Interviewer: Chancelvie Louzolo
Interviewee: Ani Chaleng
Friday, October 19th, 2012

                                                                                                                     ENG 191
                                                                                                                               12

                                                                                                                     
                                              Interview with Ani

Me : Hi Ani, how are you?
Ani: Good, how are you?
Me: I am doing good thank you.
Me: How was your class today?
Ani: I am good, my classes are pretty good.
Ani: How are you?
Me: I am doing good, thank you.
Me: Are you ready for the weekend?
Ani: Yeah, I think so, I have a very busy weekend, but  I am looking for what to up.
Me: I have a research paper, and I need some information from you. Do you mind helping me with this?
Ani: No
Me: Thank you very much, that sounds good.
Ani: My classes are good.
Me: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Ani: I am an international student coming from China. I am a senior student, and my major is marketing and I have a minor in international business.
Me: How did you find yourself here in the United States? Was it your own decision or your parents' decision?
Ani: It was my parents' decision, after I took the test and transfered it to the university; and they said do you want to go study abroad. I said sure it's fine, I thought it was interesting. They said that they have done the paper work for me; if you want to, you could take the language test. I said that I will do that; I took the test and passed it. And I came here. I did that like in two months.
Me: So you said that you are a senior student. Are you excited about the graduation?
Ani: I am going to apply for the graduate school, so I am still in school.
Me: Ok, it is a good news because you are almost done.
Me:  So, how long have you been here in St Cloud?
Ani: This is my first year here.
Me: Are you a transfer student?
Ani: Yes
Me: Where did you come from?
Ani: China
Me: You started in China?
Ani: No, I finished my high school. After that I just came to the United States and went to college.
Me: Ok, besides St Cloud, did you live somewhere else?
Ani: No, this the first school that I attended.
Me: Can you tell me a little bit about your family structure back home?
Ani: Ok, in China, family is the most valuable thing most people think about, and in our culture parents are very important for us. There is a question like if your wife, kids and parents jump in the river, who are you going to save? Most people will say parents.
Me: Ok, that is nice. Who is the head of the family, mom or dad?
Ani: Both are the same.
Me: Ok, that is nice. Can you tell me about the difference of culture between the United States and China?
Ani: You meant the difference?
Me: Yes, is there any difference in cultures?
Ani: China is a very crowded country. There are a lot of people in the street, and everything is very convenient. If you are hungry in the middle of night, you just go across the street and you can have something to eat. Everything is very convenient in China, but it is really crowded; but here they do not have a lot of people here, and you have to do the grocery shopping every week. It seems not very convenient to me, but life here is very comfortable.
Me: So, you like living here better than back home?
Ani: It is different; it is hard to say where life is better but I am enjoying life here.
Me: What are the highlights in your culture? Things that people can see and remember about your country.
Ani: You mean Chinese culture?
Me: Yes
Ani: They will think maybe Chinese people are good in math and good with computers, and maybe they will think that Chinese people are very gentle. They hardly get mad at anything and are hard working.
Me: Yes, I heard about that too. With what you just said, I would like to ask you about the education. Like the education system in your country, is it the same with the education in the US?
Ani: Almost the same just except we have to do a lot of tests. We have like public schools and the private schools. We all need the tests to get in school because there are like in our country  schools are not the same. We have like famous schools like every university  in the United States, and in China we do have those famous schools like high school, junior high school, elementary school; so everytime you attend the school, you have to pass the test. You have to take the test. So the pressure of the test is really really high, but except that the system is almost the same. But the way we attend school is like to pass the test.
Me: So, do a lot of people get a chance to go to college in China?
Ani: I think eight percent of high school students have a chance to go to college.
Me: Is it expensive? More expensive than here?
Ani: No
Me:  That is really nice. And, what is the most famous food in your country?
Ani: Noodles, fries you know Chinese culture has a lot of culture. We have a lot of famous food.
Me: Ok, it was a lit bit easy for you, and I heard a lot of people say that noodles are the quickest menu for students.  Most of the time, students are busy and they do not have time to cook; so it was very nice for you because like you mentioned noodles and here a lot of students do like noodles. Even me, I like noodles.
