Interview

Interview

ME: Well Dan, can you tell me a little bit about yourself to start off with?

Dan: Yes, my name is Dan, imp from Germany, and I’ve been here for two months, and imp studying finance and marketing are my majors and this is my last semester.

Me: Family in Germany, do you have any brothers or sisters, who do you live with?

Dan: Yes, I have a younger sister. She just graduated from high school, and she still lives with my parents. I’m from the north of Germany, Hannover. I don’t live there anymore since imp studying in Munich, in Ingolstadt. Your partner university.

Me: What’s the biggest difference with college here and college in Germany?

Dan: I would say the biggest difference is that here there are so many assignments and quizzes and exams during the semester and in Germany we just have one final exam at the end of the semester. It’s really a huge difference, because here you have to work continuously and in Germany you just start one month before the exam and study day and night, so that is the biggest difference.

Me: What one do you like better? Do you feel you learn better here or in Germany?

Dan: Good question, I have to say that I really like the system here. I got to admit that before the assignments and before the quizzes, imp like ahh damn I wish I was in Germany and have just one final exam because now its October and I wouldn’t have to worry about it already, but after I did the quizzes and I did the assignments and I handed them in, it’s a really good feeling because you feel that you are learning a lot.

Me: Was that a though thing to get used to right away?

Dan: The first month.

Me: Let’s talk a little bit about Germany, what are some big traditions, holidays, customs that you guys have there?

Dan: Well we have Christmas, as you do, we get the presents on the evening of the 24^th

Me: Christmas Eve, all right.

Dan: And then we have new years with fireworks, that’s how we celebrate it. That’s the only time of the year when you can get fireworks in Germany.

Me: Otherwise they are illegal all year long?

Dan: Exactly, another big holiday is Easter and we have the Easter rabbit, and he walks around and puts eggs in the ground and it’s for the little kids to pick up eggs but I still like doing it.

Dan and me: hahaha

Me: How about the Christmas markets? Are those pretty big in your hometown? Do you go to those as a family?

Dan: They are pretty big in the big cities. There is a famous one in Nuremburg. That’s really the biggest one in Germany it’s very famous and it’s also famous for the candy. A very special candy.

Me: A very good candy?

Dan: Yes, a very good candy, like little hearts, very special candy. It’s very unique and you only get it at the Christmas time and we aslo, which is very special, heat up wine.

Me: Heat up wine?

Dan: Because when it’s cold, not as cold as Minnesota, Germany is pretty cold, the heated wine like warms you up and it’s usually a group thing, you go there with a lot of people.

Me: Friends mostly?

Dan: Friends and family, yes.

Me: So it’s more like a social gathering then?

Dan: Good explanation

Me: Oktoberfest, been there? Want to go there? Tell me a little about it

Dan: All right, Oktoberfest is in Munich, imp from the north, so it is a long distance, which means I have not been to the Oktoberfest before I started my studies in Munich, near Munich and Ingolstadt. And I’ve been there my first time last year and it was pretty wild and pretty crazy, and I went there with my leather pants on cause like it even supports this tradition in Germany and makes you fit into the crowd of crazy Bavarians. I would almost say it’s a huge mixture of people from all over the world and they just celebrate and have a great time. I have to admit the drinking beer part plays an important role.

Me: You said something about crazy Bavarians, so would you say people from different parts of Germany are different? Or you guys don’t get along, similarities, differences?

Dan: Bavaria is for sure unique. Many people from other states have a stereotype of Germany with leather pants and traditions and drinking beer and socializing, which is only happening in Bavaria. The other parts of Germany don’t have such a strong tradition. Not so much unique customs.

Me: They’re modernizing more?

Dan: Yes, exactly. They don’t have anything to identify with like people in Bavaria. I like Bavaria so much, imp from the north where there’s nothing comparable going on. And I like Bavaria for exactly this reason. Holding up the traditions and showing it to the rest of the world.

Me: Just rich traditions down there. You were talking about beer earlier, I know it’s a pretty big thing in Germany; do you have anything to say about that, the drinking age there, is it good or bad?

Dan: That’s a hard question since you guys can drink 21. We can start at 16 and other alcohol at 18. So we start getting in touch with alcohol at a pretty young age. Since imp 22, I go to the bars here downtown, and I just have to say that the life or the….

Me: …atmosphere…

Dan: …the atmosphere in Germany is different at my age group.

Me: Wilder or less wild?

Dan: less wild, since we started so young, we aren’t going as crazy as people here anymore. They just make use of the fact that they are 21 and can drink legally. Like us 20, 21, 22 is just a thing to socialize, like we go to watch soccer, which is another big thing in Germany, and have a beer, not for the….

Me: …getting drunk…

Dan: …exactly, the socializing.

