Preliminary report on Nepal - Revised

General information
Nepal is in South Asia and located south to Republic of China and north to Republic of India. Kathmandu is the capital city and Hinduism is the national and major religion in Nepal. Nepal is the only country that set Hinduism as its official religion. The north part of the country has many famous mountains such as Mountain Everest and south part is highly populated and developed.

Religions, languages and festivals (Culture)
Although Hinduism is the official religion in Nepal, there are a variety of religions that Nepalese practice such as Buddhism (2nd largest), Christianity, and Islam (both minor). “Hindu and Buddhist worshippers may regard the same god with different names while performing religious rites. Though Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom in the world, many other religions like Islam, Christianity and Bon are practiced here.” [1]
There are more than 92 languages spoken in Nepal. Four major groups of languages are Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolian, and Indigenous. The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as mother tongue) are Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and so on.
There are more than 50 major festivals in Nepal and most of them are religious-related. One of the biggest festivals is Dashain and many Nepalese people outside their country celebrate themselves missing their home country. “The entire population of Nepal celebrates the festival that falls between mid September to mid October. Nepalis celebrate Dashai by buying new clothes, eating good food and visiting family members. Card games are very popular during this time. Various fairs and celebration events are organized during the Dashain fortnight in both villages and cities”. [2]
When Nepalese women get married, they wear red clothes. Likewise, if they get divorced or become widows, they no longer wear red, instead, wear white color only for the rest of their lives.

History
In the mid-18th century, the kingdoms of Nepal unified. “Prithivi Narayan Shah is known as the creator of Nepal…Nepal was defeated and the Sugauli Treaty was signed in 1816, under which Nepal lost one-third of its territory…. The period between1836-1846 is marked with confusion and intrigues… Then began the Rana period in Nepal which lasted up to 104 years. During this period, the country was kept in isolation and the people were deprived of political and social rights… Mahendra’s son King Birendra reinstated multipart after the movemenmt in 1989. When the late King ‘Birendra’ and his entire family were killed on 2001, his brother, Gyanendra Shah became the king of Nepal. Gyanendra reinstated the parliament aftewr popolar struggle in 2006. In 2008, the newly elected constitution assembly declared the country a republic.” [3]

Geography
“There is no coast in Nepal, as it shares three quarters of its borders with India (south, east and west) and the remaining northern border with China.” [4]
Terai is southern lowland and usually urbanized. Hill is on higher altitude and has subtropical to temperate climates. The capital city, Kathmandu, is on Hill region. The mountainous are (Mountain region) is famous for Mountain Everest in Great Himalayan Range. This region is on the northern part of the country.
Nepal has four distinct seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter). There is a raining period during summer and it is called ‘monsoon’ and tourists can have good opportunities to travel around and enjoy the natural beauty of Nepal.
. “Even though the arrival of the summer monsoon can vary by as much as a month, in Nepal it generally arrives in early June, is preceded by violent lightning and thunderstorms, and lasts through September, when it begins to recede.” [5]



Cited Sources

1. Nepal Tourism. info (A complete tourism information)
http://nepaltourism.info/nepal_religions.html

2. HotelNepal. Com (Gateways to hotel in Nepal)
http://www.hotelnepal.com/festival.php

3. Nepal. Travel (Nepal Travel Directory)
http://www.nepal.travel/Nepal_History.html

4. Kwintessntial – Geography of Nepal
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Nepal/Geography-of-Nepal/332

5. The Library of Congress Country Studies; CIA World Factbook (original source)
http://www.photius.com/countries/nepal/climate/nepal_climate_climate.html

6. The image - Mount Everest
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~shres20e/classweb/worldpolitics/2%20page.html

The first interview transcript by Kaye Lee

The First Interview Report



Class; ENGL 191 21
Interviewer; Kaye Lee
Interviewee; Jamuna Adhikari
Country of Origin; Nepal
Interview Date; Oct. 24 2009



Where are you from?
I’m from Nepal. I lived in the capital city, Kathmandu for like 5~6 years.

What about college? Did you go to college there?
I went to college in the second biggest city in my country because I had some of my relatives living over there, so I can go and visit them.

So why did you come study in American college?
American education is recognized all over the world and American education provides practical education. We can get benefit from our daily life and more advanced technology.

So, are you going to get a job as a nursing career after graduation in the states or are you going back home?
I think I might practice here for years and I might go for master’s degree and then once I finish higher level of education, then I will go back to my country..

So you are going to the graduate school in Minnesota, maybe?
No, just in America.

Have you taken any college-level classes in Nepal?
Yes, I have. I took some health classes like 3 years because I wanted to go for nursing, I didn’t do my graduation there because I wanted to come to America and finish my education here.


