PREPARATION FOR INTERVIEW
I had to do a few things before I could start my 3rd and final interview. The first thing that I needed to do was get a hold of Mohammed and see if he had found me another interviewee. Once he told me that he found someone, we talked about where and what time we could meet. About a half hour before I met with my interviewee I looked over the questions once more because I knew I would be rusty on remembering some of them. When I got to Caribou at about 8:30 on November 9th 2010 I discovered that I was going to be interviewing Mutaz from Saudi Arabia who is also in my English 191 class. I was very comfortable approaching him once I knew who I was interviewing. We sat down and got comfortable. When we started the interview I used my cell phone as a tape recorder.
DESCRIBING THE INTERVIEW
I thought the interview was very relaxing and had good flow. We were both relaxed and had an easy time joking around with each other. We went into depth on a few of are many topics we discussed. During the interview at times I heard things that I have already heard from the proper interviews, but I also heard some new material that I did not know about Saudi Arabia which was very interesting. One of the interesting facts that I did not know about Saudi Arabia is when it comes to marriage that the man is able to talk to a random father about meeting his daughter. After thinking about it, it did make some sense but I just never thought about it like that. Another interesting/ surprising fact that I learned was that they spend 2 hours of the holy day for praying and listening to the Al- Kahen. They begin this at noon every Friday. It was interesting for what Mutaz said about their weddings and how they are more separate than together. What I mean by that is here in the United States the Bride and Groom do basically everything together and in Saudi Arabia the Bride and Groom will do their own thing during the ceremony
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
TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW
Kyle: K
Mutaz: M
K: Hello how are you doing?
M: I am doing good thanks for asking.
K: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and where you are from?
M: My name is Mutaz. I am 21 years old and I will be 22 in about 7 days. I have 9 brothers and 2 sisters and we all live in the same house. That is how most families in Saudi Arabia are. I am from Saudi Arabia the capital city Riyadh.
K: Is that West, East, North or South?
M: It is in the center of Saudi Arabia and there are like 5 million people who live there.
K: I still can’t believe you have that many siblings. I have 2 sisters and a brother and I think that’s good enough.
M: Yeah, we have big houses and it is very common to have that big of a family.
K: So how come you chose to come to the United States and go to school at St. Cloud State University?
M: Well we have 2 big universities back at home and I studied at both of them. But the education there isn’t as good as it was here. And one of my friends who are my roommate now came here before me in 2007. When he was here he called me and told me that I should come to St Cloud for school because it’s easier and the education is better. And when you come here for your education, then it makes finding a job back home much easier to do. So I decided to talk to my parents about coming here and they said yes. This was my first time coming to America and getting out of my Country. So when I came here to America I was nervous and scared but my friend who told me to come took good care of me.
K: What were the names of the universities that you went to back home?
M: I went to King Saud and it is one of the best Universities there. It is not like it is here but it is still good.
K: How do you interact and make contact with women differently from a man?
M: Well in Saudi Arabia we do whatever we can to follow the religion. So we just say don’t talk to any women unless it is your mom or your sister or any other women in your family. If you talk to any other girl you could get into trouble.
K: So how do you meet other girls then?
M: Well some people meet girls but in secret, like they will go on the internet and talk. Then they get each other number and call each other to meet up. So they will meet at a restaurant or at a coffee shop for example. So they will do this in secretly and it is really hard. But if we follow the rules it is not acceptable and you will get into trouble.
K: Well so then I am guessing your parents arrange the marriages?
M: Not exactly, I could choose. I am able to go to any guy who has a daughter and ask if I could meet his girl. Then of course after that I can meet her and get to know her, so I know if I want to marry her. After a few days you usually decide if you want to marry her or not. But usually a guy will marry a girl that he knows from the family.
K: So did you say that you can go to some ones Father and ask if you can meet his daughter?
M: Yeah, also sometimes I could just go to my mom and tell her to go find me a beautiful girl and she says okay.
K: What are the wedding traditions like in Saudi Arabia?
M: First the women get together and the men get together. So everyone has their own place. At the weddings the bride and groom will take pictures. Also they will sit in a chair in front of the people. The Chair is placed to where you can see it right when you walk through the doors. The man will where something called Bisht. The day of the wedding the man will sometimes eat with other people but sometimes he won’t. Sometimes he will just take the girl and they will go to the hotel and they will do whatever they are going to do. And for the women they will wear what women wear here. They will wear like a long dress and they dance. It is kind of hard for an American to understand because it is not like a together thing like it is here.
