Feraas Khatiri Interview, History 150 Spring 2017, Conducted by Ahmed Khatiri, March 12, 2017

 

The format:

A. The interview was taken in person in my brother’s room, we chose his room because it is so quite and we can lock the room. i did not have to edit a lot , but i paused sometime to write down some more information and prepare for some long questions and answers.

B. I prepared for it by writing the questions on my notebook and organize where every question should be.

C. I used the app Voice Record ( one of the list that the librarian was talking about ) and it was really helpful because it has so many ways to access the interview into the website.

D. There were some obstacles like replay the interview many times because it was our firs time doing interview like this and we are not experts. also, it was not easy to use the app, but it went really good, i did not think it would be easy like this. I felt it is really flowed, and if i could do it over,  i wish i had done more information to say

E. biography of  the interviewee;  The interviewee is my biggest bother. He is from Saudi Arabia. He has been  in united states about 6 years. He goes to George Mason University in Washington, D.C, and doing engineering major. before he goes there, he went to an English school for a year and a half. He lives with his friends in a big house in Alexandria. He came here to study English and get a good education.

F.paragraph of research about Saudi Arabia; 

Saudi Arabia is a middle eastern country that occupies most of the Arabian peninsula and has coastlines on the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Neighboring countries include Jordan to the northwest, Iraq and Kuwait to the northeast, Bahrain and Qatar to the east, the Unites Arab Emirates to the southeast, and Oman and Yemen to the south.

Saudi Arabia contains the holy Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina, to which all physically and financially able Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage at least once if possible (see Hajj) and where non-Muslims are forbidden from entering.

The cultural setting of Saudi Arabia is Arab and Islam, and society itself is in general deeply religious, conservative, traditional, and family oriented. Many attitudes and traditions are centuries-old, derived from Arab civilization. However its culture has also been affected by rapid change, as the country was transformed from an impoverished nomadic society into a rich commodity producer in just a few years in the 1970s.The most recent ruler or king of Saudi is King Salman Al Saud

Saudi Arabia is one of two countries named for their royal families, along with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Saudi family were sheikhs of Nejd, the area around Riyadh, but were driven out by a neighboring dynasty, hiding with their relatives, the emirs of Kuwait. Then in 1902, young Abdulaziz Ibn Saud and his army returned to re-capture their home. As it turned out, the invaders had been corrupt, ineffective, and abusive, so many locals joined them. They not only re-captured Riyadh, but much of the surrounding territory.

After that, Abdulaziz set out on a 30-year campaign of slaughter and intrigue to unify the Arabian Peninsula. The area united under him became known as Saudi Arabia.

In the 1930s, the discovery of oil transformed the country and the US was quick to seek to put one over on the weakened British erstwhile colonialists. Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia offered refuge to the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its sand for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. A burgeoning population, unemployment, aquifer depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and prices are all major governmental concerns.

cited

” Saudi Arabia travel Guide”. Some information was found on ” Wikitravel”. 22 January 2017.

“Culture Of Saudi Arabia”. Some information was found on ” Wekibipedia”  17 March 2017.

The Format: 

Ahmed: Why did you choose united States rather than any other countries?

Feraas: i chose the United States because i think it is the best country in the world to get education from, people in the U.S are really nice and helpful and i don not think in other countris people are as helpful as in the U.S.

Ahmed: describe your firs three months here, was it so difficult than you thought?

Feraas: of course yeah, my first three months were really difficult it was something new, i did not know anyone, my language was not that good so of course anybody would have a hard time because it is a challenge and of course it will not be easy to start as good you have to go through some difficult time in the begging then everything will get easier by time.

Ahmed: so tell me about that, why did you leave your country and come to the U.S/

Feraas: i came to U.S because i thought that it was a go place to study in, the universities are good even if i get a degree from U.S and go to Saudi to get a job i woud get accepted because i got a degree from the U.S so it is an advantage that i studied in the U.S.

Ahmed: how often do you go to Saudi Arabia?

Mrs. Feraas: i actually go to Saudi every year, i try to go there every year unless if i have summer classes and i can not go there i would not, but i really try to go there because like is my home and i try to there when ever i could.

Ahmed: what will you were your challenges traveling?

