My dad claimed he had no stories, but I really wasn't expecting him to tell me stories, just supply a few clues here and there about what life was like in his family and our neighborhood during the '30s, '40s, and '50s. It was kind of funny at times because I'd ask him a question, and he'd look at me like I was crazy and say something like, "We didn't have things like that back then!" or "That place wasn't even built yet!" and I had to keep reminding him that I wasn't around in those days.
My dad has a tendency to be suspicious of school assignments, especially when he's being interrogated about himself. He's not a big conversationalist, either. I did my best to reassure him by clearly explaining what I was doing. Another thing I noticed was that he seemed reluctant to answer some questions with my mom sitting right there: in particular, when I asked about his high school years and whether he had a girlfriend. It suddenly hit me that I probably should have found a time to talk to him when nobody else was around.
My aunt, on the other hand, was completely open about talking to me, and we spent more than three hours talking and reminiscing. We both like to talk, so we didn't have any lulls in the conversation. Each question seemed to trigger multiple memories that she was eager to share. A few times my aunt did get frustrated with herself because she couldn't remember certain names or facts. She said there were things she always meant to write down and figured she would get around to it, but didn't realize how much she would forget. Some of her recollections differed from what my dad told me, but that didn't surprise me because my dad admits that he wasn't always paying attention.
After my interviews with my dad and aunt, I realized there were questions I had meant to ask and forgot, questions I didn't think to ask until later, and information I needed to clarify. Still, I also learned a few things I never would have thought to ask about, just through the course of our conversations.
Before I called David Chase, also known as my Dad, I prepared questions and an outline I wanted to discuss. The topic I have chosen is Triathletes and their diets. I know my Dad was thrilled to talk about this subject with me. After 19 years of ignoring him towards the subject, I found myself initiating the conversation and directing the questions. The moment I received my dad’s voice over the phone I was racked with anxiety, but immediately I melted into relaxation hearing his familiar voice. Not knowing too much about nutrition I was hesitant to ask many questions I did not know the answers too. I also had shaken my leg repetitively as I always do when I am not sure of the proper questions to ask about.
ReplyDeleteSince David Chase is 33 years older, he has obtained an expanded knowledge about Triathletes and being in the sport. To have an idea about some of the vocabulary expected, I had researched them before the interview session. My Dad also gave me a few websites of triathletes to look up. The outline I had written previously had multiple definitions and ideas of what the subject interview should cover. Many of the ideas my Dad and I discussed I misunderstood, unfortunately. My Dad actually revealed the reasons why my family and I ate the way we did as a result of this interest in his lifestyle choice. Overall, I learned to relax during interviews so I can learn more about my research topic.
I did not personally know the person I was interviewing. I first planed on interviewing my high school drafting teacher who is currently an architect, however he was out of town. My aunt works at a reality office in down town Indy and has some connections with interior designers and architects so she set me up to interview Naji Ropkey.
ReplyDeleteAt first I was nervous about interviewing her because I had no idea who she was. I heard that she was the designer for the Indiana Ball Room though. I wasn’t nervous about the meeting someone I didn’t know, it was more about the interviewing. I didn’t want to simply feel like a game of twenty questions. During the interview though, she was open about everything. She began when she got into college and continued though the years. More recently there have been some family issues that have taken priority over design. I wouldn’t necessarily write about these in my paper but she just brought them to my attention to prove the point that she cares more about her family than her job.
As I walked up to her house, it was an older house but extremely beautiful both in the interior and exterior. In the lounge area, where we did the interview, there were about eight or so large model planes hanging from the rafters. Along the windows overlooking Eagle Creek, there were many vintage nautical items. It was an amazing space.
There weren’t that many differences between Naji and myself. Obviously she is older than I am and is a licensed designer. In turn, I am still a student and am more interested in architecture. I don’t think there was anything that affected how I talked to her and interviewed her. Both interior design and architecture both deal a great deal in design as a whole and last semester I was in interior design classes, this semester I switched to architecture. As the interview went on, after first talking about her life, I asked the questions I prepared, and then she presented me her portfolios. After those, we simply sat there and talked for about half an hour about anything that came to mind. I ended up being there for about three hours and it was a great interview experience.
