My third interview

(1)   Interview preparations:

After the class Brandon asked me which country I chose and I told him that I chose United States and he told me he chose Saudi Arabia, so we exchanged phone numbers. We decided to meet in the library on November 6th at 2:00 pm. We got a study room to be comfortable.

(2) Interview report

 The interview went great I felt comfortable and Brandon looked comfortable. Brandon answered my questions in a very clear way. He was very open to any questions. And I enjoyed doing the interview.

(3) Country Report

The United States of America is a constitution-based federal republic located in North America, bordering with Mexico and Canada. The country consists of 50 states and one district and is the fourth largest country in the world having the total area of 3.79 million square miles. The climate of the country is mostly temperate but arctic in Alaska, tropical in Hawaii and Florida. . Due to the vast territory of the country, in the U.S. you can see all the variety of terrain - from lowlands to mountain ranges and climate - from arctic cold to tropical heat. The continental part of the United States of America is divided into four time zones("Central Intelligence Agency " ).

 The general population of the country is around 316 million people, making the US the third most populous country in the world and one of the most diverse ones. ("United States Census Bureau" ). The majority of the U.S. population (over 80%) live in urban or suburban areas. Major U.S. cities - New York, NY (more than 8 million inhabitants), Los Angeles, California (more than 3.8 million inhabitants) and Chicago, Illinois (more than 2.7 million inhabitants). Around these cities were formed and the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.

US has no official national language, however English is recognized as official in 28 states and the state of Hawaii made official Hawaiian. The second most spoken language is Spanish (near 10% of the population). The majority of the population are Christian with near 51% being Protestants, 24% - Catholics and near 5% being adherent to other faith. ("Religious Landscape Survey " )

The United States emerged from the British colonies and declared its independence on July 4, 1776 and seven years later it was recognized by the Britain. Since 1800 Washington, DC has been the capital of the country. Under the Constitution, the US government is divided into three branches: legislative – consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate, executive – the President and the Vice President and the judicial branch, which is represented by the Supreme Court of the United States. ("Central Intelligence Agency") The head of the state and the head of the government is the President of the United States, who leads the executive branch and fulfills the duty of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Until the WW I U.S. foreign policy activity was limited by the interests of the territories of North, Central and South America, according to the formulated in 1823 the Monroe Doctrine. After the First World War, the United States Congress did not give consent to join international organizations (such as the League of Nations and the Court of International Justice), which limited the U.S. role in world politics. In 1945, the U.S. became the first nuclear power. Since 1946, the United States were in a state of global confrontation with the Soviet Union, which lasted until the end of the 1980s.

Currently, the U.S. economy is the world's highest levels of GDP ( 15.1 trillion dollars in 2011, 22 % of world GDP)("Report for Selected Countries and Subjects"). The U.S. has powerful armed forces, including the world's largest naval force, have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, they are also one of the founders of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO). The U.S. has the largest capacity on the total nuclear capacity in the world ("Nuclear Information Project."). With the greatest economic, political, cultural and military influence in the world the United States is the only superpower in the modern world.

The United States gave the world many writers, musicians, actors, athletes and other distinguished personalities. They are also numerous attractions in the United States hosted many tourists the country. The most interesting and visited has unique natural features (such as Niagara Falls in New York City, the Grand Canyon in Arizona or geysers of Yellowstone National Park) on the border of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana), historical monuments (such as unusual rock city of Mesa Verde Colorado or estate of the first U.S. President George Washington's Mount Vernon in Virginia), the original architectural structures (among which - the famous Empire State building and the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn bridge in New York City and the "Golden Gate" in San Francisco), and various entertainment facilities ("Disneyland" in Florida and California, Las Vegas casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey, Broadway theaters and many, many others)("Ton 10 Attractions in 50 States of America").

Works cited

"Religious Affiliation." Religious Landscape Survey . n.d. n. page. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://religions.pewforum.org/reports>.

"The World Factbook." Central Intelligence Agency . n.d. n. page. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html>.

"U.S. and World Population Clock." United States Census Bureau. n.d. n. page. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://www.census.gov/popclock/>.

"Status of Nuclear Weapons States and Their Nuclear Capabilities." The Nuclear Information Project.. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov 2013. <http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/summary.htm>.

"Report for Selected Countries and Subjects."International Monetary Fund. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov 2013. <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2013/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2010&ey=2013&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=72&pr1.y=17&c=111&s=NGDPD,NGDPDPC,PPPGDP,PPPPC,PPPSH,LP&grp=0&a=>.

"Ton 10 Attractions in 50 States of America." Attractions of America. N.p.. Web. 7 Nov 2013. <http://www.attractionsofamerica.com/>.

(4) Interview transcription

Faisal = F   Brandon = B

F : Hi Brandon how are you doing ? 