So what are some differences between colleges there and here?
I think one of them is the way they teach in the class in my country, it’s more like teacher speak and students listen, you know, they don’t really participate in activities, but in here, they participate a lot, they do presentations and you know, and they are encouraged to do that. Most do group studying you know. And another thing is technology you know. We most of the work we do here use computers, which in my country we don’t do. We only get library sources. And more participation and it makes students independent and learn more things than just listening to lecture you know. We just had lectures without discussion of participation like experiments.

So how long have been here?
More than four years. I was in another state and I transferred here because it’s cheaper, and you know… it’s a nice and quite society. You prefer being in a quiet place.

Since you’ve been here for a while in the states do you feel that your perspectives toward your life, or college, or career in the future have been changed?
Culturally yeah. I think I learn more how to be independent you know. Like do my things, myself instead of depending on my parents you know. Most of the things we do, you know. If we are going to college, because we expect money and all the resources they(parents) provide us.
And we don’t have to work. But here, we work on campus and other things.. In the class, the way they teach here,, group participation thing.. I like that more than you know listening to lecture which I didn’t prefer in my country, I was like.. “oh~! No participation! It’s not a good thing! It’s not a good idea!”. Now, I think it’s a good idea, we learn things by ourselves. I want to go for nursing so I need more like.. give like teaching, education.. I need that. Nurses have to teach patients, patient education, and different fields of education, you know. Hygiene, defend disease.. So it’s going to help me a lot..

Do you think your perspectives are different from your friends or your siblings back home?
Yeah, of course. Even my brother, he’s in my country, and going to college over there, I think he doesn’t believe group participation. It was the same thing for me, when I was in my country, I didn’t believe participation thing, you know. I thought why didn’t teachers give lectures and go? Why participate you know?

What about getting a job, and starting your career?
Getting a job, yeah, once they finish the college and education, I think it’s important to get a job. It’s lilke they have to work somewhere, it’s like gaining knowledge. And they have to work. And they work. But here, you know and then if you go for.. for example, if you go for nursing in my country, you have to work as a nurse. You can’t change it. It’s not a good idea to change your profession.. You know. You cant’ just stop going for nursing. Here you can change it and It’s a good thing about.. And you can go for different professionals. And that also gives you freedom of choice. You can go for whatever you like.

Maybe I’ll ask you about cultural things.. cultural experience here. Besides college thing..
So when is your most culturally shocking experience in the states? Or here in college?
Yeah, in a couple relationship, people here can have multiple guys, and they can change their boyfriends and girlfriends whenever they would like to. But in our culture, it’s like more serious relationships, yeah, exactly.. and if you have a boyfriend, then you know that you are going to have a relationship like forever, you want to get married, you know. You just don’t for like 1 or 2 years relationship or break up. So it’s not common to have temporary relationships.


So, is your home country culturally diverse as here in the states?
Yeah, it’s culturally diverse. We have people from different backgrounds like Mongolians, you know. They have different castes and the caste that I belong to is the second greatest caste. And there is a thing that we can’t even get married with people from higher castes. So I belong to the second caste. It’s a taboo, you know. People from 1st class, they want to find somebody from the 1st class. And if they get married to people from lower class, it’s going to be a sin. It’s not normal. It’s not illegal, but just not normal. Most of the time, guys and girls listen to their parents, you know. They prefer parents’ sources and their relationships.
We have four castes. Like different sub-groups. They speak different languages from me. People from different castes celebrate different activities and religious activities. And even you know like.. the thing I celebrate.. because we have different activities like festivals.. not all the people celebrate the same festivals and the same activities at the same time you know because they have different activities and we don’t even know them. We are not even family with them.
Most of the common religion is Hindu, and Buddism, islamics, and Christians and then.. um.. some other islam, and muslim. So major group is Hindu. I’m Hindu.


Are there some conflicts among those people like different groups with different religions?
Yeah, because sometimes they favor hindu people they favor Hinduism. Hindu people are more liberal, they accept other people, but other um.. for like people who are muslim or people who are really strict with religion you know. They really don’t accept other culture very well. I think..
In India, people have been fighting each other because of the religions. But not in my country, it’s peaceful in my in country.


Is it common to speak multi-languages in Nepal?
Yeah, very common and we don’t even understand them. I speak like… you know my Nepalese language? And that’s the national language. I only speak that language. I don’t even understand other people. Even the letters are totally different. However, people can speak Nepalese because it is the national language. All the textbooks are written in Nepalese. I can also speak Hindu, which is the national language in India.
14:41

I am going to ask you some personal questions. Do you feel homesick sometimes? If you do, when do you feel that way the most?
When festivals (such as Dashain) come in my country, I feel homesick. I miss my family a lot because they get together to eat and celebrate, so I call them often. I miss home food the most and there are various religious and traditional foods back home made of rice, vegetables, and curry, for instance.

