not work like here in the US. Like, 90
percent here are working and paying for their own fees. In Pakistan, it is normal to just have
parents pay for the fees. Because of
this, you have a lot of spare time. During
their spare time, they usually play outdoor sports, especially cricket. Cricket is a very popular sport over
there. If not that, they go hang out in
different cafés or go eat outside or watch movies. They do not have any bars or clubs to dance
in, so that is pretty much what they do.
They will hangout, stay at home, and play PS3. They will watch movies.
V: What are important
festivals and how do you celebrate them?
A: In Pakistan? The most important festivals would be the
religious ones. They are called Eid, and
there are two Eids. One is a big one,
and one is a small one. In the big one,
you have to make a sacrifice. Usually,
people will sacrifice a goat or a cow.
That is one of the pillars of Islam.
Once they sacrifice it, they divide it into three parts. They give one part to the poor people, one
for themselves, and one for their relatives.
The small Eid comes after Ramadan.
That is just a happy day after Ramadan because you have worked so hard
and put in so much effort with those long fasts. People usually just wear nice clothes and
make sweet dishes and meet with their loved one and interact with different
kinds of people and friends and family. That
is how they celebrate it.
V: Do festivals have
a lot of colors or what do you normally see when there is a festival going on?
A: When the big Eid
is going on, that is the one where you sacrifice the animals. During that time, you see animals being
sacrificed. You see a lot of meat
because everyone is giving meat to their relatives and to poor people. You will see poor people roaming. Usually for that month, people will just eat
meat 24/7, so they can finish off all of the meat. As far as clothes, they just wear the
national clothes, which are the Shalwar Kameez.
There is not any kind of decoration to it. Although, men will wear Shalwar Kameez, and
the women will dress up very fancy. They
will dress cultural with their colored dresses and jewelry and that kind of
stuff. It is a happy occasion, so that
is what they do. The same happens in the
smaller Eid. The men dress up wearing
Shalwar Kameez, and the women wear their typical and colorful clothes. During that, people go to one another’s
houses and talk and enjoy and eat food and have dinners. They just simply enjoy!
V: What is the most
popular food?
A: You cannot short
list that because it depends on person-to-person of what is the most popular
food. Almost all of the food is
spicy. Some people like vegetables or
meat or chicken or fish or rice. It depends
on the person.
V: Could you maybe
list some of the national foods or just describe them all?
A: The most popular
ones would be, from the rice category, is very spicy rice and is even popular
in the US. It is available in Pakistani
shops. It is basically rice and chicken
mixed with spices. It has a yellow
color. As far as chicken, there is a
dish that is basically made of chicken, tomatoes, onions, and the spices. For fish, they have their own fish in their
lakes. I cannot remember the names of
the fish! They have local fishes though
that are really nice if you catch them and then make them. They are so tasty! As far as vegetables go, they usually just
make a mixture of vegetables, like potatoes, onions, and greens. It is mostly just mixed vegetables. With most of their food, they have naan. Naan is what you eat curry with. 90 percent of the people eat naan two times a
day with curry.
V: I know Muslim is
the popular religion, so is there any dietary restrictions, which are hard to
follow in the United States?
A: If you are a
staunch Muslim, there could be difficulties with food because you do not have
Halal food available in small towns. As
far as bigger towns, such as Chicago and New York, you do have Halal food
available. That could be one restriction
that people have a pain to go through just to get Halal chicken. Apparently in Islam, they say there is a
specific way that you have to make the chicken Halal. I personally do not know if it is mandatory
because I do eat chicken in the US. I
think it is 50/50 because 50 percent of people do eat chicken, and 50 just want
to eat Halal chicken. It is basically person-to-person
of how he sees Islam and how he depicts it or what he thinks is right and what
is wrong. Apart from food, people do not
have issues going to mosques here. They
are even able to celebrate religious festivals.
I have been here for a year, and I have seen that when we have Eid, a
few Muslims did not go to college. Our
professors gave us an excused absence because they understood that it is an
important event for us, so that was great.
Other than that, I think the US is an open society. It does not restrict anyone from practicing
their religion as long as you are not being a negative externality to other
people. That is it.
V: How does dating
work in your home country?
A: Technically, you
are not supposed to date in Islam before marriage. For my home country, I can give you the inner
truth. Probably 95 percent of the people
really do date, and you just do not tell your parents. You just hide it. You usually just talk to one another over
cell phones and text messages and Facebook and not tell your parents. That is why they have to talk during the
night. I would say 70-80 percent of boys
and girls talk during the night when their parents are asleep. To go on dates, they do not go everyday, but
they usually go a few times in a week.
Well, they do go on dates. In
Pakistan, it is really different. There
are two cultures, which are working parallel.
One is the culture we have in big cities. That is really liberal. Like, I even told you before, men and women
are treated equally in big cities. If
you live in big cities, there are parents who won’t even mind if you are
dating. They will not even mind you
going partying. I used to be in the
capital, and we had a lot of partying going on.
We had a lot of house parties and a few nightclubs. There were even pool parties. Usually, the parents would just let their
kids go. This is the big city, which is
basically 20 percent of the population.
As far as the rest of the 80 percent that live in the rural areas, that
is the part of the population where men and women are not even equal. That is where the societies are
conservative. The kids do date, but they
just hide it from their parents. They
usually will bunk school to go on dates or bunk classes or tell parents they
are just going to a friend’s house and will really just go off with their
boyfriend. That is just how it works! This is the inner truth. 90 percent of the population does date. It is very different.
V: Are arranged
marriages common or not really?
A: They used to be
really common, but I just told you how things are changing. People are becoming more liberal as the
cities are expanding. The cities are
already liberal, and the rural areas are slowly starting to follow them
too. Now, arranged marriages are not
orthodox where you do not even get to see the girl or the guy. Now with arranged marriages, it is your
choice and your say of whether or not you like the girl or the guy, and then you
get married. If you do not like them,
then your parents will look for another girl or a guy.
V: Do you follow a
religion? If so, how does it affect you,
such as beliefs, daily life, and preferences?
A: I, personally, am
not a staunch Muslim. One thing is that
I try to be a good human being. I mostly
live like an American kid. I do not try
to hurt any human being or do anything that is irrational for the society. I am not really a good Muslim. That is pretty much all that I have to say
because I am pretty much just like you. I
do not mind talking about this question, but my main view is just that I just
want to be a good person and good human being.
I mostly live like a normal American kid. That is it.
V: Do you have any
questions for me? I have asked so many
from you!
A: Yeah. Can you tell me again why you asked these
questions and what project you need them for?
V: For my English
class, I have to interview international students. It is good practice for getting information
from human resources and cross-referencing.
A: Oh, okay! That is it.
That is pretty much the only question I have.
V: Oh, okay! Well, thank you!
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