Revised Country Information (Japan)

Japan is located in Asia, contains of many islands. This county is close to China and Russia. Even though all the countries develop theirselves, besides Japan, this country has always kept its traditions and culture and never changed. The city that my interviewee came from is named Yokohama, and in the winter it snows over there, according to what she told me. The education system in Japan is almost the same as in the United States; however, the Japanese people tend to care about getting accepted at the first place. Based on what I understood from the research I did on Japan and based on what I understood from Yurie, getting accepted in the Japanese colleges and universities is usually hard. About their politics system, I found on the web that it is an elections and voting system there. Once you are 20 years old, you can vote. I also learned that the Japanese people do not need to know other languages than the Japanese one, except for those who work in big companies, they mostly tend to learn English since it is the global language and the economical language as well. The Japanese family structure is almost the same as the Saudi one that really interested me; children live with their parents even when they get around 20 years old. Their parents help them with their financial needs and make sure their kids concentrate on their studies in order to graduate and be able to find good jobs. The Japanese culture, besides many other cultures that interest me, is one that seems to me, as it is not that different from my culture. Many Saudies would not agree with me about this part, but when I researched about it and made an interview with Yurie, I realized that we have similarities between us. They tend to keep their traditions and culture, they believe that their food is the healthiest and the best, they raise their children until they get old enough to get married, and they concentrate on enrolling in college and get their financial problems solved by their parents. These are examples of why this culture interests me very much. And I chose Japan because it is one of the countries that I want to visit.

The Report On My First Interview

Last year, I lived in Shoemaker Hall, which is a residential hall on campus. As a resident there, I would eat in Garvey, where there were both American students and international students. I usually went there with my roommate and American friends. There, I get to see international students gather in a side. So, when I had this assignment, Garvey was the first place that I thought of in order to find international students who would be willing to accept having an interview with me. I had other places in mind, too; I thought about going to Shoemaker Hall or any other hall to find those kinds of students. However, I walked in Atwood heading to Garvey, but that Japanese lady, Yurie Ishii, was sitting in the lobby and reading a book. I walked close to her trying to think if she was Japanese or not. At that time, she looked at me and I smiled immediately, she smiled back to me. At that moment, I realized that I should introduce myself, and that is what I did.
I interviewed Yurie last Wednesday around 1:00 in the afternoon. When we had a little chit-chat, she told me that she is doing morning, afternoon, and evening classes this semester. She is majoring in Marketing and she told me how much she likes her major and how excited she is for the senior year to do the most important projects. She dislikes it when people ask her about her age, and I completely understood this part and never asked her when she told me not to ask her.
Telling me about the question that she does not like at all was not too shocking for me, but it was a response that impressed me for a while and made me realize that she is willing to give me the information I need without asking her some particular personal questions. Another thing that impressed me was when she said that she does not care about politics. I realized that she does not want me to ask her such questions. From the back ground research on Japan that I did last week in class, I got to the point that the Japanese people are not too happy about their politics system. Generally, people try to avoid what they do not like, and that is what Yurie did which was completely understoodable as well.
Here is the back ground information that I found about Japan which helped me understand the way Yurie responded to me instead of if I did not know anything about Japan at all.
- Location and statistics:
Japan consists of thousands of islands. Its closest neighbors are China, Korea and Russia. More than 50% of the country is mountainous and covered by forests. The population of Japan is about 125,000,000, including approximately two million foreign residents. Because Japan is located in a region where several continental plates meet, the country experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanoes.

URL: http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1000.html

- Politics:
According to Maciamo (Japan's Political System, 2004), The House of Representatives can be dissolved anytime by the Prime Minister (which is quite frequent), in which case by-election are called. Notwithstanding, the House of Councellors cannot be dissolved. And he also mentions that the legal age to vote is 20 years old.