If I want to travel Nepal, where would you suggest me to go?
You can go to Mount Everest. Now, you can go take a car and enjoy the beauty of the mountain. Also, you can visit Hindu temples which are in the capital and world famous. If you want to see natural beauty, you should visit western part of the country, Pokkura. There are lakes, bridges, and craves and so many things.

Is plagiarism considered as a serious crime in your country?
No, not as much as here. I think it’s a good thing that we learn about giving credits to authors for using their sources, but it’s common to copy others’ sources in Nepal. Even when I took English courses, we did not learn about citing sources in text. Plagiarism is not taken seriously even though it’s illegal.

This is a society-related question and has a different topic from previous questions. It’s about being different in a society. So, is being homosexual, being divorced, or being a single parent common or acceptable in Nepalese society?
22:20
Being a single parent is not common and not acceptable in our society. It’s like a taboo. If a girl gets pregnant, she has to find somebody to marry. Being divorced is common these days, but not widely acceptable. Divorce rate is only 10% in Nepal. However, being homosexual is common. There is a specific community for people who are homosexual and it’s called ‘Blue Diamond Society’. They do special events wearing different clothes. Even people from rural areas have homosexual spouses, and it’s legal. Those people tend to move to cities and can adopt children, too. Furthermore, it’s illegal to discriminate them, but single parents (especially women) might suffer in the male-dominated society. Widows have to wear white clothes all her life. They are not supposed to wear redish color.

The first interview report by Kaye Lee

My First Interview Report with a Nepalese student

My first goal was to find an international student that I was going to interview. I found one girl in my psychology class who was always sitting next me at the front of a huge auditorium. In fact, I have seen her several times around campus, but did not know her very well. Since she said that she was from Nepal, I asked her of being my interviewee. She seemed somewhat unwilling when she heard a word, ‘interview’, but I said it would not take much time and was an assignment for my English class. Also, I said I also had a classmate from Nepal and she knew him.

My general objectives include; first, to research about her background, set time and a place to meet her, bring proper equipments such as a recorder, and give her questions before the interview. Second, to hear about her opinion about American college, share her cultural experiences in the states, and know about her concerns, and current issues in her country. Finally, to let her ask me questions at the end of the interview, thank her, and make a transcript and report of the interview.
I could secure two more interviewees in that the first interviewee introduced me one male student from her country and it turned out that he was my classmate last semester. The last interviewee is one of my roommate’s friend and she was from Sri Lanka which is south to India. Although Nepal and India are somewhat distant each other, it was a good chance since I was thinking of the last person to be either Indian or Sri Lankan.
Virtually, I wanted to meet her before the fall break started, but could not because she said she wanted to meet up during breaks because of busy work. The library closed during the break, I invited her to have lunch in my place and cooked some Korean food for her after the interview. Before the interview, I prepared a question sheet, a pen, a recorder (my iPod), and a cup of strawberry juice. My mp3 player worked very well as a recorder and had a plenty of memory space available, so I did not have to buy or burrow a recorder. She seemed a bit busy on the interview date, so as she arrived, I started the interview.

In terms of my first interviewee, her name is Jamuna Adhikari. ‘Jamuna’ is the name of a river. She is 22 years old and came from the eastern part of Nepal, Damak. She has two elder and one younger brother back home and has been in the states for four years. She finished 3 years college in Pokhara, Nepal, majoring in health sciences. She is vegetarian and likes to share culture and talk to people from diverse cultural backgrounds. She also likes to listen to music, but it depends on her mood. Her favorite food is traditional nepali food, which is made of daal, rice, curry and chutney. She said she did not like to have American food because they are usually cheesy and greasy. The city she came from, Damak is small, but beautiful, which is in Jhapa district and mechi zone.