Me: What are your meals like back home? Like size, do you have big size or small?
Ani: Our meals are not the same like the US. Everyone has an entry in front of  you.  We have like a couple dishes in the middle of table, and each one has maybe a bowl of rice noodles. We share the dishes in the middle of the table. Like in my family we have three people; usually we have like three dishes and soup. All the things we have and we have a bowl of rice. Everyone will have a bowl of rice. And like here, we have three meals a day.
Me: How do you say it?
Ani: Three meals a day, like breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Me: Ok, I got it thank you very much. And what are the holidays you celebrate in your country?
Ani: We celebrate the spring festival. Have you ever heard about that?
Me: No
Ani: The spring festival is the first day of the Chinese calendar because we have our Chinese calendar. So January first of the Chinese calendar is our spring festival and that happens in the end of January
 or maybe the beginning of February usually.
Me: Ok, so besides the spring festival what is another holiday you celebrate?
Ani: We have different holidays, like we have very several traditional holidays and we have holidays with that like the spring light festival, moon light festival and the dragonball festival.
Me: Ok, how do you celebrate those holidays?
Ani: We have many ways to celebrate them in different areas and the way we celebrate them are totally different. So it is hard to explain, but during the spring festival everyone in the family  gets together having a dinner. That is not a small family. That is all family  from grandparents, parents; like in my generation, all my cousins will get together in my  grandparents' home and have dinner. And at midnight, the relatives who are older than you will give you a small red bag with the money inside. So that is really good. Right? So I can get a lot of money from them.
Me: So how often do you celebrate it?
Ani: Once a year.
Me: The way you explained about that holiday, it seems like thanksgiving holiday.
Ani: Thanksgiving is our spring festival.
Me: So you guys celebrate thanksgiving holiday?
Ani: No, not the spring festival, it is the moon light festival. The time is like as the middle of the autumn, and we celebrate like we just family stay together and  have dinner. We have  the moon cake. We have a tradition called moon cake just like thankgiving where they have turkey here.
Me: Ok, and what are the differnt religions in your country?
Ani: There are a lot of different kinds of religions in my country: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam. The others are like the Taoism and the other small religions because most of  American people will put those small kinds of religions in with the Buddhism, but I do not think that is the Buddhism.
Me: Ok, and what is the most predominant religion?
Ani: Most of people in China do not have a religion. We do not believe in anything.
Me: Can you tell me about your country child policy?
Ani: We have a one child policy in our country. Basically the policy is like every family. Like one couple only can have one kid. You cannot have the second, but there are also different cases because both of the parents are single children in the family, you can have another one. And if the first kid has a disability, you can have another one. And if you are in the countryside and have to do very hard farm work and the fisrt child is a girl, you can have children until you have a boy.
Me: Ok
Ani: Yeah, there are so many different cases like you can have a second child.
Me: So, you meant if the couple has as the first child a girl, they can have the second one.
Ani: Yes, not every family, just very very few families like those who have to do really hard farm work because most of people in China are living in the city; they do not have to do any farm work.
Me: Ok
Ani: Yes, maybe they have to go out. They are like fishers; they go out for fishing because they have the tradition that girls cannot step into the boat. Otherwise it is a bad luck, so they can have kids until they have a boy.
Me: Ok.
Ani: But that is very vey small area of China; most people just have one child.
Me: What part are you located in?
Ani: I lived in the south part of China.
Me: And do you have siblings?
Ani: No, I do not.
Me: So, you are the only child.
Ani: I am the only child. Both of my parents are not the only child in their family, I am not disabled, we live in the city , we do not have to do the farm work.
Me: Can you tell me what kind of punishment is given to people who violate the child policy?
Ani: Mostly is a gauge of sum, a big sum like maybe seven thousand  US dollars. The others are like if you are working in a company or on some farms run by the government or you work for the government, you will be fired if you have another kid.
Me: That is really sad. Do men and women have the same legal rights in your country?
Ani: Almost the same, but we cannot imagine any equal human rights in China.
Me: Ok, yeah that's nice. And what is the legal age to get married in China?
Ani: For men, it is 23 years old; for girls, it is 20 years old.
Me: Ok, thank you very much, Ani, and thank you for providing me this useful information.
Ani: It is ok, it is my pleasure.
                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                      Chancelvie-Louolo


