My first interview

Interview preparation

I am interested in watching the movie from Korea. When the teacher asks us to interview the people, I decide to interview the people who are from korea, because I want to know more information about the Korea. I have a friend, one of his friends is korean, her name is Yoon.

Actually, I have seen Yoon before, but we do not talk to each other. When I say I want to interview her, she is so glad to help me to do the interview. She has been SCSU for about 2 years. Then we arranged this interview at 7:00 pm, March 11. And both of us think liabrary is the fittest place for us to do the interview. We meet each other at the coner of the second of the liabrary. She does not want me to have a record, so I just can record what she said on my paper.

I organize the questions which I asked her include several parts: education, holiday, transportation, sport, food and religion. Because both of Korea and China are belong to Asia, most of the culture is the same.

Interview report

Yoon is come from Korea, like China, Korea also belong to Asia. So most of the culture is similar to China, just like some pronounciation of Korean is similar to Chinese.

During this interview, I asked Yoon many questions, they included education, holiday, sport, food, transpotation and religion. I find both of Chinese and Korean are allowed to school at age 7 to 8. And we have the same transpotation tools. Most of Korean are buddahist just like most of Chinese. But there is one thing make me feel surprised. The date of “Children’s Day” in Korea is different with China. The date in Korea is May 5^th, but in China, the date is June 1^st. I think it is interesting.

Country report

The full name of Korea is “Republic of Korea”, it is located in Northeast of Asia. There are ocean around three sides of Korea: the east, the south and the west. And Korea is an emerging developed country. The legal land scope of korea is the entire Korean Peninsula and the islands around the Korean Peninsula. The area of Korea is the 4/9 of Korean Peninula’s area. Its area is 99,600 km2. Since the 1960s, the Korean government implemented a new economic policy, it made the economic of Korea had a large development. This new policy made Korea become a medium developed country by one of the world’s poorest country.

The number of population of Korea is 50,087,000. (the end of January 2011). The main race is Korean. The number of population of Korean is the 99 percent of the whole population of Korea. It is a single nation state. The main language of Korea is Korean language. Most of the  pronounctiation of this language are from China. 10 percent of the pronounciation is from America.

The Korean national emblem:  

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It is from a flower named flos hibisci. The white symbolizes peace an pure. The yellow symboizes prosperous. The pattern of the middle symbolizes the traditonal culture of Korea. It states harmonious between people and nature.

There is a holiday connect with religion, Korean celebrate this day in April 8^th, people celebrate it for the born of Budda. Always, the people who are buddhist celebrate this day. There is another holiday called “Independence Day”, the date of this holiday is August 15^th. There still has a lot of other holidays in Korea. Many holidays is similar to my own country.

Interview transcription

Course: English 191

Interviewer: lian ll, Chinese

Interviewee:Yoon, Korean

Time: 7:00pm, March 10 at second floor of liabrary

Lian: Good evening, how are you?

Yoon: I’m fine. And you?

Lian: I’m good, so, how is your class going?

Yoon: It is busy, I have so many classes this semester.

Lian: Oh, I can understand, there are so many homework. Actually, I am interested in watching Korean Movies. Druing those movies, I find that children always go to school when they are young, I have a question, at what age you go to school?

Yoon: I went to school when I was seven years old, the legal age for Korean to go to school is 7 years old. Before we went to school, we always were sent to the children care center, it is a place for children play games together.

Lian: It is similar to China. Was there have some typical days for a child in your coutry?

Yoon: Yeah, I know there is a typical day in China for a child, it is called “Children’s Day”, right? In Korea, it is also called “Children’s Day”, but the date is different with China, we celebrate this day at May 5^th. During this day, there are many activitied for children to join in, and the parents will be with the children, I like this day very much when I was a child, because every “Children’s Day”, I would receive a gift from my parents.

Lian: Oh, really? It is amazing for me. In my opinion, I think the date for “Children’s Day” are the same day for the whole world. So, do you like sports?

Yoon: Not so much.

Lian: In China, the famous sport is Ping-pong. What the famous sport in your country?

Yoon: It must be football. When I studyed in Korea, every boy prefered to play football when they finish the class. It made them exciting.

Lian: Do you have religious beliefs?

Yoon: No, but my grandmother has. She is a buddahist.

Lian: Does she have any rituals in regards to her belief?

Yoon: Yeah, she will go to temple to pray. Sometimes, she also bring me to the temple for praying. I think it is interesting when I first time to go to do the pray.

Lian: How about the transportation in your country?

Yoon: There are many kinds of transportation tools in Korea, such as: metro, bus and taxi. I think it is convinient. How about China?

Lian: Even though there are also many kinds of transportation tools in China, the transportation in China is still so bad, because there are so many people in China, it is crowed. Have you eaten Chinese food before?

Yoon: Yeah, when I stayed in Korea, I had been to chinese restaurant in Korea, I ate cooked pork. It is so delicious.

Lian: It is sweet, for me, I like spicy food, in my hometown, the food is spicy. Do you like spicy food?

Yoon: I am afraid of spicy food, when I eat spicy food, I will drink much water. But I want to try the food from your hometown.

Lian: You can go to China during the summer vocation if you go back to Korea, I will bring to eat many delicious food. How do you think about SCSU?

Yoon: Actually, I think there is too cold. When the winter come, I even do not want to go outside. But I think SCSU is good, the tuition is not expensive, and there is a center for international students. I think it is convinient.

Lian: Yeah, but I also can not stand the windy there. Thank you so much for helping me do the interview.

Yoon: You are welcome. It is my pleasure. If you come to Korea, you can send email to me, I will bring you eat many Korean food.

Lian: Ok, thank you, good night.

Yoon: Goodnight.