When I first had to do research about the country, I felt lost because I could not find the way to approach and it seemed too broad to begin to know about one nation. I tried to look at other classmates’ research and could start mine on the right track. The research helped me a lot understand her background because the country I chose was the one I have heard of, but knew almost nothing about. Since there were more than three hundred of Nepalese students on campus, I thought it will be good to know about them better. During researching, I could find some famous festivals that most Nepalese students are missing about their home country the most and some well-known places such as Mount Everest and the famous capital city, Kathmandu by searching pictures. When I found the biggest festival, Dashain, I found Korean news that Nepalese workers in Korea gathered this year for celebrating Dashain themselves, so I could imagine how she was excited, or somewhat disappointed of not being with her family members.
Furthermore, since I am an international student, I could better understand what issues she was interested in, what concerns she had, and so on. When she explained how she felt about American college education system, I could see why she emphasized ‘participation’ so much because I was also from a part of Asia where passive attitude in class is common among college student and is acceptable. I could imagine how she was surprised when she first saw American students raising their hands, being active in group discussion, and not hesitating expressing their opinion freely.
Also, although I did not have chance to do the interview in library, I think doing it in my place was not that inappropriate for the interviewee and myself. This is because we could know each other better than the first place and share each other’s culture. If I do this interview, the interviewee would have felt pressured in that she had to go to the library and do the interview rather than have a conversation about culture.
Finally, it was very interesting to hear about gender-related issues in her country. It was very surprised to know that being a single mom is considered as a taboo in Nepalese society more than being homosexual because it is often opposite in my country. Divorce rate is much higher in Korea compared to that in Nepal, so there are many single parents in society. However, gay marriage has not been legalized, and many homosexual people have been suffered from being treated differently in their workplaces and schools. I was wondering why women are often thought as a sub-dominant group and have less opportunities in marriage options than men do.

Nepal is in South Asia and located south to Republic of China and north to Republic of India. Kathmandu is the capital city and most Nepalese students on campus came from here.
Hinduism is the national and major religion in Nepal. Although Hinduism is the official religion in Nepal, there are a variety of religions that Nepalese practice such as Buddhism (2nd largest), Christianity, and Islam (both minor). The north part of the country has many famous mountains such as Mountain Everest and south part is highly populated and developed.
There are more than 92 languages spoken in Nepal. Four major groups of languages are Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolian, and Indigenous. The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as mother tongue) are Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and so on. There are more than 50 major festivals in Nepal and most of them are religious-related. One of the biggest festivals is Dashain. “The festival is said to be held in honor of the gods’ victory over wicked demons. Legend has it that the god Ramayan was only able to kill Ravana, the king of the demons, when the goddess Durga was evoked. Thus the goddess Durga plays a pivotal role in the celebrations and the entire event is seen as a celebration of good over evil.” [1]
Terai is southern lowland and usually urbanized. Hill is on higher altitude and has subtropical to temperate climates. The capital city, Kathmandu, is on Hill region. The mountainous are (Mountain region) is famous for Mountain Everest in Great Himalayan Range. This region is on the northern part of the country. Her hometown, Damak is in east part of Nepal and lies between the border of Ratuwa and Mawa rivers. One Nepalese blogger said, “The favourite hangout place in Damak is 'The Himalayan Tea garden','Mini Palace' of The Himalayan Tea Garden, 'banks of Ratuwa river' and the famous 'Ratuwa bridge' from where the sun sets more beautifully than ever. Even the mountains seems to be mightier. Damak truely is gifted by nature.” [2]
Nepal has four distinct seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter). There is a raining period during summer and it is called ‘monsoon’. Travelers have the best chances to travel around Nepal during the monsoon period. “Monsoon Nepal is our selection of the best trips in the rainy season, featuring the valleys of Kathmandu and Pokhara, a six-day moderate grade trek in the Nepal trans-Himalaya, and optional high water rafting and wildlife safari extensions.” [3]



Cited sources

1. Nepalholiday.com
http://www.nepalholiday.com/nepal/nepal_trekking/ganesh_himal_trekking_nepal/dashain-festival-trekking-nepal.html

2. http://jhapadamak.blogspot.com/2008/01/nepal-jhapa-damak.html

3. Wayfarers – Himalaya adventures (Monsoon Nepal)http://www.wayfarers.com.np/trekking/monsoon_nepal.htm

Preliminary report on Nepal

General information
Nepal is in South Asia and located south to Republic of China and north to Republic of India. Kathmandu is the capital city and Hinduism is the national and major religion in Nepal. The north part of the country has many famous mountains such as Mountain Everest and south part is highly populated and developed.