K: What are some of the basic religious customs that you have?
M: Are Prophet Mohammed said that your clothes has to cover from your knee and up. So whatever you wear must cover up at least this much. Most people will wear a thawb because it covers everything and most people respect that. For example an old man that saw me wearing the thawb would be respectful toward me. But if he saw me wearing jeans like I am right now he probably won’t. There are no specific clothes that you have to wear though, just as long as it covers what I said before.
K: Do you have any different rules for eye contact and body language in Saudi Arabia?
M: Well when I was at a restaurant here in American with some of my friends one of them snapped their fingers to try and get the waiter, and when that happened another one of my friends said that we don’t do that here because that is for dogs. So I thought okay I am not going to do that. For eye contact, when I talk to people back home you have to look at them. If you don’t look at them while they are talking to you, then they will think you are not listening and it is disrespectful.
K: What do you usually eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
M: For breakfast we eat the same things pretty much as here. We eat eggs, cheese, bread, etc. It is not a big difference from here. For lunch I usually eat what we call Kapsa, which has rise, chicken and a special sauce from back home. So yeah that’s what we eat and for dinner we also eat Kapsa. But sometimes people will change it a little bit and add fish or a different kind of meat. Also we will grill like lamb or chicken.
K: What are some of your favorite activities that you do in Saudi Arabia?
M: We will walk around anywhere or I will go play cards with my friends. We like to play this one card game called Balot that is not played here in the United States. Most of us love to play that game and we will play it anywhere. When we play it we like to smoke sheesha. We also like playing other games when smoking sheesha. Sometimes we also go to the mall but not too much. One of the things we love to play is soccer. We will just go to an open field and play either soccer or volleyball. So we love soccer more than a lot. You can’t find a person from Saudi Arabia who doesn’t like soccer. Everyone loves soccer even the women do. Actually just before this interview I was off playing soccer with some people.
K: What are some of the foods you eat back home that you don’t eat here?
M: There is one dish that I miss a lot. My mom would always cook it for my family. It kind of looks like chicken alfredo to describe to you how it is. But it is nothing like alfredo. It is something that I miss very much. But we eat Kapsa here every day.
K: What were some of the classes like in Saudi Arabia during high school?
M: Well back in Saudi Arabia I really liked chemistry and I was excited to take it when I came here. But when I took it here I didn’t like it anymore. I learned that it can be easy in your own language but then really hard in a different one. I just hated chemistry here.
K: How long did it take you to learn English?
M: I came here in July 2008 and I believe I finished and knew English well by June 2009.
K: Okay, and what are you majoring in?
M: I am majoring in Finance.
K: Are you planning on going back home once you have graduated?
M: I would like to continue my masters here if the government lets me. But if I don’t get permission from the government I will go back. Graduating here though will help me get a lot of good jobs back in Saudi Arabia.
K: Are there a lot of good financing jobs back in Saudi Arabia?
M: Yes, we have a lot of new companies being built right now and so I think it should be easy to find a good job when I go back.
K: On Fridays how long do you guys pray all together?
M: Well we have a priest that we call Al- Kahen and he stands in the front and talks about what people should do. After that happens we all pray together and it takes about 2 hours for the whole thing to happen.
K: At what time do you do this at?
M: We always do it at noon and it ends around 2.
K: Who is the most respected person in your family?
M: I respect my father and my mother. Also I respect my oldest brother. He is 32 years old and kind of looks like my father. I also respect my grandparents who live in the same house as me back in Saudi Arabia.
K: What are some of the holidays that you celebrate?
M: We have 2 holidays that we celebrate. One is after the month of fasting and is called Eid ul- Fitr. The other one is called Eid Al- Adha that is coming up right after my birthday. So people are starting to celebrate their birthdays but usually we don’t.
K: Are there any special events that happen for a child’s birth?
M: Yes, we do it because they hope that god blesses the child. So we make it a big deal for every child born. The main thing that we do to celebrate is get together and we will cook food and eat. It is usually a small celebration.
K: Thank you Mutaz that is all the questions I have for you. Do you have any that you want to ask me?
M: I was wondering why kids here when they turn 18 to 20 years old they move out of the house where their parents live.
K: Well usually they do it because they want to make their own rules and not have to listen to their parents all the time. Another reason is so because they want to be more responsible and live on their own.
M: Oh okay, I was just wondering and that is my only question.
K: Alright thank you so much for everything. Have a good rest of the week and I will see you in class next Thursday.
M: Your welcome, see you later.
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