Third Interview Report

Interviewer: Sneha Shrestha

EN 191 (21)

Interviewee: Gamir Shrestha

Origin: Nepal

Date: November 7^th, 2009

Third interview Report

I am an international student from Nepal. The education system of Nepal is different than the education system of America. In Nepal, the education system is more teachers based and the education that universities provide there are more theoretical than practical. When I first came here, I was surprised as every aspect of the education system here was new and very different to me. The process of registering classes, going to different classes for different subjects, and grading system were few differences to enlist. The assignments professors give are also very different from the assignments we have in my country. I felt very eccentric when I found I had to take an interview of international students as an assignment. As this was new to me, I was excited and frightened at the same time. My first two interviews went well. I was satisfied with my results as this was my first time interviewing people.

My English 191 class is different from other classes that I have. Everyone knows that the English we speak is easy and different in comparison to the English language we use for writing. I think in this class the students are made familiar with the English writing. There are many aspects of grammar that we avoid, ignore and do not know at all. This class just tries to make us conscious about these aspects and help us be a mature writer. In my opinion, the main objective of giving the interview is to help us students to improve our English speaking and writing skills. The other main objective of giving an interview is to inform student about international student. It is beneficial for the students who are born here rather than the international students.

The first step of giving an interview is to list the questions that you are supposed to ask to the interviewee. About preparing the question, everyone in our class had an idea as we prepared a lot for it. We had come up with ten practice questions that helped us for interviewing. In my opinion, coming up with a question spontaneously is better than preparing for a question. It depends in the situation and what the interviewee wants to talk about. After giving two interviews, I can clearly distinguish what the interviewee wants to talk about.

As we all know, location plays a vital role in the interviewing process. Giving an interview in a noisy place is not a good decision. So, my interview and I decided to meet at Library, in the third floor. The atmosphere there was very supporting. It was peaceful there and no one disturbed us. I used my laptop to record the interview. The sound recording function of my laptop helped me a lot.

When I finished my second interview and met my professor, I was really happy to know that he liked my work. It gave me more confidence and encouraged me to work harder than before. In the beginning, I was thinking of interviewing someone from a different country than where I am from. As my interviewees were from Tibet and India, I was thinking of interviewing someone from another Asian country, but not from Nepal. I had a really hard time finding the third interviewee, so I decided to interview someone from Nepal. His name is Gamir Shrestha and he has been here for a year now.

My third interviewee is from Nepal. According to Location of Nepal, “Nepal, officially Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is the world's youngest republic. Earlier, Nepal was a constitutional monarchy and it became a democratic republic on May 28, 2008. Locked within the rugged ranges of the Himalayas, Nepal is bounded by the Tibet region of China on the North and India on the South, East, and West. The Kingdom of Bhutan lies in its East whereas the Autonomous region of Tibet in Northeast. There are various entry points from the Indian side but the major ones are Nepal Gunj, Mahendra Nagar and Bir Gunj. From the Chinese side there are couples of passes to enter Nepal. Some of the major ones are Renjo La at 5465 meters, Cho La at 5420 meters and Kongma La at 5535 meters. There is only one entry to Tibet and Bhutan and that is Lungu La pass. It was cut off from the rest of the world until the early 1950s. A palace revolution and the subsequent overthrow of the autocratic Rana dynasty marked the beginning of Nepal's emergence into the modern world. Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city.”(http://www.bharatonline.com/nepal/travel-tips/location.html, November 7^th, 2009)

According to History of Nepal, “Modern Nepal was created in the latter half of the 18th century when Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small principality of Gorkha, formed a unified country from a number of independent hill states. The country was frequently called the Gorkha Kingdom, the source of the term “Gurkha” used for Nepali soldiers.” (http://saarc.org/visit/category/nepal/, November 7^th, 2009)

Nepali, Newari, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magar are the commonly used languages in Nepalese community. People in Nepal are Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslims and others. The famous temples of Nepal are Pashupati Nath temple, Shiva temple of Hindu. They scarify water buffalo, goat, sheep, chicken and duck but only male. Cow is the national animal of Nepal and people there treat cow as god. There are many Buddhist monasteries as well. The biggest festival of Nepal is Dashain. It is celebrated for nine days. Tihar is festival of lights. Other main festivals are Buddha Jayanti, Shiva ratri and so on.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Nepal, November 7^th, 2009)

According to Nepal world heritage sites, “UNESCO has declared 10 World Heritage Sites, 7 inside Kathmandu Valley &3 outside; Lumbani including Kathmandu Valley are Cultual Heriage & Chitwan National Park & Sagarmatha National Park as Natural Heritage Sites. These seven World Heritage Sites are all amazing man-made wonders still standing majestically? Some of them are as old as 2500 years.” (http://www.nepaltourismdirectory.com/nepal_travel_information.php?id=9, November 7^th, 2009)

My third interviewee, Gamir Shrestha is an engineering major student. He has been in America for a year now. He comes from upper middle class family from Nepal. He lives in the capital city of Nepal which is Kathmandu but his parents are from Gorkha. Both of his parent work, which he mentions is not as usual as it is in America. His mother is a nurse and through his interview I felt he was very proud of it as many mothers in Nepal are housewives. He is a second son and his elder brother is studying in Bangladesh. He is the Public Relation co-ordinate of Nepalese Student Association of Saint Cloud State University. He looks very determined and dedicated.

My experience with my third interviewee is different than my experience with my other interviewees. I came to know him through Nepalese Student Association. We had never talked before. Nepal night was held recently, as I was helping for the program I came to know him. I got his number for my friend and asked him if he was willing to give an interview. He directly said yes, he looked very excited about the interview. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but everything went well. I tried a lot to make him feel comfortable. I gave him time to think about the answers as we were taught in the class.

As I am also an international student I can relate a lot with all of my interviewees, but as Gamir is from Nepal, I think I relate to him more than the others. There were moments in the interview where I thought he sounded just like me. The main reason behind this was our similar background. We both are from the same country and that might be the reason. We grew up in the same environment and I think we perceive many things similarly.

When I talked about family, I think he meant more than just those words he spoke. He looked like he is very much attached with his family. He also mentioned bringing his mother’s picture, which is a nice gesture of showing love. Though, that made his father a little upset as he did not bother to bring his father’s picture. When he talked about his family, I missed my family a lot. I was just thinking of why we need to grow up and take responsibilities. Why do we have to come abroad for studies so far away from our family, our mother and father who have done so much for us? I have the answer back in my head, I know it is for our own good and for our future but still I want to have those questions.

The other topic which we talked about was the political condition of Nepal. I felt really touched when he spoke about what he felt about this topic. The political condition of Nepal is degrading day by day. The process of merging and detaching between the political parties seems common nowadays. Due to these issues the political condition of Nepal is not stable. This has lead to other many problems and the economy cannot function smoothly. While talking about these issues, there was a certain worry in Gamir’s eyes and tone. It seemed like he was concerned about it. I could relate with him as I am also concerned about the political condition of Nepal.

Among all the interviews, I prefer to transcript my first two interviews rather than choosing the final one. I thought it would be better for me to transcript those interview where I interviewed people from other than my own country. I thought it would be challenging and exciting for me to transcript those interviews.

In conclusion, I liked interviewing people. It taught me a lot academically and also about people. I found this interviewing process really interesting.