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