Saturday, November 20, 2010
Final Project
For my final project I would like to take something about the education in my country and compare it to the United States.
interview 3 review
Result: Here
Criterion:
Preparation --- the plan of your interview, when, where and how to take a interview
Interview Process --preparation, description, country report
Country Report --- more information about the country
Interview Questions and Answers --- your questions and answers in the interview.
Blog Presentation --- your interview report
Winner: Matti, Kyle WMy third winner is Matti, Kyle W. His interviewees come from Saudi Arabia. His interview includes a lot of information about Saudi Arabia, such as culture and history. He prepared this interview very well, from his report I can get the more information about the Saudi Arabia.
His blog presentation covered everything. From the blog presentation I can know what he did before the interview and what he will to do in the interview. Then I can read his interview easily because he has a nice transcript of the interview. It is easy for reader to read the questions he was asking his interviewee and wasn’t a struggle to read the response. In his interview some of the answers were getting longer and longer, I think that means the interviewee felt comfortable about the questions.
Overall I think he did a great job, so I chose him as a winner.
interview 2 review
Second result: Here
Criterion:
- Preparation --- the plan of your interview, when, where and how to take a interview
- Interview Process --preparation, description, country report
- Country Report --- more information about the country
- Interview Questions and Answers --- your questions and answers in the interview.
- Blog Presentation --- your interview report
He prepared well for the questions and found a good place to take the interview. Country report helps get more information and helps the writer to learn more. The interview process is the most important part in the interview. Reader can find everything in this process. A nice blog presentation can show what and how you did in the interview. It displays more information than the interview process.
So I choose Matti, Kyle W ‘s second interview. In the part of preparation, he chose a friend who is one of the friends of Mohammed and he found a nice place to take the interview. The country report is so good. It covered a lot of information, such as, the background of country, the religion, the food, the wedding, and the cultures. The interview flow went very well. He has a very detailed interview transcript. They talked a lot and he guided the interviewee to answer all the questions. All the information he got from the interviewee were covered in the country report. It is easier to make comparisons between the real life and what he searched. The entire interview presented well in the blog.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Third interview report
PREPARATION FOR INTERVIEW
I have had two interview experiences, so I do not worry about my third interview. I think it can go well. I got contact with Mohammed and ask him to be my third interviewee. Before the interview, we talked about where and what time we could meet. I looked over the questions several times before I met him. We met at the library at about 7:30 on November 8th. I was very comfortable approaching Mohammed, because we were the classmate last semester. When we started the interview I used my camera as a recorder.
DESCRIBING THE INTERVIEW
We enjoyed the interview and had good flow. Even though, I have already heard from the first two interviews, I also heard some new material that I did not know about Saudi Arabia.
· What is dating and marriage like, is it similar to what American do here?
They don’t have dating in Saudi Arabia. Because of the religion, Muslim. They don’t believe in dating before marriage. Sometimes they dating but it is in secret, the girls and the boys can date but nobody can know it.
· Are there any differences in the way men and women contact each other? Like eye contact.
It is similar to here. Some people feel afraid with eye contact and others don’t.
· What do the women normally wear?
Women can do whatever she wants, but she has to cover herself with an abayah and under that she can wear whatever she wants. She can take off it when women at home.
· How does the money differ?
10 dollars in American is worth about 37 dollars in Saudi Arabia.
Report On Country
Saudi Arabia is located at Mideast and it is the birth place of Islam. The Saudi state was founded in 1932. Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East by the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The area of this country is about 1,960,582 million sq. km. Its area is the largest in the Middle East. Most of the area of this country is dessert. But under the dessert, there is a lot of oil. The discovery of oil reserves was in 1937 a few years after the founder of the Saudi State. This is the reason why Saudi Arabia is super rich. The weather in Saudi Arabia is usually very hot. Sand and dust storms are very often. The population of Saudi Arabia is about 28 million, but 5.6 million of them are foreigners. The birth rate is still on the rise, because of their increasing economy. The language is Arabic. More than 200 million people speak Arabic and some of the people speak English. The religion that people believe in is Islam. The word Islam means “submission to God”. The people who follow Islam are called Muslims. The political system of Saudi Arabia called monarchy. A King is chosen from the Al- Saud Family and the King will work with the councils of Ministers. The work week for people in Saudi Arabia is Saturday to Wednesday and Thursday and Friday are weekends.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW
XIN:X
Mohammed:M
X:Hello, how was your day?
M: I am doing good thanks.
X: Can you tell me a little about yourself and your country?
M: My name is Mohammed Al Rashed. I am 23 years. I have 5 brothers and 3 sisters and we live in the same house in Saudi Arabia. That is the normal size of family in my country. I am from Saudi Arabia.
X: Why did you choose to come to St. Cloud State?
M: I have several friends here and they are all doing well in their classes. The people here in Minnesota are friendly. The only thing I don’t really like here is weather, it is too cold. All the other aspects of Minnesota are good.
X: Do you have colleges in Saudi Arabia?
M: Yep, it is around 20 - 30 Universities.
X: What is your major?
M: My major is electric engineering.
X: Are you planning on going back to Saudi Arabia after you graduate?
M: I have no idea now. At the moment I am thinking of staying several years after graduating. If I do not have a job here after I graduate then I will go for my masters.
