Interview Process
In preparing for and conducting the interview, there were many steps and processes to go through. These steps may include but are not limited to:
1. Determine objectives of interview
2. Determine questions for interview
3. Find interviewees to interview
4. Set up time for interview
5. Conduct and record interview
6. Thank interviewee for interview
7. Transcribe interview
8. Research country
9. Write outlines for interview report and country report
10. Write interview report and country report
11. Post to blog and go to class
I prepared for the interview by determining the objectives for the interview and determining the questions for the interview in class. I found my interviewee from a referral from my last interview. I set up a time and conducted the interview by meeting my interviewee in a public, yet secluded and quiet place. I gave him the questions ahead of time so he could look them over before the interview to help the interview run smoothly. We began conversing; only small talk, and then I pulled out my phone and asked if it would be alright if I recorded the conversation. After he agreed to this I started recording and again asked him if I could record the conversation (this time on tape). After conducting the interview, I thanked my interviewee multiple times. Next came the transcribing. I had plenty of time for this process but ended up doing it all in one sitting, which took a while. Thankfully this interview was a little shorter than the last one. Next came researching for the country report. I checked out some online resources. I then wrote the remaining two parts to my paper I still needed and then I posted it.
Country Report
My interviewee was from Liberia. I’ve never been to Liberia and it seems like a place very different to where I am from. I learned many things in my research. I learned things about Liberia’s physical characteristics, its people, its government, its economy and other strange facts.
Did you know that Liberia is located in Western Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, between Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone? It’s a little bigger in size than the state of Tennessee. Bordering countries include Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone. Liberia has over 550 kilometers along the Atlantic Ocean. Liberia has a range of different climates. The highest point in Liberia is called Mount Wuteve, which is about 1,380 meters above sea level. Liberia has lots of natural resources; some of which include: gold, iron ore, timber, diamonds, and hydropower. Liberia is a hard place to live in with all the environmental issues it has. Liberia suffers from deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution from oil residue and raw sewage, and a loss of biodiversity. Liberia, facing the Atlantic Ocean, has a coastline that is characterized by lagoons, mangrove swamps, and river-deposited sandbars
Liberia doesn’t have anywhere near as many people as larger, more popular countries. It has fewer than 4,000,000 according to a 2011 estimate. That few of people will make it less than the 120th most populated country in the world. Out of all those people, less than three percent will be sixty-five years of age or older. That makes Liberia a pretty young country. According to a 2010 estimate the average age is just over 18 years old. A similar estimate states that over 44 percent of the people are fourteen or younger.
Unfortunately Liberia has a few things working against it. Liberia also has a migration rate of zero. That means the same number of people are coming and going. The infant mortality rate is very high and is estimated to be about 18th out of all the countries in the world. This mean Liberia has quite a few babies that die right after being born. Liberia suffers from lots of major infectious diseases with a very high degree of risk. In 2008 the country only spend 2.7 percent of the GDP on education, and as of a 2003 estimate less than 50 percent of girls could read. Liberia also has an unemployment rate around 85 percent and about 80 percent of the population is in poverty. Luckily Liberia doesn’t really have any issues with a high HIV percentage.
I also found out that Liberia has quite a few ethnic groups and about 20 languages in use. Luckily English is the national language so one does not have to learn all of these other languages to buy and sell goods, because not all of them can be written or used in correspondence. Surprisingly, over 95 percent of these people belong in just two religious groups, Muslim and Christian, over 85 percent being Christian.
I found that Liberia’s exported products include: “rubber, cocoa, timber, coffee, diamonds, and iron.” (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/li.html) Their imports include: “fuels, chemicals, machinery, transportation equipment, manufactured goods; foodstuffs.” (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/li.html)
I found out some random things which interested me as well. I found out that Liberia has only 29 airports as of last year and 27 of those have unpaved runways. I also calculated that out of Liberia’s 10,600 Kilometers of roads less than 7 percent are paved. Liberia only has 8 internet hosts and around 20,000 internet users. I also found out that Liberia is pretty big in the illegal drug and diamond trade.
I have learned much about Liberia since I started my research. I’ve used sources from online and from a book. I am glad I was able to find another person from Africa to interview because the facts you find from this area are really shocking and interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia Visited on 4/27/11
Long Story Bit By Bit Liberia Retold, Tim Hetherington, Umbrage Editions, New York, 2009
Interview Personal Review
Looking back at my interview and wondering how things went, starts off with recalling where I wanted them to go. In my interview I wanted to accomplish a few predetermined objectives. These objectives were:
1. During the interview process I would like to learn things from a new culture.
2. I would also like to learn how moving to America has affected their life.
3. I would like to achieve a higher understanding of different perspectives which can in turn open incite to my own life.
4. I would also like the interview to be more informal, so that it seems to be more of a conversation than question and answer session. This way, the person I will be interviewing may answer questions I didn't think of in my brainstorming process.
Looking at my first objective, I would have to say I accomplished this well. I didn’t know very many things about Rundell or Liberia. I learned about things he likes to do, favorite foods, family ties, and a little about the country and its differences from here.
Looking at my second objective, I would have to say I also accomplished this well. I learned how his thoughts of America have changed since coming here. I also learned about how his ideals of racism have changed since coming here. I learned how coming here and getting an education is going to help Rundell more than an education there would help.
Once again my third objective, I feel, wasn’t accomplished very well. I accomplished this goal to a certain extent, but again I feel as though I learned more about how understanding different perspectives affected my interviewee’s life and not so much my own. But I am certain with more time I will understand some things which I wouldn’t without this interview.
Looking at my fourth objective, I would have to say I accomplished this very well. We ended up talking about things very fluidly. My interviewee relaxed and opened up very well, even though he was in a bit of a hurry, which helped very much with this objective.
I also managed to alter the few things I wanted to since this was going to be my final interview. I brought my interviewee more food and drank and showed him the book I checked out from the library to get his thought on some of the things in it (after the recorder was put away). I changed the order of my questions to:
1. How long have you been here? How long are you planning on staying?
2. What do you miss from your native country? What don't you miss?
3. What are some cultural differences between your country and here?
4. What was the hardest thing about transitioning to the U.S.? (Culture shock)
5. How does the climate in your home country compare to here?
6. How is living here similar/different to where you are from?
7. What is something unique to where you are from?
8. Why did you decide to come to SCSU instead of studying or working in your own country?
9. What was the education system like in your native country?
10. What are your personal experiences with racism since coming to the US?
11. Is religion more open where you’re from?
12. Who takes care of the finances in your family?
13. At what age do men and women spend private time and at what age do they consider marriage?
14. What is your favorite food/meal that you wouldn't commonly find in America?
15. What kind of foods do you eat where you’re from?
16. What were your thoughts about the U.S. before you came here and how have they changed since coming here?
This really helped shave a few minutes off. Lastly, meeting my interviewee where he wanted to meet also helped him open up a lot.
Overall I would say that this interview much better than the ones before. I learned a great deal in this whole process. I learned about a culture that was pretty new to me, a country I didn’t know much about and I learned about the personal experiences of another individual. If I had to do it all again, I think I wouldn’t change a thing from my interview.
