Interview with Mrs. Parker
Introduction:
I was a bit nervous going into this interview because I had never met Mrs. Parker. She is my close friend’s grandmother that had moved to America at the age of 23 after meeting and falling in love with an American while at the University of Munich in Germany. I had heard stories about her from my friend and was a bit intimidated, especially considering how smart she is. I had not heard much about Mrs. Parker’s reasoning for becoming a citizen of the United States, but I was curious to hear more. As the interview went on, I got more comfortable with Mrs. Parker and found that the flow of our conversation got easier. After the interview, I got the opportunity to meet her in person. Our conversation was easy and I felt like I had known her for a while.
Migration:
Ingrid Junghans Parker was born in Germany. In the 1960s, Germany was still coming out of Hitler’s regime. She was a student at the University of Munich studying English and education. America was glorified throughout Germany. There were American-style homes and American newspapers showing pretty white houses, green lawns, big cars, and happy families. She had found herself to be infatuated with American culture. She especially liked how America looked at women.
The American man that she had met was from Texas and was studying to be an architect. At the age of 23, Mrs. Parker decided she wanted to marry him and move to America to live with him. This required an application for a visa at the American Consulate in Munich, Germany. At this time, Mrs. Parker stated that Germany had a very generous quota when considering the number of individuals America gave visas to. She had already understood English well, she also had to pass a background check and complete a physical to obtain a visa. She stated that America ensured that she had enough money to make her way back to Germany in the case that she did not last in America. She received a visa, moved to America, and married Mr. Parker. Around 4 years later, she took the citizenship exam and became an American citizen.
Integration:
The first American state she moved to was Texas. She found that the Texans were very friendly. When she got to America, she found that most of the ideas she had of America were false and Germany was not much different from them. There were little occasions she found to be similar to what was in the media, but for the most part, it was glorified. She found race relations to be appalling, especially concerning the fact that it was the 60s.
The longer Mrs. Parker lived in America, the more problems she found within it. She had struggled with little things within the university system. The university she attended had told her she needed to know a second language, but would not allow german to count as a second language, so she had to take french. After this, she received a master’s and Ph.D. through the University of New Mexico. Then she decided to start a family, having a daughter.
Mrs. Parker still found with time, more problems arose in America. She found that America doesn’t value the individual. She doesn’t agree with many policies and found that Germany has certain policies she agrees with more. Looking back at how far Germany has developed compared to America, she states she may have changed her mind and stayed in Germany.
Conclusion:
While Mrs. Parker may not agree with many policies and the culture of America compared to Germany’s current way of life, she would not trade the choice of marrying her late husband for anything. Mrs. Parker has opened my eyes to the way our country is viewed by others as well as the way our country goes about policies compared to others. In the end, the love between Mr. and Mrs. Parker is something that many can learn from.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Wow. All right, you’re ready to start.
Unknown Speaker 0:04
This is a new experience for me.
Unknown Speaker 0:08
Well, I appreciate you doing this for me.
Unknown Speaker 0:10
All right, go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 0:12
All right, well, basically, I’m in an immigration class. So I kind of want to know, like, what was your process like?
Unknown Speaker 0:20
When we’re talking 1960. And in 1960, Germany was still coming out of the Hitler regime and World War Two. And things were not exactly glorious. I was a university student in University of Munich. But at the time, the United States had made a made a real effort, advertising the United States to Germans. So we had America houses all over the United States, all over Germany, and all the major cities, and the American kind of houses were libraries, essentially, with American books about American culture. And with American magazines, lying Saturday Evening Post and look and life, colorful, glossy magazines, showing the American way of life. The American way of life and those magazines was very different from the German way of life. It was for one thing, and that should be pointed out at this time, all white. And it featured pretty neighborhoods with green lawns, beautiful, huge American cars, white families dressed and pretty close, going off to church on Sunday with their cute little children, and many pictures of American food. And American life in general looked wonderful. To Germans anyway, it looked wonderful. To Germans possibly it also looked like it was a great place for women to be because American women seem to have more rights than European women. And that was the atmosphere there. So in 1960, in 1960, I happened to meet an American from Texas, in Munich, I was a student there and I had become familiar with exchange students from America and also with few American G eyes, primarily to practice my English because I was an English major, which tended to upset my British instructor a great deal because his English was not the American English. But as things developed, I eventually decided to come to the United States to marry the man I had met in Munich, who was from Texas, and who planned to be an architect. And so in the in the summer of 1960, I applied for a visa to the United States, and the consulate there and the American Consulate and Munich. And in those days, there was a quota system for the different countries of the world. Germany had a very generous quota. As probably all the European countries, Germans were very welcome. Because they generally came educated, you know, and most of them could speak English. And so I had no problem getting a visa. What was involved in this was, of course, a background check, and a physical. You could not enter the United States if you had something like tuberculosis or something of that sort. And also, they wanted security. They wanted to know that if I decided not to stay there, I had my had enough money to make my way back, because in that case, they did not want me to live there on the cost of the American government. That once all of these kinds of things were satisfied, I got a visa I came to the United States, and got married shortly thereafter. And a few years later, I don’t remember exactly how many, possibly four. I took the citizenship exam and became an American citizen, naturalized American citizen. And that is basically the story of how I came to this country. No questions on your part?
