Interview Preparation:
My second interviewee is , she is a Japanese. I know her from one of my CMST class. I invited to her to be my interviewee after our class. The reason is I want to learn about their cultural traditions, to learn how they live in their daily lives to learn how they date and marry, to learn what the overall family structure is like. Secondly, I made a list of questions. Some are from class period and some made up by me. The questions I created were more specific to for my main point.
Interview report:
This interview was held in Riverview hall on Friday 10/31/2012. The interviewee is named Maiko, and she is an
international student, from Japan. I know her as we have the same class this
term. So it made me curious about the
country. Our interview goes very well; I prepared a lot of questions for her in
order to let me know more about their country. At the beginning of our talking,
we greeted, and chat. The whole conversation she looks very comfortable about
my asking, so we had very happy talking.
Country report:
"Japan (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon;
formally 日本国Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku,
literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located
in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North
Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north
to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up
Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes
referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an
archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō,
Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's
land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127
million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto
capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest
metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents."(1)
Food:
Sushi
Sushi (すし, 寿司, 鮨, 鮓, 寿斗, 寿し, 壽司) Sushi is the most
famous food in Japan. Sushi has vinegared rice, fresh raw fish and vegetables.
They created a lot of shape and ingredients for sushi. The original type of
sushi, known today as nare-zushi (馴れ寿司, 熟寿司) was first developed
in Southeast Asia possibly along what is now known as the Mekong River and then
spread to southern China before introduction to Japan.
Miso soup (with tofu, wakame and scallion).
"Miso soup (味噌汁 misoshiru) is a traditional
Japanese soup consisting of a stock called "dashi" into which softened
miso paste is mixed. Many ingredients are added depending on regional and
seasonal recipes, and personal preference."(3)
I love miso soup a lot
now as she brought me to a Japanese restaurant and it tastes fantastic.
Wedding:
"Japanese wedding customs fall into two categories: traditional Shinto ceremonies, and modern Western-style weddings. In either case, the couple must first be legally married by filing for marriage at their local government office, and the official documentation must be produced in order for the ceremony to be held as American wedding. Traditionally, marriages were categorized into two types according to the method of finding a partner—miai, meaning arranged or resulting from an arranged introduction, and ren'ai, in which the principals met and decided to marry on their own—although the distinction has grown less meaningful over postwar decades as the proportion of miai matches has dwindled. The Japanese bride-to-be may be painted pure white from head to toe, visibly declaring her maiden status to the gods. Two choices of headgear exist. One, the watabōshi, is a white hood; the other, called the tsunokakushi, serves to hide the bride's 'horns of jealousy.' It also symbolizes the bride's intention to become a gentle and obedient wife."(2)
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi
Transcription
Me: hi Maiko so nice to
meet you.
Maiko: yeah, how are you
doing?
Me: I am good, how are
you
Maiko: I am good too.
Me: well, as I said in
the email, today I am going to ask and talk some questions about your country
and life in Japan.
Maiko: yeah, sure, I
really hope I can help you.
Me: ok, here is the list
of questions; you may keep one of it.
Maiko: um, ok.
Me: how many family
members you have?
Maiko: there are my mom,
my dad, my older brother and me. My dad is an doctor, and my mom is a house
wife. My brother, he is 22 years old, he is in university now.
Me: wow, it sounds very
typical, so how many family members in a family are considered as normal in
Japan?
Maiko: I think 4-5.
Me: ok, you said your
mom is a house wife, does that mean your father takes care of your family??
Maiko: oh, my father is
the only one who earns money for our house, and my mom mainly responsible for
taking care of us, including cooking, buying new items for family. While we are
having a major decision, they usually will talk and discuss together before
they have a conclusion.
Me: yeah, that makes
sense. As I know that you are an international student, Which country`s food
do you like the most?
Maiko: sure it will be
Japanese food, and Chinese food.
Me: me too, haha, what
are the similarities and differences between American food and Japanese food?
Maiko: Japanese food‘s
cuisine are more fresh, have you ever try sushi? I guess because we living near
the sea, therefore, we used to use raw fish for our food. By the way, did you
go to Fuji in St. Cloud? That restaurant is great, you should have a try.
Me: I love Fuji!
Japanese food is my favorite, delicious and delicate.
Maiko: I deeply agree with
you haha.
Me: you know what I
saw some Japanese film, it looks like Japanese bowing a lot, is that truth?
Maiko: erm, actually bowing
is not so common today, especially between our young people. We prefer shaking
hand than bowing. But Old generation still doing that a lot I guess.
Me: oh, I never know
that, next question could you tell me a secret about yourself that very few
people here know about?
Maiko: ok… for me, I
think it is the language, and the way we think. As English is not my first
language, so it is hard for me to make American friends, and also hard for me
to express what I want to talk about. It is because I can’t pronounce some of
the word accurately due to our language, therefore, it gave me a hard for me
and my friends. Now, I am doing a project with my group members, unlike in
japan, we are always doing things
together, and discuss problem, and making decision together. But in U.S., I
found that most of American prefers to do the work individually, not for whole
group. That is kind of hard, and I rarely to talk when we have meetings.
Me: yeah, I have the
same situation before. But I found we can try to do other things, like
searching information that kind of thing.
Maiko: yes. I will try,
but I am not sure they will assign me to do that or not.
Me: yeah, good luck!!!
Why did you decide to come to SCSU instead of studying or working in your own
country?
Maiko: I just found
there is a program for going to U.S. to study and I think it will be great for
me to go oversea and study. So I decide to come to here and time went very
fast. And now I learned a lot, and SCSU is a great school for me.
Me: talk about this, I
am interested that at what age do you start school? Can you describe a typical day
for a child in your country?
Maiko: I guess we are in
the same situation when you have your school in China, under huge stress in
school, and go to school under 8 years old. Even though finding a job is hard, we got too
many people in japan.
Me: Depending on living
here almost half year, can you tell me some things about what are culture
differences between your country and here?
Maiko: as I mentioned
before, the thinking way, and the food must be the most different! There is a
lot of fast food, and in Japan, people eat fish, and vegetable almost every
day, and our main food is rice and noodles.
Me: the same with china,
it is hard for me to get used to American food. At what age do you consider
marriage?
Maiko: for girl. It may
be at 22-25, for men, it probably at 25-27. That depends on.
Me: I see. I was
wondering you guys would do what for fun as usually?
Maiko: we will go to the
night club, karaoke, or stay at friends’ place having parties. Or hang out with
friends, watching movie, shopping and so on. Pretty much like here.
Me: that sounds fun. So at what age did you
start to learn English? And what was the most difficult thing about learning
English?
Maiko: well, I began learn
English when I was at middle school, for now, the most difficult thing is
speaking, Asian people are shy, I am not good at talking with people first. So
I may don’t have problem to write or read, but I do have problem to listen and
talk.
Me: Asian are shy, that’s
right. Moving on! What could SCSU do to make your stay on campus better?
Maiko: I feel good in SCSU,
I like studying here, everyone was kind, people always smile to you, even though
I am shy, and don’t like talk too much.
Me: Same feeling! So
how would you describe famous sports in your country?
Maiko: actually, I am not a
big fan of sport, but I think skate and skiing are very popular, some boys also
like baseball.
Me: I know there are a
lot baseball competition in your country, and even comics right?
Maiko: Yeah! You are
right.
Me: I have done with all my questions! It is nice
to talk to you. Thank you for helping me to do this interview.
Maiko: haha No problem.
