TASK 1 : Ethnographic Report

THIRD YEAR ENGLISH MODULE: “English for intercultural communication”

Antonella Landolfi GROUP: f 25/11/2006

THE FINDINGS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS

(My interviewee is Kate, an American Student I met at a party.)

The values I analyzed are:

MERITOCRATIC ? COOPTATION

(the important thing is what you do, for whatever (the important thing is who you are, what group you belong to)

reason)

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW (EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS)

The position of the two values (in my opinion) of: PB= the Teacher; X= me; O=my family/community, = Italy in general ; TC= where I think Trinity College Students should be positioned.

-  Here in Italy the value of Cooptation is more diffuse than Meritocratic’s one. I can say this for many reasons and thanks to various situations I had in the pass; for example in my country it is very difficult to get a job, or a good job, but I often see that doctor’s daughters or sons have more possibilities than the other boys and girls. The same happens at school: if you are a teacher’s or a headmaster’s child, or you know them, they have a particular consideration of you and all the door are opened for you, without any problems. For this reason here in Italy many people do not deserve their job. Fortunately now a days it seems that the situation is better. And you can find only few case of these examples, because young people know that cooptation is very dangerous for our society.

I think that in USA meritocratic value often prevails on cooptation’s one, even if it can be possible to find some situation of cooptation.

MY QUESTIONS (descriptive, structural and contrast questions, anecdotes)

These are the questions I used to determinate American Student’s position on the values:

·  What are you studying here in Italy?

·  In the future do you want to work here or do you think it’s better to come back in America?

·  Here in Italy it’s often very difficult to find a job, you know, is it the same in America ?

·  Often here in Italy many famous people’s child have more possibilities than common people’s child. What happens there? Are there any differences among boys and girls?

·  Some days ago I heard a strange noise about a politician in USA that gives out jobs to people who campaign for him! Here in Italy this happens every day, but do you think there are many situations like this in USA?

( I hypothesized that these questions could determinate an American Student’s position on my cultural dimension line because “getting a job” is an interesting topic in young people’s speech, and through the answers I can understand both student’s position and his country’s position.)

MY REPORT (after the interview)

My questions were very useful. After the “Grand tour questions”, the American Student told me exactly her position about this topic. First of all she said she would like to come back in America because she loves her country and because the situation about “getting job” is very different there. In America it isn’t very simple to find a job, but if you are an intellectually strong person you can become very famous even if you are not a politician’s child. To find a job there, you need to have a particular kind of “conversation” or “interview” with the employer. The group you belong to and what you are, are not the magic keys to get a very good job; you have to share what you can do, your talent and your capacity. About the anecdote I told her, she answered that it is very strange and rare to find a situation like that and that she never heard a notice like that.

Thanks to this interview I can say that my prediction about Trinity student was not very exact, because now I understand that there is quite impossible to find some situation of cooptation. So I have to change Trinity College Student’s position on the cultural dimension line:

THE FINDINGS OF SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRE

A. Typical “middle-class-Anglo” ways
B. Other possible cultural styles in the US
1. A boy and a girl, alone at a party, notice each other. Who speaks first? What might s/he say?A.B.
2. The party is over. Both want to maintain contact. Who asks whom for a phone number and how?1,B.
3. The next day one of them phones. Who in general? Would s/he ask for a date right away and, if so, how?A.B.
4. Does the boy usually propose to pick the girl up at her home by car? If he doesn't have a car, can she propose to drive him? Or would she just refuse the date? Can he propose taking the bus downtown? A.B.
5. When going to night spots, does he act like a traditional “gentleman” (opening the door for her, helping her take her coast off, paying the bill, etc.)?A.B.
6. While conversing, are there taboo subjects to avoid on a first date and, if so, which ones?A.B.
7. What might each talk about to win the interest of the other? What is “cool” to be knowledgeable about?A.B.
8. How does the evening end? There are no rules, it all depends, but what generally happens?A.B.

Behind a questionnaire is always hidden the particular point of view of the person who has written the questions. In this case I can understand the situation about male/female power ploys. I think the implicit idea of the interviewer is that in his society there is a neat differentiation of behaviours between the two parts. There is a general male dominance, and the idea that a girl could never propose to pick the boy up at his home, and I can suppose this interviewer is Italian, because here in Italy most of us have this concept about male/female parts.

Thanks to the interview, I learned that in America the situation is really different. The student I interviewed did not confirm male dominance in all the questions: she said that boys and girls have the same behaviours in most of all the aspects of life. To say the truth she said that these questions were almost unusual to hear in her society. For example at the question number 3 she said that very often girls ask to boys to go out, and she felt a little embarrassed when I said here in Italy is very difficult that a girl ask for a date right away.