Describe the preparations.
My preparations all started in class. We started by coming up with a set of core question to be ask, and added some of our own to these. Then I arranged my questions in a sequence that I thought would help the interview flow. Kind of group the types of questions all together so to say. After this I found and interviewee and set up a time to interview. I had to go to Wal-Mart to purchase a recorder to help with the transcribing. I learned how to use the recorder before I had to use it so I knew it would work. This also allowed me to seem like I knew what I was doing since I didn’t have to learn how to use it in front of my interviewee. I was lucky enough to find an older person, because they helped feed me a lot of information during the interview process that was new to me.
How did you approach people?
I was shopping at Wal-Mart when I ran into someone from my home town. They had a German teacher with them, so I asked her if she had any spare time for me to interview her. Sometime you just get lucky.
When, where, and how did you conduct and record the interview?
I did my interview on Wednesday, February, 23rd. It took place in the house of the people that she was living with. I recorded the interview on a recorder that I had bought. I tried to conduct the interview in a calm setting. She was in a place that she felt comfortable so I just let her talk while I listened.
Whom did you interview?
Tanja Rall
Describe the interview. What did surprise you?
The interview was kind of fun. I was nerves at first because I had never done one so I didn’t know how it would go. I was forced to step out of my comfort zone and experience a new thing. Tanja was really nice and helped me out to make me feel comfortable even though I was supposed to be doing that. I was surprised that it was kind of harder than I thought. I was almost through my entire question and was only fifteen minutes in. Overall it was a new experience. There were some bumps along the way, but it’ll be interesting to see if I can improve myself and my process for the next one.
Transcribe the interview.
CHRIS: So why don’t we start with what your name is?
TANJA: My name is Tanja Rall.
CHRIS: So when did you guys fly in?
TANJA: We arrived here on Thursday night no Wednesday night in Minneapolis spent a night there in a hotel, and came to Melrose on Thursday night.
CHRIS: So did you guys take a bus up here then?
TANJA: Right we did.
CHRIS: Did you guys get dropped off at the school?
TANJA: Let me think! Actually at the city hall.
CHRIS: So how many students did you come up here with? And where are they staying?
TANJA: Twenty, and they are staying with other family’s around here.
CHRIS: These are the questions I’m going to ask or at some point kind of try to go over. Just so you have a copy kind of. How many members do you have in your family?
TANJA: My parents passed away a long time ago when I was little. I have two brothers. Two older brothers one is ten years older the other is seven years older. One of them is married and has one child. The other one is not married. Ok, I have one son Espen. I have a husband.
CHRIS: Is he back in Germany then? Or no?
TANJA: He’s back in Germany yes.
CHRIS: What city are you from?
TANJA: Berau, it’s close to Baden Baden. It’s in the south of Germany.
CHRIS: How big is it?
TANJA: We have a bout twenty thousand inhabitants.
CHRIS: What kind of government is there in Germany?
TANJA: We have a democratic system. It’s called federal democratic republic. So we have a chandler and ministers and the chandler gets elected by the people every four years. In real short the Germany system. We have like a federal system. Like sixteen states.
CHRIS: How big are the states then?
TANJA: Well I can give you this idea if you take Minnesota and Iowa together that’s about the size of Germany. So it’s not really a big country.
CHRIS: Within your family who takes care of your finances? Like paying your bills, and stuff like that? Is that something typically in Germany is a male role or does it matter?
TANJA: It’s pretty equal I think. When it comes to my family my husband takes care of that because he used to be a bank clerk. But other than this it’s pretty equal. We both have a job and both take care of the financial things.
CHRIS: So does he still work at the bank now?
TANJA: No, at the moment he is studding in college. He quit working at the bank and said that he wanted to become a teacher. He wanted to do like further education, so that’s what he did. He started at the age of twenty seven.
CHRIS: So you’re a teacher now too right?
TANJA: Yes.
CHRIS: Was it hard to find a job out of college at all?
