Title for my Final Paper

"Recent Political Developments in Nepal"
This paper will cover the recent major political changes in Nepal and how it has affected the public. It will also include some personal views on these changes from my interviewees, and a brief history of the events that lead to these major changes.

Interview Report 1: Saurab Regmi from Nepal

Interview Report 1: Saurab Regmi from Nepal

Preparations

To prepare for this interview I found it to be important to know some background knowledge on Nepal before creating a list of questions for the interview. To achieve this I created a preliminary report on Nepal discussing its geography, history, and native culture. From this I created some specific question for the interview based on the current events in Nepal which included a major change in their form of government. I also found some interesting facts about the cultural norms and formalities in Nepal that would assist me in avoiding unintentionally insulting Saurab.

I then created a comprehensive list of question for the interview. The questions were structured to cover a wide range of subjects involving Nepalese culture, any difficulties Saurab may have had coming to the US and more. Here is the list of question that I created for the interview:

· What is your name? How old are you?

· Where did you grow up? What is your native language?

· What was it like growing up in Nepal?

· What kind of games did you play when you were growing up? What did you do for fun?

· What is the main food staple in Nepal? What types of food did you eat most commonly when you were a kid? Do you still follow the custom of eating with your right hand only? Why is this custom important in Nepal?

· What was school like in Nepal?

· When did you learn English?

· How long have you been in the US?

· Do you miss Nepal and your family?

· Why did you decide to come to the US?

· Did you have any problems coming to the US?

· Did you feel any culture shock when you came to the US?

· How do you feel about the school system here in the US?

· If you follow a religion, what religion do you follow?

· What ethnic group do you feel you were part of in Nepal?

· What holidays did you celebrate when you were growing up?

· Did you ever have a job in Nepal and if you did, what was your job?

· How do you feel about the current political system in Nepal?

· Did you like or dislike the monarchy before it was dissolved? Did you like the royal family? Did you like King Gyanendra?

· How do you feel about the caste system in Nepal? Has it ever affected you personally?

· Are there any civil rights issues in Nepal and if so, have any of them affected you personally?

Finding an Interviewee

I met Saurab and his friend, Niraj, in my racial relations course (CMTY 111). While talking to them after class, I told them that I had a project I had to do for my English 191 class that involved interviewing international students and asked if they knew anybody who would be willing to be interviewed. They both volunteered to be interviewed right away and we shared our email addresses to get in contact later and schedule the two interviews.

Conducting the Interview

The first interview was scheduled to be at 3:30 in the Miller Learning Center on Thursday, October 22^nd. We met a bit late at about 3:45 and rented out a meeting room in the library. After getting Saurab’s consent to record the audio of the interview, I prepared my computer to record and set it beside us on the table. We introduced ourselves to each other again for the recording and began. I started with basic questions his personal biography to get an idea about who he is and create a more comfortable atmosphere for the interview. Almost immediately he jumped right into details about Nepal and his life there and how he was affected by the recent political events. As things progressed I tried to stay on the topic of the conversation and ask him to elaborate on some of his opinions on the situation in Nepal.

About 15 minutes into the interview the intercom in the room informed us that the library was about to close. We tried to continue, but the flow of the interview after this point was broken and things turned far too rushed and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, we had to cut the interview short and end it where we were. I later reviewed the recording of the interview and found that Saurab’s voice was barely, if ever, intelligible.

Saurab Regmi’s Biographical Abstract

Saurab is 22 years old and has been in the US about 2.5 years. He grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepal’s capitol. His father was part of the royal military before the monarchy was dissolved in 2008, so he has some strong opinions on the political situation in Nepal. He came to St. Cloud State University because his sister had come here before him and he felt it would be an easier transition coming here and staying with family for at least the first couple of semesters. He is currently unsure about what he wants to major in but is leaning towards the computer sciences.

Interview Process from My Perspective

I enjoyed the interview. Even though we were cut short and things didn’t turn out well for the purposes of my project, I still found this to be an interesting and fun experience. There was one fact that Saurab told me about that actually caught me off guard a little bit. Saurab, as it turns out, has had no problems adjusting to the USA. This is largely due to the fact that there is a rather large community of Nepalese people here in St. Cloud. But the language barrier was also not a problem do to the fact that it is mandatory in many Nepalese Schools to only speak English while at school even though Nepali is their primary language. These factors made moving to St. Cloud an easy transition for Saurab, so he didn’t experience the culture shock that is common for many international students.

Nepal: A Short Report

Nepal is located in Southern Asia, between India and China, on the Himalayan mountain range. There has been a long standing history of Hindu and Buddhist culture in Nepal and for about the last 250 years Nepal has had a Monarchial government. In the 1970’s, the monarchy established a parliament within its power to help govern the people. In 1996 Maoist rebels started a civil war that lasted for 10 years. Tragedy struck the royal family in 2001 as every member of the family, except the brother of the previously standing king and his family, was murdered. The former king’s brother took power and almost immediately dissolved parliament, but by 2006 protest pressured the king in to reestablishing parliament. An election was held in 2008 and parliament met for the first time by may. In this first meeting, parliament dissolved the monarchy that had controlled Nepal for nearly 250 years.

Nepal has a primarily Hindu/Buddhist culture but also includes many other religious communities. There are over 30 different ethnic groups in Nepal each based on an individual’s caste and location in Nepal, but recently these ethnic groups have started to merge. Nepal has had a caste system for centuries, but recently the government has been attempting to make bridges between the castes and eliminate the system all together. Some of these attempts at dissolving the caste system included creating government positions to represent people from lower castes and creating equal job opportunities for all castes. Younger generations, mainly in urban areas, are no longer holding the traditions associated with the caste system, such as limiting social contact to within your caste, or acting in a manner that is suitable towards your caste. But older generations are finding it hard to let go of these age old traditions.

There are many languages in Nepal, but the primary language is Nepali. In grade school in Nepal English is the primary language instead of Nepali. The school system is rather similar to the system in the US as it has a k-12 system, but differs in the style of progression. There is no grading system in the Nepalese school system; instead a comprehensive test is taken at the end of each year of schooling to progress to the next year of schooling. Saurab, like many other urban Nepalese students, decided to study abroad for college. Recently it has become common for Nepalese students from the urban areas to study abroad for college. This is due to a couple of factors including the political distress in Nepal.

Transcription

For this interview I decided not to create a transcription because of the poor quality of the recording. My computer did not capture Saurab’s voice and so I could not make out his answers in review.