Prep for the third interview.

For my third interview I chose to ask my friend Mohommad if he would be willing to be my interviewee I had already met Mohommad at a party last year so we knew each other. I asked him to meet me in atwood on a Saturday so that there would be less distractioins for us both. He agreed and we set a time. I brought him over and explaind that I was going to record our conversation so I could typ it up later he said that would be ok. I gave him a list of the questions to look at and we started the interview.

Transcription of the third interview.

Tell me a little about yourself and your home

My name is Mohammad I am from Saudi Arabia from the capital city…

What’s the name of the capital?

It’s called Riyadh…I have three brothers and one sister and I am in the middle

How is the education system in Saudi Arabia?

Here is better back home they teach us and we have to do what they did the same way otherwise it is wrong here there is more freedom to be creative.

Are the grade separations the same like first second third?

Yes yes they are the same as here

Did you come straight here after high school?

No I got a degree in Saudi Arabia first

In what

Electrical engineering then I took a one year English class and then moved here to st cloud

What are you studying here?

Electrical engineering I want to get a bachelor degree

Any difference in how a man and a woman contact each other

Yes. A woman cannot come with a man unless they are family it is religion based so they don’t allow a man and woman to be alone together

What are weddings like?

It depends where you are from if you’re from the cities then it’s very much like it is here but if you are from the small villages the weddings last much longer. And no alcohol is allowed

What do they wear?

They wear the Saudi custom and the woman wears a dress like here

What are some religious or cultural customs?

Men are allowed to wear whatever they like where a woman must cover herself.

Do you have different rules of eye contact or body language?

Yes like I said before a man and woman are not allowed to be alone together or touch in ways that could be inappropriate

What is your favorite music?

I like hip hop music the kind they play on the radio

Do you think your sibling would like coming here?

No I think they are still too young and they would not enjoy it like I do

Do you have any questions for me?

No.

Country report.

Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, with the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba to the west and the Persian Gulf to the east. Neighboring countries are Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman, Yemen, and Bahrain, connected to the Saudi mainland by a causeway. Saudi Arabia contains the world's largest continuous sand desert, the Rub Al-Khali, or Empty Quarter. Its oil region lies primarily in the eastern province along the Persian Gulf.

Government

Saudi Arabia was an absolute monarchy until 1992, at which time the Saud royal family introduced the country's first constitution. The legal system is based on the sharia (Islamic law).

History

Saudi Arabia is not only the homeland of the Arab peoples—it is thought that the first Arabs originated on the Arabian Peninsula—but also the homeland of Islam, the world's second-largest religion. Muhammad founded Islam there, and it is the location of the two holy pilgrimage cities of Mecca and Medina. The Islamic calendar begins in 622, the year of the hegira, or Muhammad's flight from Mecca. A succession of invaders attempted to control the peninsula, but by 1517 the Ottoman Empire dominated, and in the middle of the 18th century, it was divided into separate principalities. In 1745 Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab began calling for the purification and reform of Islam, and the Wahhabi movement swept across Arabia. By 1811, Wahhabi leaders had waged a jihad—a holy war—against other forms of Islam on the peninsula and succeeded in uniting much of it. By 1818, however, the Wahhabis had been driven out of power again by the Ottomans and their Egyptian allies.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is almost entirely the creation of King Ibn Saud (1882–1953). A descendant of Wahhabi leaders, he seized Riyadh in 1901 and set himself up as leader of the Arab nationalist movement. By 1906 he had established Wahhabi dominance in Nejd and conquered Hejaz in 1924–1925. The Hejaz and Nejd regions were merged to form the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, which was an absolute monarchy ruled by sharia. A year later the region of Asir was incorporated into the kingdom.

interview evaluations

spread sheet

first interview

Preparations.

for my first interview i chose to talk to my friend Eddie he is from the bahamas and visits home frequently so i figured he would have a good sense of the bahaman culture. i talked to him after my math class (since we are in the same class) and asked him if we could go to the library quick and do an interview. i explained to him the assignment that i had to complete. he agreed and we found a table to work at. i quickly printed off the list of questions for him and we got down to business.

i chose not to transcribe this first interview because first of all i forgot to bring a recorder to the interview and second the bahaman economy is largely based on tourism so many of the cultural aspects of their country are over shadowed by outside influences. things like food and music have been globalized so that people who come from another country to visit still have many of the amenities that they would back home.

Country Report.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere in The Bahamas. Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. In 1647, a group of English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas until the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717.

The late 1600s to the early 1700s were the golden age for pirates and privateers. Many famous pirates and privateers--including Sir Francis Drake and Blackbeard--used the islands of The Bahamas as a base. The numerous islands and islets with their complex shoals and channels provided excellent hiding places for the plundering ships near well-traveled shipping lanes. The first Royal Governor, Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to The Bahamas in 1718 when he expelled the buccaneers.

During the American Revolution, American colonists loyal to the British flag settled in The Bahamas. These Loyalists and new settlers from Britain brought Colonial building skills and agricultural expertise. Until 1834, when Britain abolished slavery, they also brought slaves, importing the ancestors of many modern Bahamians from Western Africa.

Proximity to the U.S. continued to provide opportunity for illegal shipping activity. In the course of the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running. During Prohibition, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. Today, The Bahamas is a major transshipment point for narcotics on the way to the U.S.

Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964 and full independence within the Commonwealth on July 10, 1973. Since independence, The Bahamas has continued to develop into a major tourist and financial services center