The interview took place in my grandmother’s living room. I came home for the weekend specifically to interview her. Mam, as I call her, wasn’t home when I initially arrived. Knowing she would be back soon, due to her door being unlocked, I fetched a glass of sweet tea from the fridge. Just as I started watching television here came Mam through the door. “Hey there Bub!” she exclaimed seeing me lounging on the couch. She was her same bubbly self. Then the interview came along and the atmosphere in the room shifted. I felt awkward recording my grandmother, and she felt awkward being interviewed by her grandson. To test the recorder I had placed on a chair between us, I asked her to say something to find out whether or not it could pick up her voice and boom…She froze. I looke3d up and saw my grandmother in a complete case of stage fright. I chuckled and told her to chill out. She began laughing as well as she told me she wasn’t used to these sorts of things. It had a bumpy start but it turned around quickly.
ReplyDeleteMam is a 70 year old woman. Being so, her beliefs definitely vary from my beliefs. Knowing this, I had to respect it going into the interview. While I am not a religious person I had to respect her feelings, not only for moral reasons but because she would kick my ass! I have asked Mam questions my whole life and had much longer conversations, but never have I taken in so much information. Knowing key points of my family’s life helped me egg it on throughout. It also kept me from asking some basic, broad questions, allowing the interview to stay narrow and descriptive. I didn’t know a whole lot about Mam’s life before she came to Milltown though. I was surprised and proud to hear her defend her life growing up on a poor far. She acted almost as if I looked down on her situation, but it was just Mam standing up for what she believes. She has been doing a lot more of that here recently. Another topic she was emotionally different towards was Grandad. She had never really talked to me about him before except for a few random stories and policies he enforced. He passed away when I was 3, never having the ability to teach me who he was himself. It was nice to learn it altogether though.
From my perspective it was enlightening to learn who my family really was and how they grew over the years. What really touched me was seeing the sparkle in Mam’s eye when she told me a story about Grandad and the spark of joy that entered her voice as she laughingly told me about punishing my uncles. It felt as if not only I gained a lot from the interview but that Mam gained so much more by telling stories that she loved. I have known Mam my whole life and I experienced something brand new through interviewing her. We both had awkwardness to overcome in the beginning but it didn’t keep us from turning it into a unique conversation. I couldn’t have asked for a better first interview. Mam showed me a little piece of her life, adding joy to mine. :)
I met with my informant (my mom) at our house. She was in her office which made the interview a little more formal, but for the most part the interview was very informal. As I began the questioning I was actually slightly nervous. My mom is very good at explaining things but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to completely understand her answers. I began with simple questions and eased into the questions that would need more explanation. She gave very detailed answers that aided me in understanding her overall project. She made it very simple for me to understand.
ReplyDeleteAge did not affect my approach. The only true factor was the difference in educational levels. To overcome this I asked very specific questions and added questions as she gave answers if I didn’t fully understand. As the interviewed continued I felt more comfortable asking questions because I understood more of what she was saying. She was very passionate about the topic which made the interview easier because she didn’t mind going into a lot of detail.
Ashley Ebert
ReplyDelete1/26/12
English 104
Box 27
I e-mailed Ms. Polly Shilling my proposal for an e-mail interview with her that would likely span several days. At first I was nervous as to whether or not she would have time to answer my questions, but, being helpful as she is, she wrote back almost immediately with an enthusiastic affirmative. I quickly sent her my first set of questions along with a short, grateful note telling her that I was thankful that she agreed to answer my questions. As she is an accomplished nurse and teacher, I was nervous about the questions I was going to ask. Also, because we were not in a face-to-face interview, I would not be able to read her emotions and reactions to my questions. I was afraid to ask questions or make comments that would make me seem ignorant of the career path of nursing that I had chosen, but I did not struggle with that for long, as I realized she taught me all I know about nursing. She had taught my class to become Certified Nursing Assistants, and had fueled my desire to be a nurse, so I asked her questions that I was honestly curious about, and she responded answers to every question. She seemed to appreciate the questions I asked her about her experiences as a nurse and her advice for nursing students.
