Melanie Folske
En 191.21
Abinash Khanal
Nepal
10-26-2009
In preparation for the interview, I first came up with the ten questions to ask an international student that we did for class. I later on added to these questions based off of ideas that other classmates had and more that I came up with. My questions were clear, yet broad enough so that the interviewee could expand on what they chose to say in response to them. One of them, for example, was “Tell me about the biggest differences you have discovered between America and your home country.” Next, I wrote objectives for my interview. I wanted it to run as smoothly as possible, so it was important to state the way that I wanted it to be. I knew that I wanted it to be professional, so to accomplish this, I stated that I wanted to be well-prepared with my questions, dressed up for the interview, and even to provide water for the interviewee. I also decided that these interviews should be held in a quiet and neutral environment, so I chose to book a room in the Miller Center Library. I decided that to record the interview, I would use my friend’s video camera. It was important to me to have something easy to use and something that wouldn’t suddenly stop working.
When we were told that we needed to interview international students, I began brainstorming about all of the international students that I had briefly met before—perhaps I had a class with them or knew them throughanother friend. I thought about who struck me as the most interesting person. The person that came to mind was my friend’s ex-boyfriend. I had had lunch with the two of them while they were dating and had hung out with them on my friend’s birthday. I knew what his name was and where he was from, but that was about it. The time I had spent with him I had enjoyed, so I decided he would be fun to get to know more through this interview. I added him on facebook and sent him a message asking if he would be willing to be interviewed by me and he said yes. He also asked if he could do anything else to help, and I brought up the fact that I’d also need 2 more Nepalese people to interview and he offered to ask his friends for me. Fortunately, his friends said yes, and I will interview them as well. I have never met them before, but I am really excited to see how different the stories will be from their interviews than they were from my first interview.
I conducted the interview on Monday, October 26th at 7:30pm. I got there at about 7:00pm to get the video camera and all necessary items set up. I met up with my interviewee in the Miller Center coffee shop and from there we went up to the room that I had booked- room 228. I had water ready for him as well as a copy of a few of the questions that I was going to ask throughout the interview. I told him that I’m here to learn about his country and his personal experiences about being an international student and that he didn’t have to worry about being too formal. He seemed to relax a little bit after that. I asked him if I could record the interview, and he said yes. We came to the agreement that we would keep the camera cover on the whole time and just record the audio. The interview went by smoothly—I would ask open ended questions and he would speak while I nodded and then left extra time after each question for him to add more. After he was done discussing his answers to my original questions, I would let one question flow into the next. I realized after the first five minutes that I was no longer nervous anymore, because it was merely a professional discussion about places and experiences; a discussion in which he was doing most of the talking and I was just guiding it along the way.
My first interviewee was Abinash Khanal. His name means “immortal” or “indestructible.” He goes by the nickname “Avi.” He is from a small town in Nepal, where he lived with his parents and sister and at boarding school. He moved to St. Cloud in August of 2005 for his higher education-college. He originally wanted to study aeronautical engineering but is now majoring in manufacturing and is considering also majoring in economics for a double major. As far as recreation goes, he enjoys playing soccer. Avi mentioned that the biggest difference between Nepal and America, in his opinion, is the food. He said that his favorite Nepalese food is lamb curry. He only gets to talk to his sister a few times each week on the phone and his parents only once each week. Since he has been here, he has only been home one time for about 25 days. He really likes Nepal because of its beauty, but felt it was necessary to come here to study. Making friends has been really easy for him throughout his time living here. His religion is Hindu. When I asked him to tell me about his religion he mentioned that even if he was offered one million dollars he wouldn’t convert to anything else, but after that was at loss for words and didn’t know how to explain the main beliefs of it.
The interview process from my vantage point was not at all what I had expected. I did not think at first that there would be so much work involved in preparing, conducting, and reporting the interview. It is a very time-consuming process and I have gained appreciation for people who interview others on a daily basis for their careers. I found, however, that although this process involves a lot of work, it is necessary to follow every step in order for it to be a success. The most important part was planning out the interview via the objectives. If the objectives were good enough, then they created a step by step process to follow, making it easier to conduct the interview. My first interview really moved me because I learned a lot more than I thought I would. It opened up my eyes to the fact that every day I walk by international students who have gone through experiences that we Americans can’t even possibly imagine because of how fortunate we are to live in the United States. I thought that it was very sad that most of his life has been spent away from his family because of boarding school or college. What also really forced me to pause and think was the discussion we had about arranged marriages. He said that his grandparents got married when they were around 10 years old and his parents did before they were 20 years old. Both of these marriages were arranged and his dad had only seen a picture of his mother before the wedding. This forced me to realize that other places don’t have the freedom that America has. I learned that reading about a country is like reading a fictional novel; it’s not until you meet a person from that particular country that you come to realize that what you have read is not only true, but you also gain the knowledge of specific examples to apply to it from the stories they shared with you.