Me: Soccer, did you play any sports as a kid? I know soccer is pretty big, what impact did the World Cup have on Germany?

Dan: World cup, that’s a big, big, big, impact. As you said you guys have baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey. We have only soccer. It’s the bigger thing in Germany by far and I played soccer, used to play till last year when I got here, when we had the world cup in 2006, it was actually the first time for myself that I was really proud of Germany. Like I’m just seeing that here you guys play the national anthem so many times before any sports event and the flag, you have a lot of proudness but in Germany it’s because of the war, weren’t so sure about our country and I got to say we did a great job with the World Cup. We had a blast, like foreigners came. It was just a huge party. We did a very good job in hosting them. We got a lot of positive feedback. Which made us thinking very proudly about Germany and that’s really the first time I was thinking yes, it really is cool to be from Germany

Me: Proud to be a German again. So you said after the war, did that have a lasting impact? You said you weren’t really proud to be a German? Did it kind of put people down about their country? I know my professor said something about German flags aren’t really flown that much anymore because of the Third Reich and all of their propaganda?

Dan: Yeah, the flag thing, in every backyard or in the front of every house here you can see the stripes and stars, and in Germany I cannot come up with any house where there is a German flag in front of it, but during the world cup and after the world cup people put like little flags on their cars and drove around and just started to think about Germany as a country who should get over this past and we worked it out for such a long time. We have to get over it finally and start to be proud of ourselves again.

Me: Is there, I know that Germany it’s mostly white people, but is there any forms of racism, not towards skin color but different ethnic groups and stuff like that?

Dan: We have immigrants from Turkey. Which came over after the war to rebuild the country and the economy started to grow after the war tremendously and everything was down, like literally.

Me: And you needed cheap labor, right?

Dan: Yes, and the Germans, and because there were not so many left any more. People from Turkey got kind of asked to, to get over here and work in the steel industry and the coal industry. So many families came over to Germany and some of them never got really integrated, there was kind of a parallel society. Like went to Germany but kept up their traditions and culture and language. There’s a lack of communication, a gap between the connection of both cultures and both backgrounds, and the question is a very good one because if you ask a German. We are pretty afraid to say that there is kind of racism or anything because we cannot afford anything anymore. We did such a bad job with starting two wars. That we better be nice to everybody, but to be honest when you talk to close friends, there is a stereotype of Turkish people especially with the economy crisis and the jobs. People got unemployed. There were fewer jobs for less people and the Turkish people work for less money and so many Germans were like we are unemployed and they are taking our jobs away, but you would not meet many people who would actually admit it.

Me: All right, let’s shift back and talk about America. Where have you been so far while you’ve been here? What do you like? What do you not like?

Dan: I got to see New York and Philadelphia on the east coast. The Grand Canyon and then the west coast with Los Angeles and San Diego and finally I got to see the Midwest and what I’ve seen so far is, I’ve been on a road trip to Chicago. Which was awesome, we don’t have such big cities and skyscrapers. Such tall and modern buildings. I like the skyline of Minneapolis.

Me: Kind of over whelming seeing all the big buildings?

Dan: Yeah, like when I first got on Navy Pier and saw the skyline, I was like ecstatic. I could have stayed there for an hour.

Me: School going well so far this year? Getting good grades in America?

Dan: So I am getting used to it, in the beginning it was kind of different and you could tell that by the grades, but now I understand how the system works and I am getting better and better.

Me: Taking classes in English. With it not being your native tongue. Is it difficult when the professor is going over things a little fast?

Dan: There are defiantly some words I don’t like get immediately but then I don’t hesitate to ask and the professors here are very helpful and even after class if I, it only happened once, but I didn’t understand the whole topic and I went to the professor after class and he explained it to me again. It was really helpful and I was really surprised about the openness, and about the kindness of the professor.

Me: Are the professors just as nice and open to help in Germany?

Dan: Honestly not as much. They are nice and there are office hours. It’s just uncommon if you go there after lecture and be like could we go over this topic again. He would prefer you go to your classmates and just ask the students because I already explained it in the lecture.

Me: Americans and Germans, who are nicer, friendlier, and more helpful?

Dan: I meet so many, really nice people. Which I was surprised about myself. I came in with not too high of expectations. I knew that it would be a great semester here.

Me: One final Question here, Why America and why St. Cloud?

Dan: It’s my partner university from Ingolstadt and I meet people from St. Cloud that studied over in Germany, and we became friends over there, and we had a great time over there, and lived it up over there, and now it’s time for me to come here. I really love America. It’s a great place to be, and it’s very helpful to a German to improve my English skills and to just study at an American University. Which have a well reputation in the world. You don’t want to miss this when you have the chance.

Me: You said American universities have a high standard, would most people in Germany think that if you go to school in America that you are a smart kid?