X: How is the education system in your country compared to the United State?
M:In the past we didn’t have good teachers in primary schools and high school but from 1990’s education in Saudi Arabia has improved, because of the scholarships have helped education in Saudi Arabia by having more communication with Americans, we also have scholarships to go to Canada, China, New Zealand.
X:Alright. Next question. Do you have different rules of eye contact and body language in your country? For example, job interview.
M: I believe it’s same here, no rules.
X: Do you eat a lot of American food or do you eat your cultures food every day?
M: I eat my cultures food every day because most of the American food is not healthy. American food makes me put in weight, so that I have to work out more time. I think that my cultures food is healthier.
X: What are some of the holidays that you celebrate?
M: We have about two holidays. One of them is after the holy month Ramadan. The holiday is called Eid ul-Fitr. The other holiday that we celebrate is Eid Al- Adha. It is usually the time when we do something for Allah.
X:Are your winter’s cold back home?
M: It is cold but not cold like here. Like the lowest degree would be 40 at night and during the day it would be like 55 we don’t have snow.
X: What is dating and marriage like, is it similar here?
M: we don’t have dating in Saudi Arabia because of the religion, Muslim and we don’t believe in dating before marriage. We have dating but it must be in secret.
X: Are you segregate boys and girls in your schools?
M: In primary schools we were separated. In high school and some universities are still segregated but we don’t have to stay separate.
X: Did you guys have a ceremony for graduation?
M: No, we never have it.
X: What do you usually eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
M: For breakfast we eat eggs, cheese, bread, something like those. It is not a big difference from here. For lunch we usually eat what we call Kapsa, which has rise, chicken and a special sauce from back home. That is also what for dinner.
X: What do the women normally wear in your country?
M:Women can do whatever she wants, but she has to cover herself with a abayah and under that she can wear whatever she wants. She can take off it when she is at home.
X: Thank you Mohammed. Because of I had take two interview about Saudi Arabia that is all the questions for you. Do you have any that you want to ask me?
M: oh, no.
X: Alright thank you so much for everything. Have a good weekend.
M:You are welcome. Thank you!
We enjoyed the interview very much.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Second interview report
Country: Saudi Arabia
Name: Aladdin
Preparation for my second interview: My interviewee is my classmate when we were taking ESL classes. His name is Aladdin and he is from Saudi Arabia. We text each other and scheduled a time and meet in the library. In the last interview, I have already known about a little about the culture of Saudi Arabia. This time, I will select several questions from each category. What’s more, I searched the background of this country to get some basic information.
My objectives:
1) Learn about the Country Saudi Arabia
2) Learn about the religious customs
3) Education system
4) The way of treatment between Men and women
5) Special holidays and Traditions
6) Clothing
7) Their usual diet
The interview report:
1. My interviewee and his home.
My second interviewee Aladdin is from my ESL class one year ago. He is 21 years old and he comes from the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. There are over 5 million people in that city. He has a big family, five brothers and three sisters. His father is professor in the university and now is retired and his mother is a housewife, she stays at home take care of children and all his brothers set up their own companies, one sister is a doctor and the younger sisters are in school.
2. Religions
Most people in Saudi Arabia are Muslim.
3. The Education Systems
Aladdin told me that the education in Saudi Arabia was very different that in United States. He said, all the English classes in Saudi Arabia were taught in Arabic which made learning English very hard. Now he got a nice language environment.
In Saudi Arabia, the government offer free education also to study abroad.
In the country boys and girls do not attend school together. It is not allowed. For boys the levels of education include primary, intermediate, secondary and university. After the first year of secondary education, boys can choose between scientific studies or literary studies. More advance studies take place at the universities.
The first school for girls in Saudi Arabia was started in 1956. Today more than half of almost 200.000 students in Saudi universities are women. Because they are not allowed to share classrooms with men, they hear the lectures by television. There are some university campuses for women only.
4. Men and women
From Aladdin I learned that the way in which men and women interact in Saudi Arabia is much different. He said that in Saudi Arabia men and women are separated. They do not have classes together and they are not allowed to study together. He said that he doesn’t know other female expect were his mother and sisters. He said here is quite different and he likes to study here, because he can study with a lot of girls.
5. Holidays and traditions
There are three big holidays in Saudi Arabia. There are “The Feast of the End of Ramadan” ,” The Feast of the End of Hajj” and” Saudi National Day”. People will get a small holiday for these public holidays.
6. Clothing
Aladdin told me that they have their own traditional clothing, it is called Thobes. They are long dress like robes and are normally white, and they also cover their head. He also told me that women must be fully covered, maybe in some regions the women leave their face uncovered but in others it is normal for the faces to be covered. Aladdin show me his passport picture which he dressed Thobes. That is interesting.
7. Their usual diet
When we talked about what their usual eat in Saudi Arabia. He said, they eat eggs, beans with bread, and they drink Arabic coffee, and tea for breakfast. When it’s lunch time they eat chicken, camel, rice, and lamb. It surprised me that they eat camel. When I asked if you like to eat in the restaurant, he said no. Because they thought it doesn’t taste good and not good for health.
I enjoyed the interview with Aladdin. He was so glad to share the information with me. Our conversation was very comfortable and relaxed. We started with chat with each other and ended up with talking about random things, and it was very fun.
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