About the country: Nepal is located in "Southern Asia between China and India." 1 For size comparison, it is safe to say that it is "slightly larger than Arkansas. Its climate varies from cool summers and severe winters in the northern areas, while the southern areas have subtropical summers and mild winters." 2 Nepal's population is approximately "28,563,377" as of "July 2009."3 The life expectancy of the total population is roughly "65.46 years."4 There are a few different religions in Nepal. “Roughly "80.6% are Hindu, 10.7% are Buddhist, 4.2% are Muslim, and 3.6% are Kirant (2001 Census)"5 As for the languages spoken in Nepal, "47.8% speak Nepali, 12.1% Maithali," and the rest of the population speaks "Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, Newar, Magar, Awadhi," and others. 6 The government type is "federal democratic republic." 7 Nepal has two national holidays: "May 29th is Republic Day and April 24th is Democracy Day." 8 The legal system is based on "Hindu legal concepts and English common law." 9 "Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world with almost one-third of its population living below the poverty line. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural products, including pulses, jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. The unemployment rate is roughly 46% as of 2008. Nepal's main industries consist of tourism, carpets, textiles, small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarettes, cement and brick production."10 Illicit drugs consist of illicit producers of "cannabis and hashish for the domestic and international drug markets. Nepal is a transit point for opiates from Southeast Asia to the West." 11
About the culture: “The customary greeting is to press one's palms together in front of the chest and say namaste ("I greet the god within you")”12 As for food, “Many Nepalis do not feel that they have eaten a real meal unless it has included a sizable helping of rice. Most residents eat a large rice meal twice a day, usually at midmorning and in the early evening.” 13 Nepal has a caste system to define the wealth of their people, sort of like our class system. “Although caste distinctions are no longer supported by law, caste relations have shaped present-day social stratification: Untouchables continue to be the poorest sector of society, while the upper castes tend to be wealthy and politically dominant.”14 As for gender roles: “Only men plow, while fetching water is generally considered women's work. Women cook, care for children, wash clothes, and collect firewood and fodder. Men perform the heavier agricultural tasks and often engage in trade, portering, and other work outside the village.” 15 If you are from Nepal, it is typical to have an arranged marriage. “They are the norm in the mainstream culture. Because marriages forge important social bonds between families, when a child reaches marriageable age, the family elders are responsible for finding a suitable mate of the appropriate caste, education level, and social stratum.”16. Another interesting cultural fact is “physical contact between the sexes is not appropriate in public. Although men may be openly affectionate with men and women with women, even married couples do not demonstrate physical affection in public.”
1-11:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html 20 Oct 2009.
12-16:
http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Nepal.html. 26 Oct 2009.
Melanie Folske
English 191 Section 21
Interviewee: Abinash Khanal
Country: Nepal
10/26/2009
M=Melanie, A=Abinash
M-First off, tell me your name and its meaning.
A-Abinash Khanal. It means immortal or indestructible.
M-Where exactly are you from?
A-I’m from Nepal-a little country between India and China. (It is) A landlocked country all around.
M-Do you play any sports or anything?
A-Yes I do, I play soccer a lot. I’ve played it my whole life--it’s about all I know how to play.
M –Do you do anything in the mountains at all?
A-I do go hiking sometimes, but haven’t done it a lot because I was in the dorms my whole school life-about 10 years
M-The dorms?
A-Like a hostile, a boarding school
M-So were you apart from your family that whole time?
A-In the boarding house, they wouldn’t let you go home, you can only go home once every 2-3 months, so it was pretty much friends and school, I guess. I was a troubled kid so my parents wanted to send me to boarding school when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.
M- A troubled kid, huh?
A-Yes, I was a lot of a nuisance.
M-How long did you live in Nepal before coming here?