My interview was sort of informal. I know Dr. Pak not only as a professor, but also as one of my husband’s colleague. We agreed to conduct the interview in her BSU office. While she was serving tea, we started a regular conversation. So, I asked her about her health, her daughter, and her load of work.
ReplyDeleteSince I knew she is a very busy person, I tried to avoid more unnecessary chatter, so I went straight to business. I started my questionnaire with easy, factual questions. Dr. Pak was very emotional when she began talking about her childhood in South Korea and her personal experiences in Spain and other countries as a teenager. The interview was conducted in English, but Dr. Pak switched from English to Spanish every once in a while. It was our first time talking to each other in English.
Even though the purpose of my visit was to know about the daily work of a college professor—besides class lectures—and how to “break in” to college teaching, from the moment I sat down to talk with Dr. Pak, I discovered that she is a very fascinating person. This perception about her has come from who she is rather than what she teaches.
Interviewing my grandmother (Mamaw) was fairly informal considering the location was at my house. The process was easy to conduct, considering she recollected stories from her pregnancies with ease and radiated a sense of comfort around me- I am the favorite grandchild after all! However, from my stand-point, I had no problem questioning my grandmother on an array of topics, and felt significantly reposed.
ReplyDeleteAge. Since Mamaw has just turned 86, there is an immense age gap compared to my age of 18. However, the age gap wasn't the problem constraining the interview, but rather her Dementia- a degenerative disease affecting memory. Taking into consideration that her short term memory suffers the most trauma, I asked questions that stimulated her long term memory that is engraved within her mind. I simply started off slow by asking different questions, and then the responses starting flowing with ease.
After completing the interview, I was educated on how the health administration has reformed the way pregnancies and labor are done in the hospital setting. Furthermore, I was enlightened on some family stories and what my Mamaw actually went through as a mother decades ago.
I interviewed my grandmother, Arlene Guthrie, in our home. She has always been very open to talking to me about my mother. But for the first time we talked about my grandma and how she felt after the loss. We got off topic a few times, as she was talking about my mom. I knew she had had a miscarriage, but she actually has had multiple. For the most part the interview was relaxed. There was a few moments of awkwardness, but they did not last long.
ReplyDeleteAaron Lake and I have engaged in a plethora of conversations in the past. Therefore, I was very comfortable during our first two interviews. However, labeling this conversation an interview did change my usual psychological approach. I scattered and hesitated to ask my first few questions. This is the one instance where having a past relationship with my interviewee caused some awkwardness. Mr. Lake and I were accustomed to meeting and talking in our traditional patterns. Hence conducting a formal interview was slightly challenging for myself.
DeleteMr. Lake has a habit of straying off topic. It was very difficult to have a succinct conversation focused on a specific topic. To ensure I conducted a productive interview I followed a strict list of questions. But to satisfy both parties I did allow Mr. Lake to wander astray in his various attempts to answer my questions.
Having an already established relationship with Mr. Lake ultimately benefited us both. We were comfortable (for the most part), open, and honest. We were able to discuss our heritage and lineage in ways most can’t. In ways only an educated, well-read black man or woman can.
When I first met Muhamad, it was the last day of our Junior year in high school. Basically, I got his attention because he found me attractive. We started talking, it was one of those relationships where you know the person a little bit but trust them, so you share everything with each other...leading to our friendship. So before interviewing him through Skype, we first talked about the mundane things, such as college, people that we have to deal with, what we ate for lunch, and after about ten minutes I jumped into the questions. I only had a slight background of Bosnia, and it was only from what he had told me, so I started out in the beginning: "Were you born in Bosnia?" and we moved into this funk that allowed each of us to freezing express ourselves, much like a normal conversation.
ReplyDeleteSome things that I was afraid to breach were topics about why they were in a refugee camp, and how his Bosnians respond to the world around them. I learned that for him, everyone in his family is rather critical of Turks. I acknowledged things that he would tell me, and sometimes put in a little of my own thoughts, just to press on and get another question from it.