Religions, languages and festivals (Culture)
Although Hinduism is the official religion in Nepal, there are a variety of religions that Nepalese practice such as Buddhism (2nd largest), Christianity, and Islam (both minor). “Hindu and Buddhist worshippers may regard the same god with different names while performing religious rites. Though Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom in the world, many other religions like Islam, Christianity and Bon are practiced here.” [1]
There are more than 92 languages spoken in Nepal. Four major groups of languages are Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolian, and Indigenous. The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as mother tongue) are Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and so on.
There are more than 50 major festivals in Nepal and most of them are religious-related. One of the biggest festivals is Dashain. “The entire population of Nepal celebrates the festival that falls between mid September to mid October. Nepalis celebrate Dashai by buying new clothes, eating good food and visiting family members. Card games are very popular during this time. Various fairs and celebration events are organized during the Dashain fortnight in both villages and cities”. [2]

History
In the mid-18th century, the kingdoms of Nepal unified. “Prithivi Narayan Shah is known as the creator of Nepal…Nepal was defeated and the Sugauli Treaty was signed in 1816, under which Nepal lost one-third of its territory…. The period between1836-1846 is marked with confusion and intrigues… Then began the Rana period in Nepal which lasted up to 104 years. During this period, the country was kept in isolation and the people were deprived of political and social rights… Mahendra’s son King Birendra reinstated multipart after the movemenmt in 1989. When the late King ‘Birendra’ and his entire family were killed on 2001, his brother, Gyanendra Shah became the king of Nepal. Gyanendra reinstated the parliament aftewr popolar struggle in 2006. In 2008, the newly elected constitution assembly declared the country a republic.” [3]

Geography
“There is no coast in Nepal, as it shares three quarters of its borders with India (south, east and west) and the remaining northern border with China.” [4]
Terai is southern lowland and usually urbanized. Hill is on higher altitude and has subtropical to temperate climates. The capital city, Kathmandu, is on Hill region. The mountainous are (Mountain region) is famous for Mountain Everest in Great Himalayan Range. This region is on the northern part of the country.
Nepal has four distinct seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter). There is a raining period during summer and it is called ‘monsoon’. “Even though the arrival of the summer monsoon can vary by as much as a month, in Nepal it generally arrives in early June, is preceded by violent lightning and thunderstorms, and lasts through September, when it begins to recede.” [5]

Cited Sources

1. Nepal Tourism. info (A complete tourism information)
http://nepaltourism.info/nepal_religions.html
2. HotelNepal. Com (Gateways to hotel in Nepal)
http://www.hotelnepal.com/festival.php
3. Nepal. Travel (Nepal Travel Directory)
http://www.nepal.travel/Nepal_History.html
4. Kwintessntial – Geography of Nepal
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Nepal/Geography-of-Nepal/332
5. The Library of Congress Country Studies; CIA World Factbook (original source)

http://www.photius.com/countries/nepal/climate/nepal_climate_climate.html
6. The image - Mount Everest
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~shres20e/classweb/worldpolitics/2%20page.html

Revised objectives

• To study interviewee's cultural background before the interview
• To prepare pens, paper, a recorder, and some water.
• To set time and a quite place such as a study room in library
• To tell them that I will record their voice and post the conversation we have on my blog.

• To get to know the interviewee more personally if I just know about where the interviewee is from and what his/her major is.
• To see if s/he is adjusting well in a new environment by asking questions like homesickness.
• To compare myself as an international student with the interviewee.
• To know whether the interviewee thinks it's usual for him/her to be in a diverse society.
• To hear interesting stories about his/her cultural experiences in the states.
• To share their concerns regarding living and studying abroad.
• To get to know about current issues in his/her society and if they have similar issues to those in the states.

• To let the interviewee ask questions freely after the interview so that the interviewee can feel s/he is sharing ideas with me.
• To make transcripts and reports of two better ones among three interviews. It should not be done too late after having interviews because of memory loss.
• To thank the interviewee via texting or email.

Presentation 580-586

Kevin L H, Vishal, Kaye

Choosing a documnetation style

• MLA- Modern language association (English papers)
  
• APA- American psychological association (Social Sciences)
  
• Chicago

Select the appropriate ciataion for what you are citing.

MLA and APA are similar because the citations refer to a list at the end of the paper. There are also a few differences between the two, author's name, date of publication, page numbers, and verb tense in signal phrases can differ between the two.

Chicago style is the style you should use when you are dealing with a large number of citations. Instead of the author's name after the citation there is just a number, which then you can refer to the work cited to see the source information.

If not positive on which to use consult a style manual.

Objectives of my interview questions

1. To get to know the interviewee more personally if I just know about where the interviewee is from and what his/her major is.
2. To see if s/he is adjusting well in a new environment by asking questions like homesickness.
3. To compare myself as an international student with the interviewee.
4. To know whether the interviewee thinks it's usual for him/her to be in a diverse society.
5. To hear interesting stories about his/her cultural experiences in the states.
6. To share their concerns regarding living and studying abroad.
7. To get to know about current issues in his/her society and if they have similar issues to those in the states.
8. To also answer his/her questions friendly so that the interviewee can feel s/he is sharing ideas with me.