Interview with an Immigrant

Locate a person who was not born in the United States and who lived a significant part of his or her life outside the U.S, then immigrated to the U.S. (A person who came to the United States as an infant will not meet the requirement for the assignment.) Ask the person's permission to use his or her name and quotations in the paper, and ensure that their name is spelled correctly. Use the questions in *"Resource 1: Intercultural Communication Interview." Review the questions ahead of time and think about how well your words and your accent will communicate with the person, depending on his or her facility with English. Find out about the person's experience as an immigrant. Write an essay of 500-750 words about the experience. Do not write it as a verbatim account of the interview. Use quotes as needed, but write the paper as an essay. Where did you meet the person? How long did you visit? What did you learn? Reflect on how much this experience stretched your comfort zone and how this observation could affect your intercultural communication. If you were going to do this assignment over, what could you do that would make it more valuable to you and, perhaps, to the other person? Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines. An abstract is not required. ***Resource 1 Prepare for your interview ahead of time. Consider if the questions you plan to ask might be offensive in some way. Consider the discomfort you might feel if you were from a different culture and someone asked you these questions. Be sensitive as you do the interview to the other person’s discomfort. Are your questions clear and understandable to him or her? Is your accent easy for him or her to understand? Is your word choice appropriate? When you are ready to begin, start by introducing yourself and then very politely say something like… “Thank you for allowing me to interview you for my Intercultural Communication class. Please allow me to ask you some questions that will guide our discussion. Feel free to add any information you feel will help me understand your perspective as a person from a culture different than the one I have experienced, living here in the United States for most of my life.” First, may I have your permission to quote you in my paper? If so, please tell me how to spell your name correctly and tell me the correct title I should use for you. 1. Where did you live? 2. What is the dominant language? 3. What are the other languages spoken, if any? 4. What are some common gestures, sounds, or symbols that the students would need to know if they wanted to communicate in your home country? 5. What is the dominant religion in your home country? 6. What are important customs or celebrations? 7. Are these celebrations based on religion, or were they originally? 8. Do any of these celebrations cause a conflict within you because of your faith? Why? 9. How are families organized in your culture? 10. Does one person take the lead role in decision-making in your culture? 11. How are children, youth, and the elderly treated in your culture? 12. How are decisions made in your culture? 13. Is there a dress-code that you should follow in your culture?