A-Pretty much my whole life until 17, 18 years old
M -You’ve been in America since…
A-August of 2005
M-And did you always want to go to college here, or just…
A- I did not think about it until I was in 9th grade and then once you’re in high school you graduate and everyone studies abroad in the U.S, U.K, Australia, Canada, wherever. (more about that) I wanted to come to America and go for a higher education and so far I like it here.
M-At what point or age did you learn how to speak English?
A-If you were in a central boarding school, they automatically teach you English and the alphabet like when you are in kindergarten, so you learn how to spell and learn how to write your name at that time.
M-How old were you?
A-4 or 5 years old.
M-I can’t believe you had to learn it that early on, I figured you would’ve learned it later in your education.
A-Yeah we were punished at the school just for not speaking English—I’ve been beaten up a lot of times.
M-Beaten up? With a whipping stick or?...
A-Yeah, whatever the teachers could find. I told you I was a troubled kid (laughs)
M-I can’t imagine!
A-It was very common, my school was strict, kind of like a army school and if you did anything wrong, you’d be physically punished for it…(more discussion)
M-What is your area of study here?
A-I’m going for manufacturing , I think I’ll do a double major- maybe economics or something.
M-Does any of that interest reflect on living in Nepal?
A-Well first of all when I was applying for colleges I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. Things changed a lot after 9/11, so I started as mechanical engineering and didn’t like it and switched to manufacturing.
M-You seem very motivated.
A-Me? No! I don’t even like going to classes--the ECC building creeps me out. I’d rather just go to the library and just do my stuff
M-Off to a different subject, what do people from your country do for hobbies or for fun during their free time?
A-All I did was play soccer; I watched TV until I got yelled at. A lot of people during free time like to get together and spend time socializing; they’ll go to (the) neighbor’s house and talk and have a cup of tea.
M-Where is your favorite place in Nepal?
A-My hometown, it’s beautiful and there aren’t many people. I really like the weather—I can see the mountains out of my bedroom. It doesn’t get really hot, and when it does we get a lot of rainfall. We get rainfall for sometimes weeks at a time.
M-I don’t know about that…
A-I like rain but I don’t like the fact that it’s cold here when it rains. It’s nice when it’s hot out and rains (there)
M-And what do you miss the most about your hometown?
A-Hanging out with friends, my mom, my sister. (My sister is) The best friend I’ve got.
M-How often do you get to go back to see them?
A-Well, the four and a half years that I’ve been here I’ve gone back once—for 25 days, just because it’s so expensive (to travel).
M-Do you talk on the phone with them quite a bit?
A- I talk with my sister on the phone quite often. I talk to my parents once every week because calling Nepal is expensive.
M-What do you think is the biggest misconception you think Americans have about your country/culture?
A- That everyone there has climbed Mount Everest. (more elaboration) Not many people know where Nepal is; we have a lot of Europeans come over but not many Americans. My hometown is a small tourist town, I had only met a few Americans (until coming here) —not a whole lot of people know (much) about it (Nepal).
M-What have you found to be some major differences between here and there?
A-Food! When I first came here it was so much different because at home we use a lot of spices and here you have so many options but back at home we don’t have much variety.
M -Speaking of food, do you mostly just eat what’s here?
A-Over the years, I’ve just eaten what’s here, I don’t have a lot of time to prepare food from home.
M-What’s your favorite Nepalese dish?
A-Everything! Well—rice; and lamb curry is the best one. Try it sometime--it’s good!
M-What is your culture’s view of our country?
A-I guess your culture is a lot more open—you talk a lot. Our culture is not that open—kind of personal. If I talk to a boy and a girl about the same thing, it’s not that big of a deal (here), but at home, it is. American culture is much more fast-paced. Nepal is slow.
M-Where have you all traveled in the world or even just in the U.S.?
A-Mostly (the) eastern U.S.--Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York. I haven’t been to the west. I would like to go to California and Oregon. I’ve been to India but it’s so close you could just walk there. I like it there—it’s cheap stuff. The food is way cheaper, and it’s good food. They have a variety of food.
M-Does your mother travel a lot there for groceries?
A-No, where we live we have to travel 10-15 hours to get there. The highways are not good like they are here. About six hours here would be almost tripled here at home. The speed limit—here it is 75 miles per hour, there it is 45/35 miles per hour—it’s fast for us, but once we get here…
M-Tell me about the political system in your country.
