Establishing Rapport : Interview

Two weeks ago I got the opportunity to talk to one of the refugees at the Dorcas International  Institute of RI. She was very friendly and we got to talk for a bit before her next class. I decided to interview her. Her name is Sujata and she came from Nepal 4 months ago. The interview was done at her house, and I was very nervous because I didn't know what to expect. When I arrive to her house I knock on the front door and a male guy opened the door, I ask him for Sujata and he welcome me in. He ask me to take my shoes off and go into the leaving room. I was a little embarrassed because I they were eating, and I didn't want to interrupt , but that was the time she told me to go. One of her sons was watching TV on the living room. I was awkwardly standing there as I waiting for her. While waiting I noticed their house was not packed,  their living room had couches and big nice flat screen TV, not many things hanging on the walls either.  It was kind of empty compare to what I am used to.
A few minutes later she hustle me in into the living room and at the moment I realized they had visit, two white guys were sharing the table with Suiata's brother. Sujata's brother Jay invited me to the share the table with them and I sat , not realizing it meant I had to eat too. Two minutes later Sujata brought me a huge plate filled with delicious food that didn't contain any meat. As I was eating I got to learn many interesting things. The two guys once tutored Sujata's nephews, and became good friends with Jay. They were all eating with their hands, and told me that was part of the Nepali culture. Jay has been in the USA for 4 years, and has a pretty good English. I had assume he had learned English when he arrived here, but as I leaned later on my assumptions were wrong, he was actually an English professor back in Nepal. Sharing the table with 4 strangers wasn't as bad or awkward as I would have thought.

Once everyone was done, all the males when into the living room to watch a movie, and left us alone to proceed with the interview. It was a pleasure interviewing her.  I made few questions to which she gave me long, honest answers. What I noticed about myself at the beginning was that I  Sometimes didn't know how to phrase my questions to make them easier to understand as her English is limited but as the interview progressed we understood each other through examples, hand signs. I did struggle talking too, it was like my brain decided  to forget simple words. She is a very friendly, patient person which made the interview  very pleasant and sort of informal at one point. We got through it successfully, and I think the interview lasted for an hour and some more. Once we were done as I was about to save the file but my iPod died and I lost the entire interview. She said she didn't mind being interviewed again, and said that wanted to be my friend because she didn't have many friends yet. I was more than happy to accept her friendship.

I approached Sujata like I would approached any adult with respect and seriousness. Also, due to her limited English I had to talk slow, and sometimes I had to give examples of what I meant. Other than that I approached her as a fellow immigrant, I would tell her about similar experiences which made her share even more than expected. It was a personal approach.  We found our homelands, Nepal and Bolivia share some similarities in food and culture. As the interview progress I completely forgot that it was part of my research, I was completely engaged by her stories. I think that even though I forgot the professional aspects of the interview it allowed me to get so much more of everything she told me and even though I lost the recording and  stop taking notes, I can remember most of the things she told me.

The rapport was pretty good, she shared many interesting things about her experience, but there was some parts where I couldn't understand her so I had to ask her to repeat it and it would make her cut her answers shorter than before. She started giving long answers, but at one point we got stuck in a question to which she didn't know what to answer, which made us pause and the following questions received short answers. Once I shared some anecdotes of my own which made her share some of hers and help her open up again, driving the conversation to interesting subjects.  Like the fact that she used to be a kindergarten  and 2 grade teacher. Or she that she is happy to be in the USA because most of her family is here and in Australia. I think even though we are from completely different places and we have different religion, language, and traditions, here in the USA we share a common goal which brings us together―succeeding, and living a better life. She did open up her heart to me, unluckily my iPod decided to die making me lose the interview before I saved it, and I have to interview her again.  Hopefully I can get the same wholehearted answers the second time .