TANJA: No that was not really hard at all. But it’s going to be harder in the future. Because we have enough teachers now and in the future it’s going to be harder because we have enough teachers now.
CHRIS: So what school do you teach at then? What’s the name of it?
TANJA: It’s called Win deck-Gymnasium we have about sixteen hundred students. It starts at fifth grade and stops at twelfth grade. Then the students leave school and are ready for college.
CHRIS: Do they start before fifth grade at all?
TANJA: O sure yeah, we have elementary school. At the age of three you start with what we call early kindergarten. That’s the same as the preschool you have here. You start with preschool I learned that now. We start with kindergarten at the age of three. It’s kind of required almost every kid goes there. At the age of six they start future elementary school like it is here I would say.
CHRIS: Ok so what are core classes then that students have to take to graduate?
TANJA: It’s a completely different system in Germany. You cannot really choose your classes. But they are given classes and you have to take them, and almost every student has to take the same classes. So you can hardly choose any classes.
CHRIS: Does your family have any yearly traditions that they celebrate? Or like things that you do every year within your family?
TANJA: What it is typical to do in Germany is to celebrate Christmas with your family. You can compare it to here you will meet your family members. Also the family members that live far away from you, and not really close to you. We give gifts and present on Christmas Eve the twenty fourth. I think you guys do it one day later. Yeah, this is how we celebrate for sure.
CHRIS: What do you or your family like to do for fun?
TANJA: Sports, yes that what we do for fun. We like to do sports he already did some running competitions just for fun of course. Just for the little ones. (Referring to her child) We do running, cycling, and swimming. I’m still a member of a swimming competition team, and I still sometimes do competitions. Not often anymore because I’m becoming too old, and not enough time to practice. So this is what we do for fun.
CHRIS: Do you guys play soccer over there too?
TANJA: Yep. Soccer is a big deal in Germany definitely it’s the most popular sport, soccer. And almost every boy gets to play soccer sometime. Yeah that’s what you could say big deal in Germany, soccer. We have a lot of soccer teams but it’s not like you guys do at school. You have a soccer team at school. We have more like private clubs or teams outside or school. We don’t have a sport system like you do here.
CHRIS: Do they have other kinds of clubs too?
TANJA: Yeah, we have all kinds of clubs, tennis, swimming, hand ball, volleyball, and soccer; yeah this would be the most common ones.
CHRIS: What the climate like where you live in Germany compared to here in Minnesota?
TANJA: Well here you have continental climate and the weather changes pretty quickly. And that’s not the case where we live. Like forest areas are because its milder climate doesn’t get that cold in winter, and I don’t think as hot in summer. We have about zero or minus five C the coldest, and about forty C the hottest you’d have to look it up I’m sorry.
CHRIS: So do you guys have lakes that freeze then too?
TANJA: No, we have lakes but they don’t freeze.
CHRIS: So was it kind a weird when you saw them here the first time?
TANJA: O definitely it was. We were on the lake the other day outside and we walked on the lake just because he wanted to see that, and it’s just strange to me to have a lake frozen and I’m kind of scared that I thought the ice was going to break. But Paul tried to get a hold of it with this special machine, and it was like this thick (holders her hand two feet apart) and still there was not water. So I figured ok I’m not going to break through on here.
CHRIS: So what do you all have going on this week then?
TANJA: Well we are at school for all the day. I leave here at about seven thirty, and I come back about three o’clock maybe. And then I have to take care of Espen my child of course. Then the day is over already. He usually goes to bed at seven or seven thirty. Yeah so days are pretty buys here. And sometimes we have like meetings with my German colleague with the students. For example today they had a scavenger hunt this afternoon and we and to take care of them to make sure they found their way back to school.
CHRIS: So it was off school grounds then?
TANJA: Yes. They had to find out for example what is the name of the mayor how much is gas. They were suppose too definitely walk around school yes.
CHRIS: So was there any problems keeping track of any of them?
TANJA: No they found their way back that wasn’t a problem. And some were pretty clever and found out some details on the internet.
