second Interview

 

Interview # 2

Country report

My interview happened to be a woman born and brought up in Tanzania. She is a Muslim, who came to the U.S to further her education. Tanzania is a multi-ethnic country, characterised most two religions that are predominant on the Swahili speaking nation (Hydén, 1980). Tanzania is so far the third largest country in Africa. Muslims and Christians form a major part of the country religious formation, with Muslims being more as compared to Christians. Tanzanians are so inclined to their culture of watching over their brothers, up to a point that there founding president established a law that would ensure that all Tanzania had to offer belonged to everyone and not specific individuals from a particular community known as ujamaa (Hydén, 1980). Tanzania is a sovereign nation governed through the democratic system of government. They have a number of special holidays such as the saba saba where they celebrate the emergence of multi-party politics.

Transcript

Interview

Interviewer: Student

Interviewee: Member of the school union

Interview setting: Interview conducted in office of St. Cloud State university's office in the administration building. The interview was conducted at 11.00 a.m. on Monday morning.

(Start of Interview)

1. Do you like the weather in St. Cloud? Please explain.
Yes, the weather at St. Cloud is very comfortable. This is because of the varying temperature throughout the day. In the morning it is partly cloudy, with little traces of fog forming, then overcast. The temperatures steadily rise during the rest of the day. Something amazing about this place is the fact that it is never too hot or too cold.

2. What do you do for leisure?
I swim and read books a lot, but my favorite activity is swimming. Swimming to me is an exercise, and I engage more into it to keep myself fit.

3. Could you please tell me about yourself?
I am a Muslim, born and brought up in Tanzania, Africa.

4 .How often do you communicate with your family back at home?
I communicate with my family more often, especially my mother. I always make it a point to keep in touch at least every week, just to know how they are faring, and to reduce the anxiety of then worrying about me when I don’t communicate.

5. What is the biggest holiday in your country? Please explain about the holidays (Activities, Food, ate, Origin, and etc.,)
Tanzania being a multicultunary nation, and a home to incredible range of religions and tribes. Mingling and mixing of these cultures has led to a diversity of festivals that everyone takes pride in. the most celebrated events in our country would be Christmas and Eid ul-Fitr. These are two events celebrated by two of the country’s largest religious groups. They are traditional buffets and wine tastings for Christians’, as well as special midnight mass on the eve of Christmas. For Muslims this is a time to give charity to the poor, as well as families visiting friends and loved ones to exchange sweets and gifts.

6. In what ways might it be difficult to practice your religion here in the U.S?
It is difficult to practice our religion here in the U.S, because Islam is characterized by negative mind-sets and as such has little following. Fear of experiencing a religious violence also grabbles most of the Muslims here.

7. Tell me some important things from your culture?
Important things about my culture would be tolerance and hospitality. From our culture, we have learned to respect one another and to always look out for your brother, even if you are not related in any way. Tanzanian’s too are naturally welcoming to strangers, visitors and tourists.

8. What’s the biggest difference between the American culture and your culture?
Our culture makes us care about one another as well as relate to one another, however, the American culture though not being decisive doesn’t seem to bring Americans together, and at times it appears to drive Americans away.

9. What are your goals for the future; after you graduate, what are you going to do?
After my graduation, I plan on going back home to impact my local community with the knowledge I have gathered while in America. I intend to go empower my community to allow more Muslim girls to be able to undertake their education, wherever they wish the same way I did in America.

10. Do you have any questions for me? I have asked so many of you! (Mandatory question at the end)
Of course, my pleasure, what your individual perception when it comes to practicing Islam in America, and how American treat student tourists?

11. How does your family feel about you going to school so far from home?
At first they were sceptical about it, but after convincing them they realized it was a good idea, since eventually I was still going to come back, and since then they have been very supportive.

12. How long have been studying at SCSU?
This is my third year now; I have three more years to go.

13. Did you face any racist since you came here?

I have been a victim of a racism before, some time in my first year when I was new to this place, I could hardly be attended to by most of the school administration, and the students too couldn’t not give me direction to place I did not know of.

Preparations

Just as I have done with all my previous interviewee under this program, as the same preparations I made with my interview with Fatima. My objectives and interview question were all the same. As I strive to gather the most from the interview, I ensured that it remained professional between us, as I created a comfortable atmosphere for the interview, by setting up the venue to look more conveniently for the interview. I ensured there were refreshments for my interviewee and circulation of fresh air in the room by opening all the windows. To ensure that my interviewee was comfortable, I ensured that it was only the two of us in the room as she had early requested. Although, it was not a must to have a video recording of the interview, I had been conducting all my interviews on live video recordings, and as such I did set up the camera for this interview. To enjoy an easy flowing conversation with my interviewee, I reduced my intonations to hers, considering that she came from Africa and wasn’t that fluent in English. I took key consideration to ensure we do not have language difficulties. Once the interview began, we did move on quite well with minimum interruption up to the end, and I am so grateful a woman of her calibre grazed my interviews.

Review of the interview

I met Fatima on the eve of Eid ul-Fitr celebration; she was walking along the university streets adjacent to the mosque, toward the hostels. I was walking on the same street, but toward a different direction, I was going to meet the school register. From my observation, Fatima is a light skinned, tall, beautiful lady, and on the day we met she was wearing a rope.  Before this day, the student union had been out on a fact finding mission, to determine the welfare of the students in the university, I as the academic secretary, I had been tasked with the responsibility of gathering information from foreign students, specifically Muslims. This occasion provided me with the opportunity to determine if she was eligible for my field of study. On reaching her, I stopped to say hi, she was very welcoming right from the first moment I shared with her. She greeted me back, and then I did some minor introduction about myself, and then explained why I had stopped abruptly. We had a conversation for about 20 minutes, before agreeing to conduct the interview on a specific date we set out together. Though at first she was sceptical about the idea, bearing the fact that I was totally strange to her, she later gathered confidence as we progressed through our conversation, to express her much better. I was delighted to have her as my next interviewee; this is because since I was given the responsibility of gathering information from foreign students, I haven’t interviewed a foreign student who was a female and a Muslim at the same time. I definitely knew that I was going to gather more information from the interview.

She conducted herself very well on the day of the interview, as I seek to make her comfortable before and during the interview. I think the interview was great success, since I gathered information that was vital to the whole process and was going to help in coming up with resolutions, on how to improve the welfare of the students. During the interview, I gathered not only information from the interview question, but from observation on how she expressed herself as well. This helped me determine the sincerity of her answers, since there were some areas, she was more passionate to speak about, and while others she seemed very emotionally.

 

 

 

 

 

References

Hydén, G. (1980). Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured     peasantry. University of California Pr.

Rasmussen, L. (1993). Christian-muslim relations in Africa: The cases of Northern Nigeria            and Tanzania compared. London: British Academic Press.

Pyle, A. (2013). How to Prepare for an Interview. Booktango.