Dan: It’s the experience of surviving at an American college, getting degrees from American colleges, taking classes at American colleges. Just broadens your horizon so much, and just gives you a completely different view on things that are going on in the world. It’s just an experience; you just don’t want to miss.

Me: I’d like to thank you for your time.

Preparations for the interview

For my interview I came up with ten questions along with three addition points of interest about Germany and its culture. My objective for the interview was to have Daniel Reese give me as much information he could about Germany and about being an international student. I wanted to learn about the pros and cons of the German and American university system. I also wanted to learn more about German traditions like Oktoberfest and the Christmas markets. I researched on the Internet about Germany and that is where I came up with my additional points of interest that I formed into questions during the interview. To record the interview, I brought in my computer and recorded the whole interview on GarageBand. I then sent the interview to iTunes so I could burn it to a CD.

How Did You Approach People?

To secure three people for my interview I simple asked the three German students in my economics class if they would be willing to let me interview them. Luckily for me, they are all very nice people and agreed to be interviewed. I asked them what times would work best for them to do the interviews because I wanted to make it as little of an inconvenience as possible.

When, Where, and How did you Conduct the Interview?

I conducted the interview with Dan at the coffee shop at the library. I went to the library about ten minutes before our scheduled 6:30pm meeting time to look for a good spot. There were no study rooms available so the next best alternative was the coffee shop. The coffee shop turned out to be a great spot for the interview. It was quiet and we had our own table to sit at. I conducted the interview by simple telling Dan that I have a couple of questions ready to go but the whole purpose of the interview is for me to learn as much as I can from him. After that, I started the recorder and we began the interview.

Whom did you Interview?

I interviewed Daniel Reese. Daniel is from northern Germany in the city of Hannover. Dan is 22 years old and will be graduated after this semester. He has one younger sister who just graduated from high school. Dan doesn’t live at home anymore since he left for college. He now lives in Ingolstadt, which is where he attends school.

Describe the Interview

I thought that the interview went very well. Dan was an excellent student to interview. He gave long thoughtful answers. Some of the areas that I thought were very interesting were when he was talking about Germany’s history. Dan said that because of Germany’s past mistakes, and the starting of two world wars, that Germans feel obligated to be nice to everyone because they don’t want to be remembered for their past mistakes. I asked Dan about racism and discrimination in Germany. He said that there are many Turkish people in Germany that came to rebuild Germany after the war. He said that the Turks brought their culture with along with their language and never really tried to fit in with the German culture. What I thought was most interesting about this was when he said that everyone is too afraid to say anything in public about this. He said that in conversation amongst close friends or family it would be acceptable to say that the Turks are stealing our jobs but never in public. This is the exact problem we have in the United States with illegal Mexican immigrants who come here and work for less. I thought that it was very interesting how you see people in America speaking out against this, but that would never happen in Germany. It was just one of the many differences I learned about between Germans and Americans.

Report on Country and Culture

Germany is a country in Europe. Germany is made up of 16 different states¹, each with their own customs, traditions, and dialects². The capital city is Berlin and is located in north east Germany. Germany is a member of the European Union and uses the Euro as its currency. The climate is temperate and marine². 82.3 million people live in Germany with about 19% of those people not being German². Germany is a huge economic powerhouse; it has the fifth largest economy in the world and the largest in Europe¹. It is one of the largest trading nations in the world. Germans enjoy a high standard of living with an average income of $35,400¹. The geography of Germany consists of low lands in the north and mountains in the south². Germany has a total land area of 357,022 square kilometers¹.

Germany has a very rich culture with some very unique traditions and celebrations. The most famous of all German traditions is Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest takes place every year at the end of September, running into early October. Oktoberfest lasts 15 days and was started back in 1810 when prince Ludwig was married and had a celebration for it². Today people come from all over the world to experience beer drinking at its finest. Another important event that takes place every year in Germany is its Christmas markets. All throughout Germany, in most cities and towns, you will find a Christmas market for the four weeks leading up to Christmas². Germans also like to play sports. The most popular sport in Germany is soccer. In 2006, Germany hosted the World Cup, and from my interview I now know that the World Cup brought back a lot of pride to the Germany people. Other than soccer, ice hockey and basketball are gaining popularity across Germany. Germans love their beer. There are over 1300 breweries in Germany². Drinking in Germany is seen as a social experience rather than the American way of partying. Germans are allowed to drink beer at age 16, and because of this, they view drinking differently in Germany than we do in America.

Works Cited

¹Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency. September 30, 2009. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gm.html (accessed October 20, 2009).

²German Missions in the United States. Welcome to Germany.info. http://www.germany.info/vertretung/usa/en/startseite.html (accessed October 20, 2009).