Feraas: when i traveled and i first came in the airport everything was hard because i could not speak English that well, the only thing that helped was seeing people that were with me so i just copied them and went with with them but that helped because i saw a couple of people going to the checkout to the immigration so that helped me a lot, other then that, my first stay here was really hard it was a new challenge a new place to live in a new people that i never (…) with new food new everything, everything changed because there is two different countries both of these countries gave completely different traditions, so getting used to the traditions in the US is something really hard if you are not from there because is something new. And the hardiest thing for me was when i came to the US living without my family because i have been living my whole life with my family and of course it is very hard to randomly leave your family and travel to country that 13 hours away from your country, a country that is in another continent so of course it would be something really hard and what makes it harder is that living there wiyhout your family, you do not have your mother to cook for you and your father to help you with what ever you need and your siblings

Ahmed: so can you describe how Saudi Arabia is different from US?

Feraas: so Saudi Arabia is completely different from the US , first of all the traditions in Saudi are much more different than the US, people think in a different way than the US, the food there is really different, we have different tips of food over there, but when i came to the US, i did not like the food over here because i was used to the food in Saudi, i missed eating rise because in Saudi we had lots of tip of rise but when i came here the rise was not as good and the weather here was rally hard to live in because the weather here is really really really cold and when i was in Saudi the weather was not as cold as it is here, it did not snow when i wanted to go any outdoors place, i did not have  a hard time because i could go and have fun but over here the weather is really cold and is really hard to ho walk outdoors it you are not wearing gloves and a good jacket that all. other then the weather the time there is a big different in time between Saudi and the US, in Saudi people go out like after midnight 12, 1, 2, or 3 o’clock but like over here you would not fined anyone in the streets by 10 pm, i think that because of mentality of people, they think differently, we have different opinions of thinks, but coming here ans seeing that life stopped at 10 pm was very different and it was a hard think to deal with at the begging, but after a couple years i started to be like them even when i went to Saudi i went home early because i thought that is the life stile in the US was better because of this timing is more comfortable.

Ahmed: okay, so the seventh question is, what have your learned from being an immigrant  in the US?

Feraas: what i have learned in being an immigrant in the US, is that i dealt with a lot of people from different countries and the is a very helpful think because you learn about other people traditions, you do not have to think in one way think in your Saudi mentality , you become more open minded and you see how other people in the world are living, especially because in the US you have people from different nationalities so it is a very nice place to be in if you want to know about other people traditions.

Ahmed: have you ever felt that you want to stop going to school and go back to Saudi Arabia?

Feraas: when i first came here in the first couple of months i felt that, in the first month i said that it is okay and i will get the hand of this, and everything would be fine in a couple months, in the second month i said the same thing, and in the third month i was like i can not do this any more and i said that i have to go back to Saudi, i talked to my father and i told him to that i want do back to Saudi, he said that you have to man up and you have been living these two months, so the the other months should not be that hard because  it was very hard when you first get there, so after you stayed two months your are telling me that you want to go, so he told me that is the bad idea and you should continue studying because this degree will help you a lot and you will thank me later. And now i am actually happy that i did not go back because as my father said staying here would help me the most and i am the one that will going to benefit the most from staying here because a lot of people wish they have the opportunity i had or have so i think what i did was the right think and actually i am living here now and i am used to living here and i really like the US.

Ahmed: so the last question is, after you will  graduate from college, do you have any plan to stay and find a job in the US?

Feraas: actually if i stay in the US i might get an internship pr work for two years, maybe if i could  have the opportunity top work, but i am not really planing to work here for a big number of years, i am planning to go back to Saudi, the only thing i am planning to do is work here in the US for two years then go back to Saudi and apply for a job because these two years of work in the US will help me a lot when i go to Saudi because working and getting some experience is something that any place would recommend you to have, so if i get that experience plus the language it will help a lot when i apply for a job in Saudi Arabia.

Ahmed; So Feraas in conclusion, do you think that you have improved a lot?

Feraas: i think i really did improve because when i first here i could not speak that well i only knew a couple of words and i could not even writ essays i could not even write a sentence not only an essay and coming out of to the US with this much knowledge even though i learned a lot, but like a person will always have to learn because you could never stop learning because as much as you learn you will have to to learn some more information.

Ahmed: okay thank s Feraas about your time i really appreciated that

Feraas: you are welcome and thank you actually  for  these great questions.