Preparations for the interview
Objectives:
1) Learn about the Country Saudi Arabia
2) Learn about the religious customs
3) Schooling system
4) Family dynamics
5) Special holidays and Traditions
6) How America compares to the United States
7) Clothing
8) Learn about their diets
After I figured out my objective, I came up with more questions than the core questions. I was very interested in the core questions and majority of the time I expanded my other questions off of the core questions. When we were doing the fake interviews with students in class, it gave me a good idea that I would like to learn more about Saudi Arabia. From the little information that Mohammed and Mutaz talked about I was very intrigued.
How Did You Approach People?
As previously stated, after hearing what Mohammed was talking about, I wanted to learn more about Saudi Arabia. It was a country that I’ve never learned about or really talked about except from the news. And the news doesn’t always tell the full truth or information about what is really going on and doesn’t portray a place a certain or right way. Since I wanted to learn more about Saudi Arabia I decided to email Mohammed and Mutaz to find out if they could help me with my interviews. Lucky for me, they were very helpful.
When, where, and how did you Conduct the Interview?
I conducted my second interview on Friday October 29th. I decided since the first interview went good in the library that I would try it out again. As I did before I walked around the library to find a spot that day that would work out best for both of us and that he felt comfortable talking. We decided to sit on the second floor in the chairs because there weren’t very many people around us. This time I didn’t have to really explain how the interview was going to go and if I could record it because, he is in our class and he already knew what to expect but just to make sure I did explain and ask him if it was ok.
Whom did you Interview?
My second interview I conducted with Mutaz from class. He is 21 years old and from the capital city of Saudi Arabia, which is Riyadh. There are over 5 million people in that one city. He has nine brothers and two sisters, which they live in a big house. He came to the United States by himself with no family. His father use to work for the army and now is retired and his mother is a stay at home mother and all his brothers work for the army, one sister is a teacher and the younger sister is still in school.
Describe the Interview
The interview with Mutaz went great. It was easier to interview him because we both already knew each other and when we were practicing in class for our official interviews, he was one of the people I had to opportunity to interview. One thing that we talked about was marriage and the traditions of it. I found it very interesting that when you want to marry a girl in Saudi Arabia you don’t get to talk to the girl first you have to talk to the father and get his permission. When you talk to the father you may ask to see the women’s face because they keep their whole body covered and once you see her and decided to proceed with marrying or say I will think about it. What I found very interesting was that if you see a women’s face you are not able to tell anyone else what she looks like. When it is time to marry they don’t celebrate it together they are separate. The men only talk with the men and vice versa. When we talked about what they eat in Saudi Arabia it was surprised to hear that they don’t have all that much variety compared to the U.S. For breakfast they eat dates, eggs, beans with bread, and they drink Arabic coffee, and tea. When it’s lunch time they eat chicken, camel, rice, and lamb. I never knew that you could eat camel, I was told that it taste like lamb. I asked if he goes out to eat and restaurants or fast food and Mutaz said that he doesn’t prefer to go out to eat because it is bad for you and home cooking taste better. One question that I asked Mutaz that wasn’t on the sheet was if he is ready for the Minnesota winters. He told me that he is not ready and hates the cold. At the end of the interview I said thank you again for letting me interview and that it was a huge help.
Report on Country and Culture
Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab in the Middle East and has an estimated population of 27,136,977 people. The capital of Saudi Arabia which is also the largest city is, Riyadh. Riyadh means “garden” in the official language Arabic. The capital city alone has an estimated population of 4,878,723. Most of Saudi Arabia’s land is uninhibited and consist of deserts. Saudi Arabia lies on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, which is home to a rich marine life on the coral reefs. One thing I found interesting about Saudi Arabia compared to the Minnesota, home of the 10,000 lakes is that is has no permanent year-round rivers or lakes. Most of Saudi Arabia’s economy is petroleum based because of all the oil. Because of how big the oil industry has on the country, it is the biggest stock market in the Middle East. This is the flag of Saudi Arabia. Green is used because it is the traditional color of Islamic. In white Arabic letters it means “There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God".
Works Cited
C.I.A. The World Fact Book. 7 April 2007. 3 November 2010 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html>.
Wikipedia. Saudi Arabia . 3 November 2010. 3 November 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia>.
*For this interview I decided not to transcribe it because the sound quality wasn’t the best.
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