CHRIS: So are you teaching class in Melrose right now too?
TANJA: No, where not teaching class. Basically what I have to do is take care of that the students go to classes and they don’t skip which they won’t, because they have a tight schedule. I’m basically free in the morning. We meet my German colleague and I and plan like the trip to Chicago. What we could all do there museums and everything, this is what we do in the morning.
CHRIS: So you guys are going to Chicago? You going anywhere else too?
TANJA: We go to Minneapolis Friday to see the basketball game at night. Then we go to the mall of America so students can shop.
CHRIS: Are they pretty excited about the mall of America?
TANJA: I think they are yeah. We have malls in Germany too but probable nothing like that big. Yeah that one’s pretty big.
CHRIS: Before you came over here what you thought the United States would be like was it totally different?
TANJA: O yes definitely. That was probable because was sixteen of seventeen when I came here. The image I had about America was California and fun, and warm weather. But not daily life. And then of course back then it was kind of a culture shock when I came here. Because it was just of like normal everyday life, and I didn’t expect that for some reason being naive and being young. Thinking of this American dreams things, so that was quite a disappointment back then. Was a little different I guess then how it actually is here. It turned out to be very different yes. That was twenty years ago now and spent one year in Missouri. In a rather small town called Washington next to St. Louis. I was a senior in high school back then.
CHRIS: So what year was it that your first came over here?
TANJA: 1991.
CHRIS: Are there a lot of cultural differences between Germany and the United States? Like the way people interact with each other or how people treat family?
TANJA: People over here are more open minded and more outgoing then Germans are. We are more reserved and more shy, and if you come over here everyone say hi to you and just very open. We are not use to that, we don’t get in touch that easily.
CHRIS: So is your family in Germany pretty close? Do they keep in touch with each other?
TANJA: I do with my brother, that’s probable because we grew up with our parents. I don’t know, the German normal family is very small. They have an average on 1.3 kids per family. So it’s not a whole lot.
CHRIS: So you said you had two older brothers? What are their names again?
TANJA: Aundreoes and Juergen.
CHRIS: What do your brothers do for work?
TANJA: Aundrreoes is an engineer being responsible for quality requirements. It’s a private company, like a car company that produces all kinds of equipment for cars. And Juergen, let me think, he works for the community and is in charge of the water. The water yes, the clarity of the water.
CHRIS: So what’s the major economics that people do in Germany?
TANJA: The car industry would be a major branch in Germany. And other then this we are still the world championships when it comes to import and exports, and this is what Germany relies on. We don’t have a lot of natural resources like oil or something like that. So what we have to do is export all our products, like cars, throughout the world.
CHRIS: So what’s the car company?
TANJA: Mar cadies bens, BMW, Volkswagen those are sold all over the world.
CHRIS: Are there a lot of factories then?
TANJA: Yes and no. We have a lot of factors in certain cities, but what we do is thanks to globalization we have a lot of production companies in other part of the world. For example China, Mexico the eastern part of the world Russia. Cause people work there for less money. Yep, this is what we do. And we Germany say we have to take care of our educational system, because what we export is what we rely on. This is a big topic in Germany right now because our educational system is much criticized. There isn’t a lot of money anymore to educate the students in a proper way. This is a problem because we say we have to have this educational system to guarantee a high level of education a high quality of education so that people can sell their knowledge and skills.
CHRIS: So does the government help people who want to go to college?
TANJA: Basically college is free. We don’t have to pay such a high fee that you guys do over here. I know that some people will pay ten twelve fifteen thousand dollars. It’s free in Germany.
CHRIS: So is there like in the United States were students are required to go to school, is that the same in Germany?
TANJA: Even more then here in the united states. Her in America you are allowed to educate your child at home if you say you want to do that. This is forbidden in Germany you cannot do that. You have to bring your child to school. Age five it is expect that you bring your child to kindergarten, but it’s an absolute law that you bring you child to school at the age of six.
CHRIS: So is there a big main college that a lot of students go to?
