Interview #2

                                                                 Interview #2

Interview with Meenakshi

Me:  What is your name?

Meenakshi:  My name is Meenakshi, but most people can't pronounce it right, so most people call me Mini.

Me:  Where are you from?

Mini:  I am from Nepal.

Me:  Where is Nepal?

Mini:  It is in south Asia.

Me:  Where exactly?

Mini:  South of China, and borders India on the other three sides.

Me:  Is it a pretty small country?

Mini:  Yes, a very small country.

Me: Which city in Nepal are you from?

Mini:  Dhangadhi.

Me:  Where is that located? And is it a big city?

Mini:  It is on the Western edge bordering India.  Not really, it is about the size of St. Cloud with a little under  70,000 people.

Me:  Did you experience any culture shock when you came to the USA?

Mini:  Well, there were definitely a few things that were really weird and completely opposite of my country.  In Nepal, time is not important, but in the USA time is everything.  So it took me awhile to come up with a routine that would help me to get to classes, work, appointments, etc. on time.  Also, the up and down head shake actually means no and the sideways head shake means yes in Nepal.  So, I was often confusing the two and getting the opposite results of what I wanted.

Me:  How would you compare high school in the US with high school back home? How about college?

Mini:  Well, I don't really have any personal experience with college life over there since I have only attended in the USA as of far.  However, high school over there is much harder, much stricter and much more time consuming.  I think  Americans have class for like seven or eight hours a day.  Well it is about six or seven hours a day as well, but then in order to excel, most students would have private tutors come to their homes for an additional 4 or 5 hours a night as well.

Me:  How big is your family back home?

Mini:  I have one younger sister and an older brother.

Me:  What does your family do for a living?

Mini:  Well, back home there are very few opportunities for women to work.  So my mom stays home and takes care of the family and our home.  My little sister goes to school, comes home and works with her tutor for a few hours after school, and then does some laundry and other household chores to help my mother out.  My brother and  father both travel to work on a farm outside of the city every day.

Me:  What is the major difference between life here and back home?

Mini:  In this country, everyone is always in such a hurry. You have to be to school and work on time.  Back home, you can take time to rest or pray whenever you want.  Back home religion is important, so at school and work they allow you to take time out of your day to pray. 

Me:  Is there anything else that was different here that kind of shocked you?

Mini:  Back home, soft and weak handshakes show respect, whereas here a firm handshake is common.  The first American that I met shook my hand so hard that it kind of hurt, and it kind of threw me for a loop until I learned that this is how it is done here.  Also, I had dinner with an American family and I belched.  They looked at me weird and laughed.  In my country, it is a way of complementing the meal preparer and thanking them for the meal you just ate, but here it is considered rude.  And also, here it is mostly frowned upon to see two people of the same sex holding hands, for they are considered gay or referred to in other negative terms.  But in Nepal, you  often see same sex friends walking holding hands or arms.  Men and women rarely show affection in public, even married couples don't hold hands.  So that was pretty confusing for me and took awhile to get used to seeing men and women holding hands and showing affection to each other often but not being able to hold hands with my girl friends without getting stared at.

Me:  What sports, if any, do people in your country play?

Mini:  We play football.

Me:  Do you mean soccer?

Mini:  Yes.  Soccer. 

Me:  How important is religion placed in education back home?

Mini: Religion has always been pretty free and open but also very important.  My religion allows you to be open and free to what you believe in and what god you pray to, but encouraging religion was always important in schools.  They always gave us breaks during the day to pray.

Me:  Was coming to school here hard when you didn't really know the English language very well?

Mini:  In high school back home I started learning English, but it was more British English.  They used different words that you do not use here and they have a different way of speaking it.  So it was more like I needed to get used to the dialect here.  Also, with any language you are learning, I always have some words that I don't know the meaning to.  Constantly having to look up the meaning of words that I come across in my textbooks has been my biggest issue so far.

Me:  What are you studying?

Mini:  Biotechnology.

Me:  Do you plan on staying in the US? Or are you planning on going back home when you are finished with school?

Mini:  I plan on returning home.

Me:  Why do you plan on returning home with all the opportunities that may arise for you in the medical field in this country?

Mini:  I miss my family back home.  Especially my boyfriend.  We are  to be married as soon as I am done with my education and return home.  I know that opportunities for women in the workforce are scarce back home, but I hope having my college degree will change that.  There are very few women, very few men for that matter, that have a college education back home.

Preparing for the Interview

                For my interview, I thought of ten basic questions to learn more about Mini's country and thought of more during the interview process.  I wanted to learn about the basic differences in life, culture, traditions, and education between the US and Nepal.  Once again, as I did for the first interview, I recorded this interview using a voice recorder that I use to record my professors' lectures on occasion.

Approaching People

                Being that Mini has been a friend and co-worker of my wife's, setting up this interview was easy.  My wife had her over for dinner one day and at that point I had asked her if she would be willing to sit down and do an interview with me for an assignment.  She was very nice about it and agreed to do it that same day.