Since my last field study, I think I have always known that informal interviewing is the method I enjoy the most-or the kind of interviewing that does not look or feel like an interview. Especially if I am going to be collecting stories while I am in India, there is no better way to kill the details than to try and direct the questions in a way they do not go naturally. For my methods practice, I decided to talk to Melissa, who was the facilitator last spring/summer to McLeod Ganj, India, and based on her insights I think there a few things I am going to have to rethink. Here are just a few to help me organize my thoughts.
Population Range- I think that when I walk talking about my project and formed my previous project question, I wanted to collect stories within McLeod Ganj. Melissa told me that the Indians and other peoples who inhabit Dharamsala are kept separate from the Tibetans in order to preserve their culture identity. If that is the case, I want to modify my project to look at Dharamsala instead of McLeod.
Mid-semester Retreat- Most groups have gone to the Golden Temple for their trip, which sounds fantastic to me. I wish I could remember the names of a few of the other cities mentioned... but I was relived that a few of my group members really wanting to see the Taj Mahal will be able to get both, because the city with the Taj is located right outside Dehli.
Expectations- I need to recognize once and for all that this is not going to be anything like my experiences in Ghana. Here TV's are blaring everywhere I go, tourism really is the industry of the place, and this is a city, not a village. I will not be dressed in any old thrift store clothes, and I might even be packing my makeup this time around. I think it is going to be another great adventure, but I need to remember that it will not be Ghana.
Why am I going here? Melissa asked me why I wanted to go to India to begin with (probably because she was surprised that I do not like TVs). I told her that I always have been fascinated with India and eastern religion in general. It is unlike anything we seem to have here, and it is a whole new realm for me. I think I was more interested in Hinduism at the start, but after taking my Peoples of India Class I am convinced that Hinduism is so complex that a 3 month field study probably will not even scratch the surface. Buddhism on the other hand, has also been fascinating to me. I used to have a Buddhist temple near my house when I was a kid, and it always had that lure to it. In my World Religions survey class I took last year I was also fascinated with how Tibetan Buddhism has been able to sustain itself despite the threat of dying out completely, and it would be cool to see that in action. However, I think more than anything though, my decision to go to North India was that it felt right. Living in the ridges of the Himalayas amongst these people just sounds so amazing, and I am excited to learn from them.
Melissa also shared her interpretation of the "Middle Path" with me. After reading various eastern texts, the whole concept of not being attached to people did not make a lot of sense to me. Based on her experience, she said that it is not about being a hermit, and far from it, but not letting your happiness depend on others. I like that...
General Recommendations? Melissa says to befriend a nun, take a Hindi class (to make a friend, not because the teaching is supreme), and say a quick prayer before I have to pick where different members of my group live for the next three months with only a few sentences of background on each family.
So yes, informal interviewing means that there is minimal control over the direction of the conversation on the interviewers side, but there are things I want to know that I do not know I want to know. For this reason, even though it has down sides, it is the most appropriate for the project I will be conducting.
Wow. I am living in three months!
Population Range- I think that when I walk talking about my project and formed my previous project question, I wanted to collect stories within McLeod Ganj. Melissa told me that the Indians and other peoples who inhabit Dharamsala are kept separate from the Tibetans in order to preserve their culture identity. If that is the case, I want to modify my project to look at Dharamsala instead of McLeod.
Mid-semester Retreat- Most groups have gone to the Golden Temple for their trip, which sounds fantastic to me. I wish I could remember the names of a few of the other cities mentioned... but I was relived that a few of my group members really wanting to see the Taj Mahal will be able to get both, because the city with the Taj is located right outside Dehli.
Expectations- I need to recognize once and for all that this is not going to be anything like my experiences in Ghana. Here TV's are blaring everywhere I go, tourism really is the industry of the place, and this is a city, not a village. I will not be dressed in any old thrift store clothes, and I might even be packing my makeup this time around. I think it is going to be another great adventure, but I need to remember that it will not be Ghana.
Why am I going here? Melissa asked me why I wanted to go to India to begin with (probably because she was surprised that I do not like TVs). I told her that I always have been fascinated with India and eastern religion in general. It is unlike anything we seem to have here, and it is a whole new realm for me. I think I was more interested in Hinduism at the start, but after taking my Peoples of India Class I am convinced that Hinduism is so complex that a 3 month field study probably will not even scratch the surface. Buddhism on the other hand, has also been fascinating to me. I used to have a Buddhist temple near my house when I was a kid, and it always had that lure to it. In my World Religions survey class I took last year I was also fascinated with how Tibetan Buddhism has been able to sustain itself despite the threat of dying out completely, and it would be cool to see that in action. However, I think more than anything though, my decision to go to North India was that it felt right. Living in the ridges of the Himalayas amongst these people just sounds so amazing, and I am excited to learn from them.
Melissa also shared her interpretation of the "Middle Path" with me. After reading various eastern texts, the whole concept of not being attached to people did not make a lot of sense to me. Based on her experience, she said that it is not about being a hermit, and far from it, but not letting your happiness depend on others. I like that...
General Recommendations? Melissa says to befriend a nun, take a Hindi class (to make a friend, not because the teaching is supreme), and say a quick prayer before I have to pick where different members of my group live for the next three months with only a few sentences of background on each family.
So yes, informal interviewing means that there is minimal control over the direction of the conversation on the interviewers side, but there are things I want to know that I do not know I want to know. For this reason, even though it has down sides, it is the most appropriate for the project I will be conducting.
Wow. I am living in three months!
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