B: I'm doing pretty good 

F: Ok I have interview for English class 191 so if you would like to answer my questions 

B : Yup , I'm happy to answer your questions .

F: My first question is do you like the weather in St.cloud and please explain ? 

B: yeah i really like the weather in st. cloud  , now that its getting about winter time its hard to make the transition into winter , but I have lived here my hole my life so eventually i know how to adjust it , but winter time its get pretty cold and i prefer it be worm but during the summer i really like Minnesota I have been to other places during the summer and we have kind of the nicest weather its kind of hot but not so hot , but winter time definitely gets cold .

F : Where are you from ?

B: I'm from Sauk Rapids its like a suburb to st. cloud , so i can make it to my home city in like 20 minutes , I'm from the country a little bet , and yeah i live pretty close to St.cloud

F: so what do you do for your free time ?

B: this year i just got a house with my friends from St.cloud on campus , so when I ever have a free time from school and work i usually hang out with my roommates i have four of them so i usually hang out with them or other friends around the area , since i'm from here i know quite a few kids that never went to school and just kind of work , so there always around , if i want to do something i just text them or call them , thats usually what I do .

F: so you don't go to the theatre ?

B: yeah every once on a while , but you usually can find more productive activity for a little bet cheaper , so i usually do that . some other stuff I do like in winter time I go snowmobiling I really enjoy it , we have to get a lot of snow and the last couple of winters we have not had enough snow really to go , but once we get enough snow thats what i'm doing , during the fall I go hunting and stuff in my free time but I don't have enough free time .

F: Hunting ! what did you got ?

B: a lot of stuff I come from family that are big hunters , main things that we would hunt lets say like this weekend is the white tail deer opener , you can use guns , rifles , and shotguns . I'm going try to make it up this weekend maybe I shoot a deer , so i go white tail hunting , waterfowl  like ducks and geese I go hunting for them .

F: could you please talk about your self ?

B: I would say very outgoing I like to do stuff I don't like to be cooped up , I like to go out and just do stuff like if its nice out if we are all sits inside so as my roommates and play baseball or something , so i'm pretty active I like to do stuff , as right know school is a big part of my life so I'm like school driven so I want to get in and get out of college . lets say that outgoing  , I like to talk to people , and I have a lot of friends that I just talk to in a regular basis .

F: How often do you communicate with your family ?

B: like I said before I'm from Sauk Rapids which is like my home , I can make it there in 15 minutes so I would say more often because my family are always there , so its more than a factor that i know they are there so I only come to check up or if I need something I know where they at , and if they need something they know where I'm at . I would say its at least once a week and I go home every two weeks , maybe every week . 

F: Whats the biggest holiday in your country ?

B: I would say specially for my family we only celebrate the big holidays that we have in america like Christmas , Thanks giving ,  and Easter . Those are the only holidays that my family really celebrates and on those days we usually just our immediate family like my grandparents and then all there kids , maybe like 20 people get together , and we just eat a lot of food and kind of hang out and talk . well a lot of my immediate family are pretty much around this area so we talk like pretty regularly , we usually communicate through the gaps between the holidays but its the only time we all gets together .

F: Tell me some important things from your culture ?

B: From our culture , well I have been to some other countries before , i've been to England , Ireland , and Wales . those countries are different but I have the same feeling I do like when I'm here , its hard to answer for me the important things , I would say now a days friends are big , and couple decades ago family was a big part in american culture , and it was really family oriented , but know we have our free range , so what ever you want to do you can do it , and that's what I like about it specially with school and going to college , like in America everything is kind of possible , Thats one of the main important things .

F: What are your goals for the future after you graduate ?

B: After I graduate here if all goes well I'm applying this january for the nursing program and if I do very well in the nursing exam , and hopefully get a job in a hospital .

 

F: Do you plan to work in a specific city ?

B: It's going to be kind of hard because like I said before my immediate family are around St.cloud area , like I have one aunt who moved to Oklahoma , and my family because they are all around this area , her moving away everybody kind of complains about it , and my family they've always liked me and pushed me to do good  , so if I move away I know its going to be devastating like for them , but I want to get out of St.cloud very soon . I haven't decided if want to stay here somewhere in Minnesota , because I do like Minnesota it's a good state ,  I like hunting not many other states actually have civilization like I would say like Minnesota its pretty populated , and we also have that hunting aspect , like if I go to some other state like , North Dakota , Colorado , and Montana like those states where you have hunting but there is nothing there . I might stay here in MN but its what ever the best opportunity for me to make the most money out of a hospital specially after college and I can always move back if I want to .

F: So do you have any questions for me I have asked you a lot of questions ?

B: I had one from the beginning but I can remember it 

F: That's ok thank you very much .

B: Yup no problem .