TANJA: Yeah we have a few bigger cities, and that’s where you find colleges.
CHRIS: So what’s the main thing that students will go to college for?
TANJA: That differs it depends on where you study. We have different colleges, same as over here, and these colleges are famous for special majors. In south Germany where I live we have the big technical college of car school. That’s a bigger city, where they teach chemical engineer and technical engineer that would be the biggest branch. People from abroad come to study their too. They have a lot of Chines students there. A lot of classes are taught in English because of the international audience.
CHRIS: What are other exports besides cars?
TANJA: No I think that’s it really. I can’t really think of anything else. Since we don’t have a lot of natural resources which you could make things out of.
CHRIS: Do people do any kind of farming?
TANJA: Not as much as here, and not as big as here. You guys have huge farms, we don’t have that in Germany. Most of the farmers can’t afford farming for a living anymore. They might do it for a while once they’ve finished work at the company, and will do some farming, but it’s not for a living anymore.
CHRIS: So what do older people do for past time?
TANJA: What is pretty popular in Germany is for them to do short trips. They would go on a bus and ride around Germany. This is what they do often, but they would not go fishing.
CHRIS: Do you guys have some pretty big natural land marks?
TANJA: No, not really. And I think that comes from the problems of world war two. The Nazis and what not, and after world war two there was no Germany anymore. Your probable know that. So we don’t have a political culture not really. People are not really proud of being German. They are probable happy of being Germany, but not proud of being German. You would not find the German flag somewhere. They don’t display the flag that much. No not at all. If you do that you’re considered the Nazi, so you don’t do that. Here in the U.S. you see flags everywhere. When I was with my son this morning in preschool they would do a parade and the teacher would do up front with the flag and they would sing the anthem. I took some pictures and filmed that because that is really funny, for us.
CHRIS: Do you guys draw a lot of tourists in Germany?
TANJA: Yeah we do, especially from Asia. They want to see Berlin, because it’s pretty much a historical city with the berlin wall, and the divided city. All of that.
CHRIS: So did you notice anything different with racism over here?
TANJA: I was surprised and shock that there was such racism. I thought there was no racism because it is America. We have some cultural differences, but I would not call it racism. Because it just doesn’t go back that far in history compared to the United States, and I think the problem we have in Germany is that after world war two we needed a lot of guest protest. They would come from turkey, Italy, and Greece to support Germany to rebuild us. And those people would stay, so it’s like multi cultures in Germany now. We have a lot of Italian, Turkish, and Greek people living in Germany being immigrated pretty much. And then during the 90’s a lot of Russian people would come. This is a historical thing too, because before world war one a lot of people would immigrate to Russia, and they wanted to come back during the ninety’s when the Wars where over and the frontages where taken down, and people from the Eastern part of Germany would come to the western part again. So a lot of people would come over from Russia.
CHRIS: I know within our history classes in school they teach about the American view on stuff, but what does the history classes in Germany teach? What are some of the main events that they cover?
TANJA: Well you are taught history for eight years, so you learn a whole lot. You start in the ancient ages. Definitely you even take a look at Egyptian history. Then someday you will make it to French revolution and all that, but you wouldn’t really learn a lot about world history. That is a big deal.
CHRIS: So does Germany like China really strive for teaching children other languages? Does Germany try to teach other languages at a younger age too? Is that something that they wait tell their older to do?
TANJA: It starts at the age, actually in elementary school kids are taught French. Because we live about ten kilometers from the French boarder, so at the age six they start learning French. In other parts of Germany they start learning English at the age of six. Which is or course is very plain very simple English of French. When you enter fifth grade you really have a lot of either English of French classes. If you are at the Gymnasium where I teach which the highest level is. Our school system looks like this. We have a very simple school, it all starts at fifth grade, like a school for students who aren’t that good. They would learn on language, English. Then we have something in between called Auslen, where they’d learn two languages, and they’d finish school at the age of fifteen of sixteen. At the Gymnasium where I teach they’d finish school at the age of seventeen or eighteen about like you guys do and they’d learn three languages. Which is English, you have to learn English, and there is French Spanish and Latin.