Unknown Speaker 5:33
Yeah, well, what’s different from, you know, America and Germany? Like, what really shocked you when you got here?
Unknown Speaker 5:42
Ah, I discovered, of course, after I got there that real life in America was not the way it was in the magazines.
Unknown Speaker 5:51
Yeah, I can see that. You’ve been here for long now.
Unknown Speaker 5:58
Took my degrees in this country. Master’s degree, and a PhD at the University of New Mexico. And I came here and taught eventually at at American universities. And I have learned that things are not as glorious as they appeared to me when I was 23 years old. That in fact, there are a lot of problems and more problems became apparent the longer I lived here. And so comparatively speaking, looking back now at what Germany has become in the meantime, and what America has become I would probably change my mind and go back
Unknown Speaker 6:54
I’m assuming you follow politics
Unknown Speaker 6:58
I follow them Yeah, well like policies right. it to some extent why?
Unknown Speaker 7:04
Well, I want to ask more about like what parts do you like more from America than from Germany in policymaking and such
Unknown Speaker 7:23
Well, the big problems in this country as far as I see them are the ready availability of guns which means that people shoot each other and we just had a local mass killing here this this is something on top of my mind right now I absolutely unheard of in Europe, where against a strictly controlled and where there is not that huge number of deaths every year. Also, Germany as most European countries has national health care, which means we do not have people who have to die because they cannot afford health care or who who suffer under a huge insurance bills. Because this country encourages the insurance business over the individual. And I have also since my field is education discovered that education is not of the same quality here as it is in European countries, or in places like perhaps Japan and some other advanced nations.
Unknown Speaker 8:51
All right, I’m gonna switch paces so we’re gonna go something. When you got here. How was it? Was it friendly? Was it easy talking to people?
Unknown Speaker 9:02
They were Texans, they’re very friendly. Texans are very friendly. Whether they may whether they are very sincere as another question, but they were very friendly. Yes. And a few things actually turned out to be a little bit like the magazines. For instance, in Lubbock, Texas, there was a wonderful department store called Hemphill wells, where they had gorgeous things for sale and a lovely little restaurant that my mother in law and I attended regularly. So yes, there are there were some things that actually were like, like the pictures had been
Unknown Speaker 9:46
anything that shocked you, or like made you a bit confused?
Unknown Speaker 9:54
Well, race relations in the 60s We’re still not very Good. Or they are not to this day. exactly perfect. But yeah, that came as a shock to me. I did not, you know, because obviously I was not prepared for it and I had never thought about it.
Unknown Speaker 10:19
There any, like differences in like foods and stuff and culture that? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 10:27
America had cafeterias I love cafeterias. American food home cooking in America is not unlike European home cooking. It’s pretty good most like nowadays, so there’s a lot of junk food.
Unknown Speaker 10:47
And it’s true. It’s true. What was it like raising a family here compared to your upbringing?
Unknown Speaker 10:54
Raising a family I raised one daughter. How was that? How do you mean raising?
Unknown Speaker 11:02
Like compared to in Germany, how you were raised?
Unknown Speaker 11:05
How does that differ? I was an only child also. So I don’t really have very much to compare it to only children, only children tend to be a little bit loners, because they are not used to.
Unknown Speaker 11:23
Culturally, the culture I was facing as a child compared to
Unknown Speaker 11:28
the country my daughter was facing versus my own culture when you were a kid. I had a very domineering father. And that affected the entire family relationship. And this was not true for my daughter, my hot my late husband, bless his heart was was a wonderful guy. So she had a she had a much, much better upbringing, I think than I did.
Unknown Speaker 11:57
Teenage culture. What you felt what you faced in school
Unknown Speaker 12:00
versus what I think. All right, anything else? But it’s time I’m not. Am I supposed to message her?
Unknown Speaker 12:10
Yes, because you’re giving her good answers like you face in school as a teenager compared to what mom face can speak here, like the American culture versus the German as opposed to
Unknown Speaker 12:21
your well, a German German schools are selective. I happen to be in a high school system that was college preparatory University preparatory And so yes, it was tough. But I got it, I got a very good background, which helped me later on in Texas, where they decided that in order for me to get into graduate school, I had to prove that I could speak a foreign language. And I told them at the time that I was fluent in German, and they said, No, we cannot count that because that is your language, as well then how about English? No, we cannot take that either. Because that is our native language. So I had to take six hours of French Third year French class, which fortunately turned out to be easy because I had had French in high school. So you see, my my high school system benefited me also benefit fitted me on the Graduate Record Exam, which to my great surprise or horror contained math. I mean, not not expected math on the Graduate Record Exam. If I wanted to be an English major, you know, that it contained math, and I struggled my way through that successfully. Even though I had been out of high school for quite a while.
