Preparation for my Interview
For my interview I came up with several questions that I wanted to ask. When making my question sheet I put the main questions the whole class had to ask on top, so I could make sure that they would be answered. Once I had all the questions down on paper I began memorizing a few of them for when the interview happened. The reason I wanted to memorize some of the questions is because I thought it would help the interview flow better.
I did not have to approach anyone for my interview because I had a friend introduce me to a few of his international friends. This way worked well for me because I felt very relaxed right from the start. Instead of going out and buying a recorder, I tested my phone a few days before the interview to see how it would sound. When I tested my phone it worked great, so I decided to use it. I met my interviewee at Caribou Coffee shop in Atwood, and that is where we had are interview. The day of the interview was Tuesday, October 27th 2010. It was a nice and quite area for most of the interview. A little bit toward the end of my interview one of the Caribou Coffee workers started vacuuming the area, but it did not affect the communication between me and my interviewee. Also it was still very easy to hear and understand my interviewee in the recording. The person that I interviewed was named Abraham and he is from the Southern part of Saudi Arabia.
Describing the Interview
I enjoyed the interview very much. Abraham was really nice from the start and didn’t mind answering any of the questions on the sheet. We were both relaxed at the beginning of the interview and joked around. The joking around continued throughout the whole interview. The whole time during the interview is conversation flowed well together. It was not just me asking questions. At times during the interview he asked me some as well. At times we got off topic and just talked about random things that were not even needed for the interview, but were still interesting.
There were many things during the interview that surprised me. One of the most surprising things that I did learn was about their dating style in Saudi Arabia (mainly in the South). It was amazing to listen to how they had to treat women and what could happen to them if they went out on a date with the wrong girl (girl they are not supposed to talk to). I couldn’t imagine being killed for talking to the wrong girl. I would feel a little more comfortable in the west, because at least they have the ability to be set free and given another chance to correct their mistakes. Another thing that I learn and was interesting to me is, how there weekends were on Thursday and Friday. Coming from my perspective I think it seems very weird because I am use to Saturday and Sundays.
Report On Country
Saudi Arabia is the birth place of Islam and is the area for its two holiest shrines. These shrines are Mecca and Medina. The Saudi state was founded in 1932. Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East by the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The area of the land is approximately 1,960,582 million sq. km. That is a larger area than any other country in the Middle East. Most of the area though is dessert. The discovery of oil reserves was in 1937 a few years after the founder of the Saudi State. The weather in Saudi Arabia is usually very hot and humid especially on the coast. Also it has many sand and dust storms that occur.
Saudi Arabia has a population of about 28 million people and around 5.6 million of them are foreigners. The birth rate is still on the rise, but so is their economy. The language spoken is Arabic, and a little bit of English. More than 200 million people speak Arabic. The religion that people believe in is Islam. Saudi Arabia has a political system called monarchy. The way it works is a King is chosen from the Al- Saud Family. The King will then work with the councils of Ministers. The work week for people who live in Saudi Arabia is Saturday through Wednesday because Thursday and Friday are weekends.
The people who follow Islam are called Muslims. The word Islam means “submission to God”. Muslims follow the book called the Holy Quran. The Quran mainly focuses on the beliefs of the religion. In the world today the Quran is the only book memorized completely by more than 10 million people all over the world. The holy day for Muslims is on Fridays (which is like being a Sunday here in America). Muslims are able to eat any type of meat they want as long as it is not pork and they are not allowed to drink liquor. The foods that are not allowed to be eaten are called Haram. Muslims celebrate Ramadan which means they cannot eat during the day for one month. They are not able to eat from dawn to dusk.
Work Sited
www.cia.gov 10/28/10
Interview
K= Kyle (Me)
A= Abraham (The Interviewee)
K: Hi my name is Kyle, What is yours?
A: My name is Abraham
K: Can you tell me a little about yourself and your country?
A: I am from Saudi Arabia. I think I am easy going, I would say I am a funny guy but I am not the one to presume that. I like my privacy and I do not judge other people. I am 23 years old.
K: What part of Saudi Arabia are you from?
A: I am a Southern guy.
K: When did you come to America?
A: I came to Kansas in May 2009 and stayed for about a summer before coming to Minnesota.
K: Why did you choose to come to St. Cloud State?
A: I have 3 cousins here and they are all doing well in their classes, they said that some classes are kind of easy. The people here in Minnesota are nice. The only thing I don’t really like about Minnesota is that it is cold. All the other aspects of Minnesota are good. It is not an expensive city to live it and it is fun.
K: What is your major and why did you decide to choose it?
A: I chose finance because it has a lot of jobs back home and it pays well. Also I am good with math.
K: Are you planning on going back to Saudi Arabia after you graduate from St Cloud State?
A: I am undecided right now. At the moment I am thinking of staying 3 or 4 years after graduating. If I do not have a job here after I graduate then I will probably go for my masters. My Family also has a say in it because I will go back if they need me to.
K: What year are you here at St. Cloud State?
A: This is my first year here.
K: How is the education here compared to back home?
A: Much better, democracy plays a big part in everything here. Back home if the professor just didn’t like the way you looked then he could give you an F if he wanted to. You have no dignity because the professor is always right and you have no say in it. So it is a little tricky to graduate from there and plus what they teach isn’t that good. We only have 2 really good Universities and they are hard to get into and graduate from. You need to be very clever to get into one of the Universities.
K: What are the names of the Universities?
A: King Fahd University of petroleum & minerals and King Saud University. There use to be 8 University named after Kings.
