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