Interview Questions for Your Informants

(first posted 10/2/08 7:017)

Everyone in your group needs to contribute at least 5 or 6 good questions for your group to use with your informant
[ ] Identify which questions were yours. [ ] If you e-mail them to me before your interview I will try to give you some feedback in advance, but that’s totally optional.

You are designing questions that will help you to figure out the ‘grammar’ of their culture by targeting the components of interaction that we have covered in class so far. The list of terms I’m giving you for review, the stuff on the blog, the stuff in the readings are all good fodder for your questions and should be well represented. You obviously can't ask questions about every term or interactional function we've looked at, but make sure all of your questions are substantive and in include as much as you can in your 5 or 6 questions each.

Following are some examples of stuff you may want to ask about:


Don’t waste any of your questions on random stuff like how spicy their food is, etc—talks about cuisine will eat up your time and add little or nothing to your project. If you talk about eating what you want to know is interactional- who sits where? Where is the seat of honor? Who eats first? Who serves whom? Do you pray or say something before you all start eating? Can you talk at the table? Can you leave the table when you want? Can you talk with your mouthful? Clink your silverware? Smack? Burp? Praise the cook, criticize the food, leave food on your plate or eat every grain of rice (a grain of rice, the Japanese will remind you, takes a whole year to grow!) How do invitations to dinner work, how do you know when someone else is treating, who should treat-in some cases the older person is supposed to treat everyone else, etc.
You want to find out what kinds of actions and semiotics are viewed as respectful, friendly, kind, humble, offputting, etc—the positive and negative face strategies and face threatening acts that an American would not be prepared for.

Greetings. Introductions, e.g, when are you obligated to introduce someone and when should you NOT? In Asia an introduction comes with an obligation on the part of the people you are introducing. In some cases it is polite not to make an introduction so as not to impose such obligations on people.
Address terms for various people inside and outside of one’s family (Mr. Johnson, Todd, Professor, Dad, Grandpa)
Pronouns of power and solidarity- do you have different words for you and I the way Spanish and Japanese do? (tu/usted, boku/watashi/ore, etc.)
Compliments-what should you never compliment? When is a compliment rude?
Complaints, apologies, challenges, arguments, invitations, praise, explanations. . .
What is a lie? Have you ever felt lied to by an American? Has an American ever accused you of lying to them when the same behavior in your culture would not be considered a lie or a transgression of trust?
Expletives? What are the worst words or most taboo topics of conversation?

What do you think is the rudest thing you have seen Americans say or do?

The meaning of various colors. Are there colors men should not wear? Women? Children/adults? Weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies? Cars? Americans love red cars-Asians love White cars! And the always say it represents ‘purity’ but I still don’t really understand what they mean by that because it is clearly not what Americans often mean by that word which tends to be honesty and chastity

The meaning of various animals—Calling someone a pig means they are selfish or dirty in our culture, it might mean something very different in another culture. Calling someone a chicken here means they are cowardly, but in China it sometimes means someone is a prostitute, I have heard. Dragons are villains in Western literature by heroes in Asian lore.

Most of all, how does an American choose from the various forms and functions available to achieve her/his interactional goals in a given encounter with specific individuals in specific contexts. What are the elements of interaction that serve as cues/determiners for the right level and type of politeness? What are the relative values of each component? E.g., is age more important than length of acquaintance relative to the same relationship in U.S. culture? What would make members of this culture love and admire an American interacting with them?