                                                                                                                  






                                                                                                       ENG 191 section 27


                                                       Before the interview


              Firstly, I have done my research before the interview because I wanted to learn about China just to make myself comfortable and also to have knowledge of the topics on the day of the interview.  After I have done my researsh on the internet and in books that I had gotten at the library, I was so interested about what I had read and formed all interested points into questions. Secondly, I went to Atwood one week before the interview to find two or three Chinese students. I wanted to have at least two students just in case if one of them could not make it; I could still do my interview assignment counting on the second person. It was not easy to find international students from China because most of the students that I approached the first day were not able to make it. I went back to Atwood  two days after. I was lucky that day; I met one of my former classmates who was with two of  her friends who were from China. These two Chinese girls, Ani and Lee, were so nice; they accepted to be interviewed after I asked them if they would be willing to let me interview them. I have told them that I was available on Friday and Saturday. Whenever they were ready, they could let me know by text messaging an hour before the time we could meet at the librabry. Friday I woke up early in the morning to get ready because I did not know about the time or the day they were willing to meet because both had classes on Friday and had a busy weekend. It was hard for them to set up an appointment.  On Thursday, I took an audio recorder at the library even though I did not know the interview day with Ani and Lee, but I wanted to have everything that I needed for my interview. Finally, Ani was available on Friday but Lee could not make it. I got at the library thirty minutes early and booked one study room before she arrived.

                                                    After the interview

           I thought that the interview was well. I did learn a lot of things concerning China from Ani. It  was really interesting because this interview was our first interview, so we were also excited to discover what an interview looks like. Something that I thought was interesting was when she explained about the spring festival holiday. She said that all family members get together and have a dinner. The youngest child gets money from older relatives and cousins. Another thing that I thought was more interesting was the way she explained about the child policy in China. She said that China has a one child policy, but there are some cases that people can continue to have children after they already have one. Farmers and fishers who have as a first born girl can continue to have children until they get a baby boy because parents need boys to help them with the farm work or fishing. And also, if the first child  is a girl with disability and both parents are single children, they can have the second child. She also said that people who violate the law have to pay a sum of seven thousand US  dollars; and also they get fire if  they are working in companies run by the government. I thought that was not fair, and asked Ani after the interview. why should not  the government let them at least keep their jobs? She said that is the only way they can stop the population increase in China.
                            

                                                         Country report

               China is located in eastern Asia, China is the world third largest contry after Russia and Canada. China covers 3.7 million square miles; and its the world's most populous country with a population of over  China is 1.3 billion. Beijing is the capital of China. China's climate varies according to the region. The Chinese government have been described as communist and socialist. The country is ruled by the communist party of China. The country has administrative control over 22 provinces, and consider Taiwan to be its third province. China recognizes fifty distint ethnic group. The largest of which are the Han chinese, who constitute about 91.51 of the population. China is the third most visited country in the world and has the fatest growing major economy in the world. China is developing its education system on science,mathematics and engenering; in 2009 it produced over 10000 Ph.D. It has has the largest number of active cellphones of any country around the world; and also the world largest constructor of new airports. China has a policy, known as "one child policy" that is resisted, particularly in rural ereas because of the need of agriculture labour and a traditional reference for boys. China has the longest combined land border in the world measuring 22,117 km from the mouth of the Yalu River to the golf of Tonkin. The country shares maritine bounderies with South Corea, Japon, Vietnam and the philippines. This country has diplomatic relations with 171 countries and maintain ambassies in 167.

                                                        Work cited:

 Fong, Vanessa. Only Hope Coming of Age Under China's One-Child. California: Standford,  204. print.

Salas, L. perdie. Countries and Cultures: China. Minnesota: Mankato, 2002. print.