URL: http://www.jref.com/society/japan_political_system.shtml


- Education System:
According to "The Education Japan Guide to Japanese Visas", the basic stage of Japan's education system is:
•Kindergarten
•Elementary School (shogakkou)
•Lower Secondary School (chugakkou)
•Upper Secondary School (koukou; koutougakkou)
•University
Although there are other options when enrolling in school there, these basic stages were taken from the British, French and US systems.

URL: http://educationjapan.org/jguide/education_system.html
-Family Structure:
Suzanne Tatikian concluded in the end of her article " Japan's Family/Household patterns", "Japan is primarily information age based as far as their family structure. Children are raised to work hard, take education seriously, and know that they can be what they want in life as long as they work hard. Also 70% of elderly people live with their family".

URL: http://www.csudh.edu/global_options/375students-sp96/Japan/FamilyHouseholds.html

My First Interview; Japan

On Wednesday, October 21st, I walked to Atwood in order to look for an international student who would seem as they are Japanese since the Japanese is the culture that I will be interviewing on, besides the other cultures that I want to learn about, whether through this assignment, this class, or anytime in the future.
I found a Japanese lady sitting in Atwood and reading a book. I thought of how I will introduce myself and how to tell her what I am looking for. Here is what happened between me and her:

-Interviewer: Hello there, my name is Mohammed. I’m taking an English class and I have an assignment which is to find an interesting culture and interview someone who comes from that one. Would you mind if I asked you where you are from?
-Interviewee: It is okay. I’m from Japan.
-Interviewer: Awesome! Actually I am interested in the Japanese culture, and I am glad that I found you! I am also looking for other students from other cultures, too, but I am planning on starting off with Japan.
-Interviewer: I don’t mind having an interview with you. I will do my best to give you the information you need for your assignment.
-Interviewer: I really appreciate that you are welcoming and being helpful with me. I honestly hate this assignment because I am afraid if I told you that I need to record it, you might get frustrated about it.
-Interviewee: If you are recording, it is okay with me. But without pictures or videos, I am sorry.
-Interviewer: No, no, only recording, and I will transcribe everything and nobody will listen to it except for me.
-Interviewee: Okay sounds good, let us start the interview. I have two hours left for my class to start.
-Interviewer: Oh don’t worry about it. I don’t think it will take that long. I will ask you these questions that you have in this paper (giving her a copy). I want this to be a lovely conversation not an investigation.
-Interviewee: (laugh), that is good. Now you make me relieved. I’m ready for the interview.
-Interviewer: First of all, which I should have asked you before, what is your name?
-Interviewee: My name is Yurie Ishii. Please don’t ask me about my age (smile).
-Interviewer: (laugh) No, I won’t. In my culture we never ask, except when we are about to date that person (smile). So, I know you are from Japan, but which city? And were you born there or somewhere else?
-Interviewee: I am from Yokohama. And I lived my whole life there until 2007 when I moved to the United States.
-Interviewer: Interesting. I would love to go to Japan someday.
-Interviewee: Maybe you will not like it, unless you like the cold weather like in here.
-Interviewer: My new friend, I am a champ; I live anywhere and I can get used to it as long as I am having fun. So do you only speak Japanese and English? If you asked me, I only speak Arabic and English.
-Interviewee: I speak Japanese, and I am in college now but I still learn English because it is really hard. In Japan, we do not need to learn other language for our daily life.
