The First Interview

The First Interview

Report of the First Interview

Before I start my interview, I did some preparation. First of all, I have to clear my objectives. I’m curious that if the other international students have the same feeling as mine. I want to know about what the other international students' ways of thinking and how their culture does affects them. I also want to know the reasons make them come to the US, how do their lives change and what are their plans for the future. After I make sure what I want to know from the interview, I start to choose the questions, I used some of the questions that we came up with in the class and combined them with my own questions. All my questions are related to my objectives. What was the next to be considered is the technology. I checked my recorder which haven’t been used for a long time and tried to find a quiet place for my interview. At last, I chose the coffee shop in the library.

After the preparations, I need to think about which students I would like to interview. Since I work as a night security in the residential hall, I can meet with a lot of international students from different countries and even some of my co-workers are international students. I know that one of my co-workers is from Sri Lanka and I’ve heard about the country when I was in high school. I have interests in this country and I want to know more about it so I decide to have my co-worker Rajitha as my interviewee. I told him that I was doing a interview for my English class to know more about the international students in our school and I chose Sri Lanka. Rajitha is really helpful and he also introduced two of him friends to be my other interviewees. Before I went to the meeting, I did some research about Sri Lanka.

We discussed about the date and location for the interview during our work and we finally decided to meet at the coffee shop in the library on March the 11th which was a Thursday at 5 pm. We first talked about the weather, our classes and our plans for the coming spring break then I plan to start the interview. I told him that I would ask him some questions about his country and I need to record our interview. I asked him if he has problems with the recording and he said okay about it. Before I started to ask my questions, I checked my recorder to make sure it works well. Then, the interview began.

Rajitha, as I mentioned before is my co-worker who comes from Sri Lanka. He has been to St.Cloud for three more years since he was nineteen. He is now twenty two and is a junior student of the marketing major and also the information system minor. He has a sister who lives with the other family members in Sri Lanka. During the three years, he had only been back home once. He likes the education system here so he comes to the United States. He had applied for some other schools, but here has his courses and the tuition is cheaper, he made the decision to come to the St.Cloud State University. He plans to stay here for a while after his graduation. He want to find a job here to have some working experience then he would like to go back to his own country. Actually he wants to take the MBA degree very much, but that should depends on if he have enough money for it. Rajitha is very hard working and he does well on his studies. Also, he is a very helpful person. Because I just start to do the work this semester, I don’t know it very well and I have a lot to learn. He teaches me a lot during the work and gives me so many useful suggestions on my study. He really helps me a lot.

From the first interview, I really learned a lot. I need to put the recorder much closer to the interviewee and we need to talk louder. During the interview, I need to develop more details about the factor that the interviewee provide and make the interview have more fun. To keep relax is very important, that helps the interviewee to come up with more ideas. I get to know more about my co-worker from the interview. I know how others are thinking and a different culture. Overall, I think I have to improve my interview skills for the next time. More and deeper information are needed to be discovered.


Sri Lanka


Sri Lanka is an island country. It is in the South Asia and lies in the India Ocean. It is located to the Southeast of the bay of Bengal. It has 65610 square kilometers. Because it's near the equator, it is always summer on the island for the whole year. The average temperature there is 28 degree Celsius. The country is also known as "the pearl on the Indian Ocean", "the kingdom of gem" and "the lion kingdom" in the world.

In the late 6th century B.C., the first Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka. The Buddhism was introduced in at the Mid-third centuray B.C.. During the 200 B.C. to A.D.1000, civilization was developed in the Anuradhapura and during the 1070 to 1200, clivilization was developed in Polonnaruwa. In the 14th Centurey, Indians in the south built their Tamil Kindom but the coastal areas of the island were controlled by the Portuguese in the 16th Centuray and by the Dutch in the 17th Centuray. The island was ceded to the British in 1796 and became a crown colony in 1802. By 1815, it was united under the British rule. As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948 and its names changed to Sri Lanka in 1972. From 1983 to 2009, there was an on and off civil war against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which is short for LTTE. It is a separatist milllitant oganization who fought to an independent state and named Tamil Eelam in the north and wast of the island. Both of the Sri Lanka government and LTTE have been accused of various human rights violations. On may 19, 2009, the president of Sri Lanka officially claimed an end to the insurgency and the defeat of the LTTE.