I put aside all of our differences and it worked well, I openly accepted what he told me, and took note of how it made me feel. Our rapport changed over time because we got more comfortable with talking about his past and not our normal conversations. Since I am here at BSU and he is home in Fort Wayne, the Skype thing worked well, but left a little hole of personality in my data.
I was eager to interview Julia about nursing, overseas missions and how her faith played a role in her job in the medical field. Going into the interview I felt confident, as I have known Julia for the past six months and have been in close relationship with her as my Bible study leader since then; yet, as the time approached, it dawned on my that although I knew Julia, I didn't really know her. I mean knowing her as in the intimate details about her life and spirituality. As I thought about this I wondered if I should even ask the some of the questions I had prepared. I was suddenly hesitant. When Julia met me for the actual interview I still had those uneasy feelings about some of the questions I had prepared, so I told her that if anything I ask is too deep or she feels she doesn't want to answer, she didn't have to and that the questions had nothing to do with assumptions I had about her job or speculations on how her faith might have affected her work. She kindly assured me not to worry and no offense by the wording of the question would be taken. Although I had doubts about the questions I had prepared and was worried about the barrier between our age and level of spirituality, Julia's relaxed mannerism and reassurance put me at ease. To the questions I was unsure about because of those mentioned issues, I had asked them with ambiguity. The conversation was light and Julia took the questions and was able to elaborate more into them as she answered, which then allowed me to get a deeper perspective than I had thought I would receive. Sometimes her answers caught me off guard, as I was not expecting her to say some of the things that she did, but I saw this as a good thing. Her unexpected answers in turn allowed me to wonder and ask questions on things I didn't even know I wanted to, but gave more insight to the topic being elaborated on.
ReplyDeleteMy mom, Rachel Ramer, has always been modest, so when I asked her about an interview she said “Why? I’m boring”, but during the interview I found just the opposite. I learned quite a bit about her family, her childhood, and general Mennonite history.
ReplyDeleteI also think my mom was surprised that I wanted to learn more about her family. I rarely talk compared to my brothers and she often pries me until I say something, which is usually just small talk. I wrote basic questions down for the interview, but did not prepare much because I expected her to lead the conversation. She was not as open as she would have been if I were not writing a paper about it that is open to the public, but she still provided a good description of her childhood.
Rachel commented on how she thinks the interview was good for me because I can learn more about my family history. I also know she was glad to just have a conversation with me.
I interviewed my friend Saadie Sail. Although I have only know her for a short time, we have become very close friends and talk on a daily basis whether it is just a simple hello or an in depth conversation about how life is. I interviewed her in her room where I have been many times. It was very casual because while I was there she was not only eating during the interview but also in the process of finishing her laundry. As I began the interview, I knew exactly where I wanted the interview to go. I was interesting in learning more about Saadie’s Indian culture. This difference is one I focused on because it was the topic of my paper. Since we were already so comfortable around each other, we never really enter a state of awkwardness. Although I know there is more to learn from her before I could fully understand her life, both growing up and just living day to day, I feel like I learn a lot through my interview with Saadie.
ReplyDeleteBox 21
ReplyDeleteBeing my dad, he and I already have a unique relationship, which made the interview and informal one. Since the topic I was doing was on Greek life, he didn’t have personal experience with living in that kind of community. Although my sister and I are both involved and he has participated in events with both of our communities, he doesn’t have a first-person experience of LIVING the Greek life.
Knowing that my dad is a very straight-to-business kind of man due to his position and focus on his job/company, I chose to jump right in to my questions and not beat around the bush. He was more relaxed with answering my questions than I anticipated. I believe that this was due to having the interview based out of his comfort zone, which was his office in our house. For some of my questions I expected a potential hostile response due to my history of bad grades during the semester that I rushed my fraternity and focus on it the following semester. Surprisingly he acknowledged my failure and went on to compliment me on my improvement this past semester and attributing it to my growth in maturity. He stated that, “my involvement in the fraternity took my focus off of my studies but at the same time brought lowered my maturity. However, due to the consequences that came with that you matured greatly and will now be able to be both involved in your fraternity and excel at your studies and grades.”