A-I would say it’s really unstable because while I was growing up I have seen so many things in Nepal politically. I guess we are one of the most unstable governments in the whole world. When I was about ten years old, there was a civil war between the rebels and the government and the rebels took over the government. In ten years we had ten prime ministers, and we were supposed to have two. So you can imagine how unstable it is. That’s the one major thing that all the Nepalese people have felt about it because we are not politically stable. Once we are politically stable there are so many things that will go better.
M-Didn’t the leader die and...?
A-The king died, and his brother became the king, and it was stable for a couple years. The rebels were fighting but we didn’t have a lot of people killed; a lot of bloodshed. Over the years the king started taking political control over the whole system of the government. The political parties didn’t like it so the political parties got together with the rebels and overthrew the king, so that they could form a government. After the king was gone they formed a government but it was about money and power and greed, so…
M-What are the laws about drugs?
A-The healthcare system is not that efficient, but I mean…I don’t know it’s kind of hard for me to answer that. Obviously I have friends who smoke pot but you can go buy some weed—they grow it right in their house and then they’ll just sell it off.
M-And that’s legal?
A-It’s not legal by law but people still do it. I’ve seen people smoke it when I was in high school, but other than that cocaine and stuff I didn’t have any idea about—I can’t really tell you anything about it but yeah weed-- It’s just common you know—we have a national holiday to smoke. Shebaz, our god, smokes weed—he lives on weed, and the holiday is to worship him.
M-What’s the name of this holiday?
A-Shiva Ratri. Shiva is the name of the god and Ratri means night.
M-So are there any illegal drugs?
A-Marijuana is considered illegal, but theres no law for it, but if police catch you with it they’ll just take you to jail. It’s so ill-enforced but if you get caught with other drugs you’ll definitely get harsh punishment, but not as much as they would with weed. I’ve seen it on TV- they smuggle weed and hashish across from India. They just walk there.
M-Is there a legal drinking age?
A-Nope, I guess not. There’s no age, I drank when I was in 11th grade, but I used to drink when people came over to my place—my dad would give me a glass of beer and I would sit there just to socialize when I was in 7th/ 8th grade. (There’s) No drinking age, but nobody would dare to just drink and go home-you just don’t because you’re parents are too strict.
M- What religions are common in Nepal?
A-I’d say that most people 80-85% are Hindus, the next below that would be Buddhist, and we have some Christians, and some Muslims, but they’re minorities. We were considered as a Hindu kingdom until the rebels came into power and it became a secular country.
M-So do you fall in that 80%?
A-I do. (smiles)
M-Tell me about the religion. What does it stand for? What do you believe in?
A-It’s so hard to—I don’t know--I think it’s the coolest religion in the world, I’m so proud to be a Hindu. If someone gave me a million dollars to change it I wouldn’t do that. Hindu has a lot of negative aspects, but at the same time there’s a lot of cool stuff that you can actually get by. My religion would be—I don’t know—how would I describe it? I will pass on that one. I can write you an email about it if you want, once I think about it. I don’t really know how to explain my religion. If you asked me about Buddhism I could tell you about that but it’s pretty much everything is non-violence in Buddhism. Hinduism and Buddhism are really similar; in Hinduism we sacrifice, but Buddhism—they don’t sacrifice, they don’t kill any beings, but in Hinduism we do a lot of sacrifices for gods.
M- What about dating and relationships in Nepal? Is it about the same there as it is here?
A- Hell no. When I was growing up dating and relationships was kind of taboo. You don’t see a lot of people who would date. I mean, people would fall in love but there would be a lot of parents who wouldn’t know about it. Now, the younger generations they grow up but. It’s still taboo in a few places. There was a guy I know he was dating a girl from a different caste-they were in love they got married but her family would not accept her, so she was an outcast from her own family.
M-How old are people typically when they get married?
A-A funny side-my grandparents got married when my grandma was 7 and my granddad was 13. But over the years things changed. My dad was 20 and my mom was 17 when they got married so I think it was a decent age because then people go to school. Earlier they’d have to look over the family and go to school.
M-What age is considered to be taboo?
A-The whole idea of dating each other and falling in love.
M-You just get married? No love?
A-No love. My dad didn’t see my mom until they got married.
M-So it’s arranged?
A- Yeah-My dad saw my mom’s picture and that was it. You have to be in the same caste. I don’t personally like the caste system.
M-Well that’s about it. If there’s anything more you’d like to add, feel free to mention it.
A-I can’t think of anything more.
M-Thank you for your time—I really appreciate it!