The population of Sri Lanka is 21,324,791 and the growth rate is 0.904 percent by 2009. Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Tamil and Sri Lanka Tamil are the main ethnic groups of the country. People in Sri Lanka also have so many religions such as Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, Christian and so on. Sinhala is their official and national language. Tamil is also another national language of Sri Lanka. English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about ten percent of the population.

The government type of Sri Lanka is republic and divided into three parts which are executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. The executive branch is consisting of the chef of state, head of government, the cabinet, elections and election results. The legislative branch has elections and the election results. The Supreme Court is the main institution of the judicial branch.

Colombo is the captain of Sri Lanka and known as the "Oriental crossroads" since the Middle Ages. It is one of the most important business ports in the world and the world’s famous gemstone is flowing from here to the overseas. The average temperature is 28 degree. It has a population of 223.4 million (2001).

In Sri Lanka, it's traditional food was influenced by both the Westerns and Middle Easterns. Western influences customary diet are rice and curry, Kiribath, wattalampam which are made mainly by coconut milk. The Middle Eastern influences are found in the traditional Moor dishes such as, Lamprais, Breudher which is a Dutch Christmas cake and Bolo Fiado which is a Portuguese style layer cake.

Every April 13, Sinhala anad Tamil people celebrate Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Muslims celebrate the Ramadan for every year. Esala Perahera is the grand festival hold on July ot August in Kandy which is in the middle part of Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist festival consists of dances and richly decorated elephants. It has already become a unique symbol of Sri Lanka. Fire dances, Whip dances and Kandian dances are the main dances in Sri Lanka. During the festival time, elephants are usually adorned with lavish garments and people have the shows of different dances. The festival ends up with the traditional Diva-Kepeema and the elephant is paraded around the city bearing the tooth of Buddha.

The tourism is a very famous industrial in Sri Lanka and more and more people are selecting Sri Lanka as their vacation paradise.



Reference

Sumit G. (2006). South Asia. New York : New York University Press. March 2010.

Introduction to Sri Lanka. Applied Language Solution.com. March 2010.http://www.appliedlanguage.com/country_guides/sri_lanka_country_introduction.shtml