All in all, the interview was a relaxed and informal one because of my relationship with my father. He gave me honest answers and let me know that had I not been his son, he most likely would have held in some information due to personal opinions and privacy. In the end he still signed the consent form for release of his interview.
When I first sat down with Lisa Dunaway I was beside myself with excitement to start talking to her because she was the first Vegan I had ever met besides myself. I could tell she was just as excited and happy to be interviewed over the subject because its something we both are very passionate about. She is 32 years old. So she is a little bit older than myself but we were very comfortable speaking with each other and i think the reason why was because both of us could relate to the questions and felt the same about everything. This made both of us very laid back (finally!) because you would never be this way talking about this subject with a non-vegan. We had a great conversation touching on all kinds of different areas in the subject. I also was so interested to hear all of her personal stories of controversy she has had from people. One of my favorites was how we both can't wrap our minds around how people, mostly those working for animal shelters, animal rescues or anyone else with a bunch of pets that are like there children, these people often call themselves "Animal lovers" but they still eat meat! and contribute to billions of animals lives being taken and abused everyday on factory farms all over the world. Neither of us understand why these "animal lovers" choose which animals should be rescued and loved but certain groups of animals don't deserve that same treatment. We talked for 2 hours and had a wonderful conversation and I am glad to say I also made a new friend. I can't wait to start writing my paper and putting everything together.
ReplyDeleteFor my interview, I decided to talk with one of my jazz professors. We met in the afternoon in her office in the music building. It would probably be considered a formal interview, but we had a flowing conversation and a laid back approach to the interview. The interviewing process went quite smoothly. I asked her questions about her background and her views and she seemed to be very happy to provide the answers. Her office is situated in between a few other music professors rooms and it is not sound proofed very well. So, during the interview, we could hear a loud timpani being played on the floor below the office and an equally loud operatic singer next door.
ReplyDeleteMy professor and I are very similar in our gender, class, and race so the only possible discomfort on that front would have been due to our relatively slight age gap. We did not seem to feel this though, as our interview felt very comfortable. I approached the interview as an interested student. She and I conversed on two levels. On the one hand, she acted as the teacher and waited for me to finish taking notes as I questioned her before she went on talking. On the other hand, she acted informally as a musician recounting her history and freely talking to me about her favorite musicians.
Even though we are acquainted and I have taken classes from her before, my professor and I started the interview with a more formal tone as I am sure most interviews do before both parties become comfortable with each other and the setting. As the interview progressed though, we grew more comfortable with the situation and began sharing ideas and talking about musicians to listen to. The second interview went very well and at the end of it, she gave a lot of new music to listen to and she introduced me to many new artists.
I interview my grandparents for my essay. We all met at their house. We sat down for dinner and I started my interview after that. There was no awkward moments for me with my grandparents. I can always talk to them about anything. My grandpa is the one who enjoys tracing all of our family members back while my grandma loves talking to people now. During both of the interviews my grandparents occasionally stranded off topic and started talking about other things like how school is going. There were no discomforting moments for me or awkward moments my grandparents are both very energetic when it comes to this topic.
ReplyDeleteShannon's post:
ReplyDeleteI have been interviewing my sister, Katie. Katie is in Public Relations; coincidently this is my chosen field. Considering I am not close to home I have been conducting my interviews by phone and FaceTime. My sister and I are super close so any topic I bring up is fair game. Unless of course, it is to specific on certain issues in which case she cannot discuss for the clients benefit. Obviously, I know this and have figured out the boundaries for interviewing.
As an interviewer I noticed I am very professional. Clearly, my sister and I are of the same gender, class, and race so that has no effect. But we do share an 8 year age difference so my sister has already experienced everything I will experience when it comes to Public Relations for the most part. Erasing these difference would make no sense because then I would not have a story so I am actually going to go in depth on the differences we have. After interviewing Katie for a bit I realized she is way more passionate about her job then I knew. It's really inspiring and I am excited to move forward on this topic.