-Interviewer: Your English is clear enough to me, and I am a foreign student too, so I know what you mean. I know Japan is far from here obviously, but do you miss home? How do you contact your family and friends back there?
-Interviewee: I sometime miss my hometown and Japanese food. I often use Skype and other sources to contact with my parents and friends, but it is not enough because of the time differences between two countries. I know your country is far from here too, right?
-Interviewer: Oh yes I know what you mean, and I kind of have the same thing. My home country is far from here, too!
-Interviewee: Yes I have Saudi friends and they tell me about it.
-Interviewer: That’s wonderful. So how is the education system in Japan comparing to the American one?
-Interviewee: Elementary school, Junior high school, and high school systems are similar. Japanese children often go to a cram school or after-school lessons to supplement schoolwork, because many people think they should go to high level school for their future. The rules of Japanese universities are not so strict compared with American universities. In Japan, some people skip the class or work hard for their part-time job. People say “It is very difficult to enter the good university, but it is easy to graduate from the school once you enter a school”.
-Interviewer: This is so interesting. In my country some people have the same thought too, but most of us do not work until we graduate from college since our parents pay for us. Anyway, how do you like life in America? And where do you think it is better?
-Interviewee: I prefer to live in Japan. I can eat healthy food and stay with my friends who know very well about me rather than meeting new people because is hard for me.
-Interviewer: Well, I am a new friend of yours now, and you just made a new friendship! (smile). So besides all of that, how is the politics system in Japan?
-Interviewee: Thank you. Saudi guys are friendly and they make friendships easily, but like for me I am shy. Japan is governed by a Prime Minister and his cabinet. There is elections but I do not like politics or talking about it.
-Interviewer: That is fine. I understand. So tell me, why did you choose Minnesota? You told me it is cold in your home country but is that the reason why you chose this freezing state?
-Interviewee: I checked some items, such as peace of order, school fee, and my major. Then Minnesota fit almost what I need and what I can afford.
-Interviewer: Exactly; it is mostly about the cost because it is very expensive in other states. But if you have the chance, where would you move to? Why?
-Interviewee: I would like to move to another state like Florida because it is possible to know other people and state characteristics and to enjoy the beach.
-Interviewer: That makes sense to me. I might get sick of this cold anytime and decide to go somewhere warm even though I enjoy the snow. Since you moved to the United States, have you ever been laughed at? If so, what was your reaction and how did you deal with that?
-Interviewee: Fortunately, this never happened to me even though I was expecting it. If it happened, I might feel sad and maybe transfer to somewhere else. But the good thing is that Minnesota’s people are very friendly. -Interviewer: Yurie, you got me excited with what I knew. I am still interested to know what you are planning to do after you graduate.
-Interviewee: I’m studying Marketing, and I’m planning to go back to Japan and work for a global company there. I will see what happens that time because I cannot predict the future.
-Interviewer: Well, thank you very much Yurie. You helped me gain knowledge and friends. And if you ever have an assignment like mine which will give you a headache, please let me know if I can help. And let’s have lunch or dinner sometime!
-Interviewee: You are welcome, and thank you as well. Yes we should eat together! I have to go to class now so good bye.