CHRIS: So they learn all of them?
TANJA: You choose three languages so you can skip French, Latin, or they can skip Spanish, but they have to do three languages at least.
CHRIS: So the American diet is a lot of fast foods and stuff. So what’s different?
TANJA: This is our normal super (her boy is eating bread cheese and carrots). What we do different is our lunch is bigger, it’s a warm meal and is cooked. Then super is usual rather small a slice of bread with cheese or sausage on it. My overall all impression is that there’s a lot more of fast food over here. There are more of pop drinks. We will drink water and juice.
CHRIS: So you guys are more health there?
TANJA: I don’t want to sound rood. Let me put it that way, but it differs it is easier to eat health in Germany then it is here. What may be interesting is when we first came here last week my students where totally surprised and astonished because you have this all you can eat thing in restaurants. You get your drink refilled all the time we don’t have that in Germany. They were so amazed being in a restaurant for the first time and getting all that food and beverages drink and eat drink and eat and where all sick after that. So that’s different.
CHRIS: So you guys go back pretty soon then?
TANJA: We will be here tell March 11th so all together we will stay here two and a half weeks.
CHRIS: Was it a pretty long plain ride?
TANJA: Yes it was, forever. It was like nine hours from Germany to Chicago. Then another one and a half hours from Chicago to Minneapolis.
CHRIS: So do you have to fly to Chicago again before you leave.
TANJA: Yes five days.
CHRIS: You going to do anything fun their?
TANJA: We want to head cup tower and visit some museums the aquarium this is what we tend to do. And then the kids get to see china down and all that. They have a lot of fee time actually.
CHRIS: Well thank you for your time it was nice meeting you.
TANJA: Yes, Thank you.
Country Report-Germany
Germany is a country that is located Europe. Its size is relevant to the United State of Montana.1 Germany has roughly 82 million people who have an average age of 43 years.1 The capital city of this European country is Berlin. Germany is the second most populated country after Russia in Europe.1 This is crazy to think since Russia is so much bigger then Germany. This nation has a federal republic government with the chief of state being President Christian WULFF.1 Germany is the leading exporter in Europe of machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and house hold apliences.1 29.7% of Germanys work force deals with industries while another 67.8% works with services.1 Their economy is pretty strong which allows them to have an average income of 35,900 U.S. dollars.1 Germany was a major part of WWII. The country was finally united in 1990 after four decades of separation due to the division of Europe.2 The barrier of the Berlin wall was finally defeated. And the western economy and government system was instilled into the eastern part. This finally allowed Germany to become one, even though eastern Germany seemed to be the most successful economically.2The climate in Germany seems to be a lot nice then what it is her in Minnesota. Germany has cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers.1 Every country likes to play sports. Sports in Germany are a little different than it is here in the United States. The United States has a lot of sports interactions that are with school programs. In Germany most sports are done by private clubs. The main sports in Germany are tennis, basketball, handball, weightlifting, volleyball, golf, swimming, diving, and soccer.3 Germans seem to always be in shape. They don’t eat as much as we Americans do. This is probable why their average life span is 79.41 years, and that is higher than the 78.24 of the U.S.1 Overall, Germany is a very interesting country who has seemed to make lemons out of lemonade. Maybe it’s time for the U.S. to start taking notes.
References
1. Central Intelligence Agency, Initials. (2011, February 14). Europe: germany. Retrieved from http://www.cia.gov/library/puplications/the-world-factbook/goes/gm.html. On 2/26/20112. Cultural, Historical, and Statistical Country Information, Initials. (2011, February 28). Germany-history. Retrieved from http://www.countryreports.org/history/overview.aspx?countryryid=91> On 2/28/11
3. Asia Rooms, Initials. (2011). Sports in germany. Retrieved from http://www.asiarooms.com/en/travel-guide/germany/entertainment-in-germany/sports-in-germany/index.html> On 2/28/11
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