Ethnographic Interview: Perspectives From Another Culture Anthropologists learn about culture and values from often wide-ranging material collected in interviews. This project gives you a chance to do an ethnographic interview and, at the same time, learn something about how an international student views American culture, San Francisco, and USF. Interviews are an important tool for discovering cultural perspectives. They are sometimes hard to do, as informants have a way of talking about things that interest them and simply gliding over the things that the anthropologist wants to know. Good interviewing requires maintaining a balance between just letting the informant talk and finding ways to get him or her to focus on the questions you want to pursue. Procedure 1. Create an Interview Guide, which is a list of questions that you want to ask your interviewee (see the hand-out on developing an interview guide on Canvas). Divide the questions into categories so they are organized. 2. Discuss the questions you want to ask with someone. Discuss the kinds of things you want to know in trying to understand the experiences of an international student in this culture. For example, in broad terms, why he/she came to America, and to USF. What he/she expected and how those expectations differ from what he/she found. His or her adjustment or adaptation? What has been difficult getting used to? Impressions of the U.S., of USF, and of American university education generally. The article that was assigned by Natadecha-Sponsel will familiarize you with some of the issues facing international students and international faculty coming to the US. 3. Contact the student you want to interview (it must be someone you do not know and it must be someone who has not lived in the U.S. prior to coming here for college) and arrange a date for the interview. Let him/her know it will take about an hour. Meet in a place of his or her convenience. If the student has doubts, assure him/her that the interview is anonymous, that nowhere will his/her name appear, and that you are doing the interview for a class assignment (and, hopefully, because you are interested in the experiences of international students at USF); you may also tell the student that he/she may email the professor (rk