And we exchanged numbers. This is pretty much what went between us in the interview, and took us somewhere around an hour. I had fun doing it and I look forward to interviewing the second person and hope it will turn to be as great as this one.

Japan As My First Interest

- Location and statistics:
Japan consists of thousands of islands. Its closest neighbors are China, Korea and Russia. More than 50% of the country is mountainous and covered by forests. The population of Japan is about 125,000,000, including approximately two million foreign residents. Because Japan is located in a region where several continental plates meet, the country experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanoes.

URL: http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1000.html

- Politics:
According to Maciamo (Japan's Political System, 2004), The House of Representatives can be dissolved anytime by the Prime Minister (which is quite frequent), in which case by-election are called. Notwithstanding, the House of Councellors cannot be dissolved. And he also mentions that the legal age to vote is 20 years old.

URL: http://www.jref.com/society/japan_political_system.shtml

- Education System:
According to "The Education Japan Guide to Japanese Visas", the basic stage of Japan's education system is:

• Kindergarten
• Elementary School (shogakkou)
• Lower Secondary School (chugakkou)
• Upper Secondary School (koukou; koutougakkou)
• University

Although there are other options when enrolling in school there, these basic stages were taken from the British, French and US systems.

URL: http://educationjapan.org/jguide/education_system.html

-Family Structure:
Suzanne Tatikian concluded in the end of her article " Japan's Family/Household patterns", "Japan is primarily information age based as far as their family structure. Children are raised to work hard, take education seriously, and know that they can be what they want in life as long as they work hard. Also 70% of elderly people live with their family".

URL: http://www.csudh.edu/global_options/375students-sp96/Japan/FamilyHouseholds.html

Some Ideas For Suitable Goals Beyond What I Already Have

During the interview, I will be working on some important points that will lead me to my goals. I can categorize them into the following two fields:

I. I will:

1) Joke around and start off with things that will sound interesting.
2) Be as friendly as possible; they will probably want to become Friends with me as well.
3) Tell them things about myself so that they will comment on them, and they will probably share with me more about theirs.
4) Try to avoid asking too many personal questions if they seemed not comfortable with that. As a result, they will appreciate my understanding and for being respectful to them.



II. I will not:

1) Laugh at them if they told me something weired about their country/culture.
2) Insist on asking a certain question that they are trying to avoid.
3) Talk more than I listen; I am the interviewer not the interviewee.
4) Be rude to them when comparing my culture and theirs.

Group Presentation PPs 560-570

51 AReviewing a web site:- They can be created by anyone.- They don’t have standards for the design, so click and scroll before locating clues about a site’s reliability.- Check for relevance, reliability, and currency.- Browse the home page.- Look for the name of an author or a webmaster.- Check for a sponsor name.- Find out when the site was created or last updated.- For many college assignments you’ll be asked to use scholarly sources.- Look for formal language and presentation.- Authors who are academics or scientists, not journalists.- Find the citation of the works.- Original research rather than a summary of others’ work.- Look for quotations.- A description of research methods or a review of related research.- If a site gives little information, be suspicious; do not rely on it.51 B. Select appropriate versions of electronic sources*An electronic source can be an abstract, an excerpt, or a full-text article or book. Therefore, to use complete versions of source needs to distinguish among these versions.*Abstract – a brief summary typically appears in a database record for a periodical article. In order to cite your paper, you need to read the complete article because the abstract itself, does not contain enough information for you to cite your paper.*Excerpt- the first few sentences or paragraphs of a newspaper or magazine article and it usually appears in a list of hits in an online search. Excerpt would help you to determine whether the article is going to be useful for paper you.*Full-text usually appears as a PDF file (for portable document format) or as a HTML file. PDF file contains an exact copy of the pages of a periodical online article with pages numbers. The PDF file is paginated and the HTML or a text file is not paginated. If your source is available in both formats, use the PDF file because it has specific pages numbers that you cite in your paper.51 CRead with an open mind and critical eyes:- As you begin reading, keep an open mind. Do not let your personal beliefs prevent you from listening to new ideas and opposing viewpoints.- When you read critically, you are not necessarily judging an author’s work harshly; you are examining its assumptions, assessing its evidence, and weighing its conclusions.51D-Assess Web sources with special care.*Web sources can be deceptive.-Sophisticated looking sites---can be full of dubious info---identification of author hidden---hidden motives-know the purpose-------hate sites*Evaluate Sources-Check for signs of Bias.---political knowings/religious views---published with special interest group---opposing views-fairness---language-Assessing an argument---central claim/thesis---support claim-----relevant/sufficient evidence---consistent statistics-----fair use-----origin---assumptions-----questionable?---opposing arguments-----refute persuasively---any logical fallacies?*Evaluate Web Sources-Authorship---is there an author?-----search homepage/ about this site---knowledgeable/credible-----qualifications listed-----links to author's homepage--------interests/expertise-Sponsorship---who sponsors the site?----URL ending------specifies hosting group-ex/nonprofit= .org-Purpose & Audience---why site was created------position, product, inform?---intended audience------audience profile------relevant info-Currency---date of publication/latest update---current links------do they work?


-Melanie, Gackhuu, Mohammed section 21