Unknown Speaker 13:57
I understand that. Um, let’s see. What do you incorporate in your everyday like home life that you relate to Germany
Unknown Speaker 14:10
I still cook some German foods. Like what? I make sauerkraut every once in a while. And I used to bake some of the German specialty said don’t do that anymore, but for
Unknown Speaker 14:25
sausages
Unknown Speaker 14:28
and yes, I have to send off for some German foods because they’re not available here. So
Unknown Speaker 14:37
okay, let’s see what else can I say? Is there any like different arts or like ways of doing things that kind of shocked you here? Like what, like a way late ways that Americans do things that like little things that kind of shocked you here?
Unknown Speaker 15:01
Well, as I said, Skype is new to me. I’m really resistant to new technology.
Unknown Speaker 15:08
Then I’m now back in here
Unknown Speaker 15:11
when I came here, yeah, American cars were gorgeous in those days. Absolutely gorgeous. And Americans, American women, bless their hearts had kitchen appliances that were unknown of in Germany at the time. dishwashers, stoves and large refrigerators. Yeah. We’re way ahead of Germans. Those days. That was in the 60s.
Unknown Speaker 15:41
Okay. What else do I have? Did you like weigh pros and cons when you were deciding to come here? What?
Unknown Speaker 15:57
no much to the horror of my parents, I had made up my mind and I was going to get married and come to this country.
Unknown Speaker 16:11
So when did you start learning English?
Unknown Speaker 16:20
Um, well, this is the first foreign language they teach in a in a German high school system. So I think I was probably 10 or 11.
Unknown Speaker 16:33
Did you incorporate German in your house?
Unknown Speaker 16:38
Did I incorporate German? Are we? Yeah, well, yeah. We also had German class, like,
Unknown Speaker 16:42
like, I’m saying in America, like, when
Unknown Speaker 16:47
I came here, I taught German for a while. That made it possible for me to be a teaching assistant at the first university and get free tuition.
Unknown Speaker 17:00
Did you speak German?
Unknown Speaker 17:02
No, no. No, did not speak at took too long. My husband did not speak German, so it took too long.
Unknown Speaker 17:11
Okay, gotcha. That makes sense. Um, So how old were you when you did come here?
Unknown Speaker 17:21
Unknown Speaker 17:24
Wow, you’re young.
Unknown Speaker 17:30
Let’s see how many other questions not sure what else I have to ask. Let’s see. So your attitude towards the United States has changed since moving here?
Unknown Speaker 17:50
Yes, the United States has changed. And a few instances for the better but in many ways also for the worse. So yeah, on the whole, I think I think I am still European, rather than American and I am often very protocol.
Unknown Speaker 18:13
Gotcha. All right. Um, was it easy making friends?
Unknown Speaker 18:20
Yes, I guess Texans are friendly. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:25
What about other states like Virginia,
Unknown Speaker 18:27
Virginia. Virginians are more conservative than Texas. It takes them a while to warm up to people.
Unknown Speaker 18:40
I could see that could see that. Huh. So what’s your attitude towards Germany now?
Unknown Speaker 18:50
Well, Germany has advanced and has done well economically has done well politically has rebuild a reputation thank God. They rebuilt their reputation because there was nothing left after Hitler and after World War Two. And now they are one of the backbones of the European Union. And so yes, I’m I’m proud of Germany they have done well.
Unknown Speaker 19:26
Awesome. My question Oh, All right. Are you were you shocked by how people deal with religion here compared to Germany? Is there a difference?
Unknown Speaker 19:59
Yeah, So now so I mean I was baptized Lutheran, and but my parents my mother was Catholic and my father was Lutheran. And my parents did not insist on a church attendance and all that sort of thing. Religion never meant a great deal to me. And when I while I attended religion classes in school, yeah, we have religion classes in school, they don’t have that here to consider.
Unknown Speaker 20:39
I attended religion class with a Lutheran pastor while I was in high school, and did not care for it one bit. Half the class would split up half the class was Catholic and the other half half of the class was Lutheran and we would go to meet with the respective instructor but my, my Lutheran instructor at one point maintained that dogs would not go to heaven. And I was outraged and decided I would have nothing to do with that kind of faith. Yeah, no, no, I wasn’t having much just messed up all right, um,obviously, obviously, what happens is the more education you get, the less likely you are to end up believing in religious systems. So that that is one of the problems the older I got, the more I learned, the less I believed
Unknown Speaker 21:50
I don’t think I have anything else for you.
Unknown Speaker 21:54
Really? We had a good interview.
Unknown Speaker 21:59
was pretty good. Thank you. You. You knocked all the bases pretty quick.
Unknown Speaker 22:03
I hope you’re getting a good grade. Kylie,
Unknown Speaker 22:05
thank you so much. I appreciate you doing this for me. Happy Thanksgiving guys. Late, but Happy Thanksgiving! It was good talking to you guys.
Unknown Speaker 22:18
I’ll see you. Okay, Thank you!
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