Interview Transcript


Engl191 Section 22
Ziyi Feng
Rajitha from Sri Lanka
03/11/10

Ziyi: Where are you come from and what is your native language?
Rajitha: I’m from Sri Lanka and my native language is English.
Ziyi: Do you speak any other languages in Sri Lanka?
Rajitha: Sinhala and Tamil are also our official language but most people in Sri Lanka can speak English. We use English more often.
Ziyi: Okay. So what is the imagine of the US in your home country? What do you think now?
Rajitha: um, I think it’s much different, but, compare to the other places in the US, I think this place, I mean St.Cloud, is kind of laid back. Because here is not much people and stuff.
Ziyi: um, I mean what do you think about the America would be like when you were in Sri Lanka?
Rajitha: It’s pretty much the same, but I have expected some more actually. I mean the US is almost the same as I thought before, but St. Cloud is a little bit laid back than I think.
Ziyi: Yeah, That was what I think. What about the weather, have you ever thought about the weather before, cause I know Sri Lanka is pretty warm sometimes even hot, right?
Rajitha: Yes, the weather is the thing I don’t like the most, it’s too cold here, I took a long time to get used to when I first came.
Ziyi: What’s your daily life like in your home country? How is it different from your life here?
Rajitha: Here is like so busy. I go to school and then go to work. Time just flies away. I just working and Working and I don’t even realize that time has already past. But when I was in my country, I just go to school then go back home and do my homework. After all of this, I still have a lot of time. The time just goes fast here, that’s how I feel.
Ziyi: So that means you can have a lot of time to relax, to have fun with your friends. Life is boring here right?
Rajitha: Yes.
Ziyi: What is the most different thing here comparing to your own country? I mean the culture, the food ect.
Rajitha: the differences are very obvious. There are a lot different things. The culture is different and they always have a lot of deadlines, people just keep working and working.
Ziyi: What type of government does your country have? How is it different from the US government?
Rajitha: yeah, my country has a different system and the government type is republic. The president is the biggest and then the ministers and vice-ministers. It’s the opposite from here. Here has the senate first and then the president.
Ziyi: Why did you choose MN for schooling, why St.Cloud? What makes you to come to the US?
Rajitha: The first is, I like the education system here in the US compared to the other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, they kind of have the same system. So it’s similar to my country cause my country was a British colony, so they pretty much follow the same thing. But here is much different, so that’s why I choose here, I like here more. Then talk about st.cloud, I have applied several schools and I found my courses that I want to do here and the tuition is cheap compared to the New York city.
Ziyi: Have you ever thought about Canada?
Rajitha: Canada is also similar to the UK system, too. I have considered about Canada, but I still like here more. I really like the country for some reason I don’t know.
Ziyi: Okay. I can understand.
Ziyi: During class how do you adapt to a professor with a different accent?
Rajitha: You mean get adapt to the professor’s accent here?
Ziyi: Yes.
Rajitha: Well, it’s kind of natural. I mean the first couple days, we usually have some difficulties to understand. But then I get used to it so I can catch up with what the professor is talking about. I have been taking so many classes with Indian professors, Chinese professors and some other international professors. I don’t have lot problems with them, even though some of them really have a little bit accents. But then I get used to it.
Ziyi: Yep. I have the same experience. So do you have some professors you prefer more?
Rajitha: No, they are kind of the same. If he is a really good professor, I don’t really care about where he or she comes from.
Ziyi: What is the greatest influence the US has had on you? What affects you the most?
Rajitha: For what?
Ziyi: For everything on your life.
Rajitha: To compare?
Ziyi: No, such as study, your way to think, your plan about your career, or even the changes of your daily life.
Rajitha: um..
Ziyi: Does it change what you wan? your views about the other things? For example, does the American culture changed yours? Do you prefer to live a way more American or still the same as before?
Rajitha: I’m kind like to work towards my goals, the deadlines. I get used to live with a rush life.
Ziyi: What’s your major? Why do you choose it? Does it provides you more chances to find a good job?
Rajitha: I select marketing as my major. I like it and want to do it, and I also choose the information system to be my minor. I guess I’ll get a good job with the combination of both.
Ziyi: Either for here or Sri Lanka?
Rajitha: Yes, I think so.
Ziyi: What do you plan to do, where do you want to go after graduate? Stay here or go home?
Rajitha: Well, I’m going to stay here for a little bit and trying to find a job. if I get the chance to work here I’ll probably be here for one and half years, maybe two years. Just to get the work experience. Then I might go back to Sri Lanka. But I really want to get my MBA here, so may be I’ll work for a while and start my MBA degree.
Ziyi: Yeah, almost all the international students they all think the same. At last, what I want to know is if you get a chance to introduce your country, what do you want the others to know the most?
Rajitha: Well, it’s hard to only choose one thing to introduce, I like so many things in my country and I don’t know which is the best one to present.
Ziyi: What about your culture, the beautiful things there?
Rajitha: oh, okay, what about my country in general right?
Ziyi: yes, what do you want the others to know the most?
Rajitha: oh, there’s a lot of beautiful place and the history of the place. Also the beaches are a proud thing of the country.
Ziyi: yes, I know Sri Lanka is a really beautiful country and the tourism is very famous, so many people go for vacation there.
Rajitha: Yes, That’s right.
Ziyi: Do you have any religion?
Rajitha: Yes, the major one is the Buddhism and also the Christian and so many other religions. I’m the Buddhism.
Ziyi: Okay, I see. Thanks for being interviewed that helps me to get closer to my objectives. Now I know how the other international students’ life is like. I really appreciate your help.
Rajiatha: You’re very welcome.