K: Do you interact with men and women differently? How?
A: Yes, Women have a certain privacy to engage in a conversation if they would like to or not. If you are not a relative or do not have a reason to talk to a girl, then that might cause you some troubles. If you take a girl out and her brothers or father figure out what you did then there could be some issues for it.
K: What kind of issues?
A: They might beat you to death. It depends on what area in Sadie Arabia you live in. It’s like a tribal community. North and South are very much tribal communities and East and West are not as much. The West and East are more forgiving. In the South you might get killed for talking out a girl if you don’t know her. It is like doing a crime. You must have a reason for talking to women. For example if you are not related to her or don’t know her, then the only way you should be talking to her is if you are selling her something.
K: What are the weddings like?
A: It can differ a little bit. But for my region first you gather your tribe and friends and then you can invite your uncle’s tribe and so on. You only need to invite the close parts of the tribe though. So when everyone comes to the wedding people have the habit of giving money to the married couple. The money is for helping the bride and groom pay for the wedding and to help them in life. There is a lot of dancing and singing. The men and women have separate celebrations. The women usually as their celebrations at the house and the men usually have theirs at a ball room. At the wedding the bride and groom get to sit in a chair called the Zeffa. While they are in the Zeffa people throw flowers at them. It represents that you are the only male in the group.
K: How does the money differ (Compared to amount?)
A: The dollar is more valued because 10 dollars in American is worth about 37 dollars in Saudi Arabia.
K: What are some religious customs in your country?
A: We believe that you have to be a good person. You have to do no harm to anyone, whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jews, etc. We also believe in doing your prayers. Most of all take care of your family. Both family and friends are very important for us. All of these things physically make you to be a good person. Are book is the Quran.
K: What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
A: That is a tricky question. I will eat whatever. I will open the fridge and eat anything in there that I see. It is not very different from here. We have cereal, but we also have some traditional foods. For breakfast we have very thin bread that usually has hot goat milk poured on it. For lunch and dinner we eat lots of meat and rice. We eat pretty much any meat that isn’t pork.
K: What are some of your favorite actives to do back home?
A: I love soccer. Also I like to hunt. We have different seasons for hunting in Saudi Arabia. We do not hunt a lot because we don’t have much to hunt for since it is a dessert pretty much. Other than that I play a lot of soccer, hang out with friends, watch movies and play video games.
K: What kind of video game system do you usually play on?
A: We play on PS3, PS2 or just play station. We have only Sony things. We do not have any XBOX systems.
K: Are there any foods back home that you cannot find in most places here in American?
A: There are lots of foods. There are many kinds of Kapsa that cannot be found here in America. We also have a food called gel gel that is like pieces of goat’s inner parts. It is cut into small pieces and cooked with olive oil and onions.
K: Do you eat a lot of American food or do you try to eat your cultures food on a daily basis?
A: I try to eat my cultures food because a lot of American food is not healthy for you. If I ate American food, then I would have to work out a lot. I think that my cultures food is healthier. Lately I have been lazy and been going to subway a lot. All of the better foods for you around here cost a lot of money usually.
K: Did you have high school year round?
A: Yes we had summer break that lasted about 3 months. We had class 5 days a week and they went for about 6 hours a day.
K: What are some of the holidays that you celebrate?
A: We don’t have many holidays. We have about two holidays. One of them is after the holy month Ramadan. The holiday is called Eid ul-Fitr and that is when we break in the fest. This is when family is most urgent to see each other. It shows the good side of people so to say. The other holiday that we celebrate is Eid Al- Adha. It is usually the time when we do something for Allah.
K: What is dating like back home?
A: It’s like selling cocaine, no one can ever find out about it. The only way you can tell someone is if they are a very trustful person that won’t tell ANYONE. In the South there is not much room for getting away if you get caught. In the West and South they are a little more flexible with it. The West is the most opened minded people about dating. Putting it in a different way, if you get caught dating in the west than they will let you go and god will forgive you just don’t do it again. In the south if you get caught you could take 2 in the head.
K: So does this mean most marriages are arranged?
A: Yeah, well actually in the west they are not. In the west there is a period between the engagement and the wedding where the two people get to know each other. They do it so they can see if the two people are connecting well. So that’s the thing if you don’t like then you don’t have to do it. So for the most part you could call them arranged marriages. It is not as bad as you think… If it’s been going well for a whole society for a long time it can’t be that bad. There are some problems with it, but for the most part it has been going good.
K: Are there any special events that happen for a baby’s birth?
A: Yeah, we do a circumcision for when a boy is born and it is a big celebration. That usually happens when the boy is about 2 to 3 weeks old.
K: What were the celebrations like for graduating from high school?
A: I think you guys take it a little more serious here then we did in Saudi Arabia. When I graduated it was like an opportunity to go around and look for a good University but actually I was just going around with my friends and site seeing to have a good time. So it is not a very big deal.
K: Did you guys have a ceremony for graduation?
A: No, it was like we had are finals on Wednesday and then we would go and pick up are diplomas on Saturday from school. Wednesday for us is like Friday for you. So we had Thursday and Friday off of class because Friday is is holy day.
K: Did you guys have any graduation parties?
A: A group of my friends and I had a party.
K: Did you have a party with relatives, family, and friends?
A: No it was mostly just a group of friends. We would go around and go out to eat, then go out to the mall and fool around.
K: Okay, well that is all the questions that I have for you. Thank you so much for your time.
A: Your welcome and I hope I answered the questions well for you.