My first interview was with a woman quite a bit older than myself, named Pat. I came to her home for the interview, and we sat in her living room for a couple of hours talking, though only an hour and a half of that conversation was recorded as part of my interview. Pat and I have gone to the same church for about six years now, so we know each other, but we've never talked to each other one-on-one. Pat is the sort of person who is good at making people feel comfortable, so any discomfort at our difference in age soon dissipated. Other than age, Pat and I share a race, neighborhood, religion and gender, so I think we both had little reason for discomfort in the first place. I asked my sister, who has spent time with Pat, whether I had any reason to worry about a point coming where neither of us had anything to say, to which she laughed and reminded me that Pat likes to talk, and that I would have plenty of material for my interview essay, which I think I do. My dad is a handyman of sorts for Pat, and so I know a little about her history through him, so I knew that some parts of her life, particularly her marriages were not subjects I should broach if I could help it, so when I asked a little about her history as a Christian just for some general context, I was careful to tell her that I only needed to know what was pertinent to her time spent in the Friends church. When she did mention a detail or two pertaining to her family, she said it in a way that made it clear that while she wasn't uncomfortable with the comment she made, she didn't want me to explore that part of her life. Overall, my first interview went very well, and it shaped my research for the semester.
ReplyDeleteAs for my other interview, I called my pastor, Jesse Vore a couple of days after I talked to Pat to ask some questions that were developed from my previous interview. While Pat made me feel comfortable, I'm much more familiar with Jesse, and though we share few demographics outside of our race and religion, Jesse and I seem to share personality traits that make communication more easy-going. I had some trouble getting in touch with him at first, which took the edge off any nerves I might've had because the technical difficulties made the interview feel less formal. In addition, I think when you hear someone speak from the bottom of their heart (which Jesse does frequently anyway, but particularly in his Sunday sermons) once a week for four or five years, you become very familiar with their tones of voice and signs that give away their intentions, which made me feel that the phone interview was almost as helpful as an in-person interview might've been, because I was left with no doubts as to what Jesse meant when he spoke. Our similar personalities made my interview with Jesse flow much more like a conversation, with Jesse very interested to hear about my research project and my opinions on the subjects I was questioning him about.
My grandparents could not have been more ecstatic to find out I wanted to interview them for an assignment. They love talking about how life used to be and what marriage meant back in the old days, as most elderly people do. My setting was informal, being that I have known them since the day I was born. This allowed for the interview to travel in any direction it pleased. I was at ease, as were my grandparents Ron and Sandy. The interview process was as though it was just a regular, everyday conversation with my grandparents.It was over phone, because unfortunately they live by my hometown, which is a three hour trip. Though, I could still recognize their distinct emotions and exactly how their faces would have looked.
ReplyDeleteOur fifty plus year age difference made no difference during the whole interview. My grandparents and I are very close; I am their only grandchild. They helped raise me and have been at every sporting event or awards night that has taken place in my nineteen years. Their support and love is unconditional, which played a key role in choosing them as my interviewees. I feel as though I could ask them anything, no lines could really be crossed. Although, the one thing I made sure of was to interview them separately. First my grandma, then my grandpa. My grandpa has a tendency to not necessarily lie, but stretch the truth. I knew my grandma would give me the cold, hard facts of their love story.
As time progressed throughout our approximately hour long interview, I learned even more about my grandparents then I thought I would. I figured by know I pretty much had them figured out, but I was sadly mistaken. It may sound corny and far-fetched, but I learned more about commitment and how love brings you through the toughest times in your life. One of the many things I hope to model after my grandparents some day. I am eager to tie up some loose ends in our interview and find out even more further information on my grandparents.
Establishing Rapport:
ReplyDeleteI learned all about establishing rapport when training for my job as a telemarketer for Ball State, I only worked one shift at this job. Coincidentally, the only thing that I liked about this job was establishing rapport with the alum that I was trying to get money out of. I enjoyed talking to these people about their time at Ball State and talking about the fun times they had while at school. Anywho, that is irrelevant to my topic for this paper. I started out this project by asking my mom about small things, like where she was born, and where she moved to. This made her think about some of the happier times in her life before I hit her with the questions that made her feel rather uncomfortable.