Interview # 1

Name SISAY GIRMAY
Class English 191
Section 21
Interviewee Nora Frempong
Country Ghana
Date 10/22/2009

I interviewed a student at St. Cloud State University who is originally from Ghana which is located in the western part of Africa. The student’s name is Nora Frempong. She came to the United States before a year for the first time but she went back to Ghana after staying here for about seven months. But she came back to the United States of America for school in January of 2009 and is currently attending her freshmen year at SCSU.
Sisay: - Tell me about Ghana
Nora: - Ghana is like the size of Minnesota, it is not a big country, there are about 18 million people. Not a big country, Most of the people are black and small population of white people that live in the capital city which is Accra. What else can I tell you, yes the religion. The religion in Ghana is mostly I think I would say about 70 % Christian, 20 % Muslim and the rest are traditional beliefs.
Sisay: - How long have you been in United States of America?
Nora: - I have been in America before. I was here for about seven month last year in 2008 to visit my uncle in Connecticut then I went back home. Then I came back here before two month for school.
Sisay: - Do you have families or siblings in the United States?
Nora: - Yes. I have my uncle and my cousin that lives in Connecticut.
Sisay: - How did you keep in touch with your families and friends back home?
Nora: - Well phone calls are kind of expensive to call like every two days or every week so most of the time through e-mail umm and sometimes we chat through yahoo messenger or face book. Phone calls are once in a while.
Sisay: - How was the home sickness treating you?
Nora: - Yes I miss my families very much. I miss my mom because I am close with my mother and I don’t think I have ever been so far away from my mother for this long. Back home I went to boarding school but she used to come and visit me almost every week and I used to see her then but here I don’t know when I am going to see her because it’s not easy to come and go so I miss my mom a lot. I miss my friends and is it ok if I say I miss my boy friend not as much home sick but it’s not as much as it was at first at the beginning when I first came I felt a lot of thing I really want to go back home but its better now I guess because I have friends here.
Sisay: - What is the family life like in your country?
Nora: - Ok in Ghana, its ok for extended family to live with you I mean it’s not like everybody is father, mother and children. Most of the time people let their sisters, brothers and cousins live with them. For me I guess it’s kind of different because I am not fully African I mean I am half Ghanaian and half Russian so my mom doesn’t really like the extended family thing because she was from Russia and she didn’t used to that because she was from a neutral families. So my dad hasn’t got the chance to bring his families to live with us.
Sisay: - Do you have brothers and sisters?
Nora: - I have a younger brother and then I have an older brother I am the middle child. My older brother is in university and actually he is here in New York. My younger brother is in Ghana with my parents in junior high school.
Sisay: - What do you and your friends do for fun back home?
Nora: - Umm where I live is a small town and there are not lots of interesting things to do and there are not lots of places to go but when I am at home where I live, I mostly go to see a movie or we rent movies and watch them at home and we just hang out and talk. But when I went to the city, the capital where I have other friends, we used to go out to eat fast foods, to see movies, to the parties and clubs once in a while. There are not lots of places like amusement parks where you just go there and have fun or entertain yourself. Sometimes me and my family we used to do it but because everybody is dispersed and busy we were not doing it like before. During summer we used to go to historic places or national reserve where there are a lot of animals and to the north where there are a lot of rivers.
Sisay: - Have you experience any culture shock?
Nora: - I guess not because I have been here before, and there is no such thing that made me say oh my God. The first time I came here it wasn’t that different I guess because I used to see all on movies and on TV. I wouldn’t say culture shock but maybe culture bump. Even though I have been here for a while, I still don’t like the food that much. Back home we used to eat rice almost every day with everything but here, I don’t like the rice. They eat lots of macaroni and potatoes here but we eat once in awhile. We had lots of spicy foods but here the food is more blunt unless you went to a Mexican restaurant. Even the peppers are not like that. We used to eat fast foods once in awhile but here it’s almost every day.
Sisay: - What is your first coming experience to United States of America?
Nora: - When I first came to America I arrived at the New York airport. The air port in Ghana is not a busy one like the New York one. At the New York air port people are busy and you can’t even find anyone to ask for a direction. So that the first thing that confused me when I arrived in America.
Sisay: - Did you find it easy to make friends or did you feel alienated?
Nora: - When I came here I already knew a friend that lived in my neighborhood back home and I know him since I was a kid from so it was much easier for me because I can imagine if I didn’t know him and I just came here and didn’t know anyone I know it would be hard for me. Generally I am a shy kind of person and I personally don’t approach people and say hi so knowing him help me to know some friends that he knows and those are the people that I know and hangout most of the time. At the same time I think as time went on it became much easier for me especially in class for example in my ESL150 class there are more international students and it’s a small class so a lot of them became my friends it’s easy to relate to them because they actually know what you’re talking about I mean when you say something they easily understand it. I found it hard to communicate with white people it’s not like I have something against them it’s just that sometimes the moment they know that you’re not your from America I don’t know what they feel they don’t know what to ask you or they don’t know what to say. I believe we all have a common interest back home I was listening music that you listen or movies that you see so we could talk about them. But I feel I don’t know whether they are interested or they just don’t know how to talk about it but so far only one white friend her name is Megan. Megan was more like she doesn’t care I guess she is care free and she was a friend with everybody and she just find anything to talk to you about I think it’s easy to be friend with her.
Sisay: - Why did you choose Saint Cloud State University?
Nora: - Do remember the friend that I know from back home that’s here? His parents convinced my parents and they found it generally affordable and they offer the academic and cultural scholarship so that’s one thing what attracted my parents. Because I had another school in Canada but they gave scholarship like $3000 based on academic so it was easy for my dad to send me here because he is the one who is paying. It’s not cheap but it’s affordable. My friend told his parents that he likes this place and that it’s a good school. I like it because it’s a good environment and it’s a not a big city. I want to go to school in New York but my parents say if you go there you will not going to study you will go to go out every day. I think it’s good that it’s in a small town and its good learning environment.
Sisay: - How is your country’s educational structure when compared with United States of America?
Nora: - Generally since I came here the subjects that I have been doing I find them easy because I took them when I was in high school. I took them when I was in first year in high school these are like so much easier for me to understand because in Ghana we learn the hard ones at the younger age we do a lot of math and I did calculus so I don’t have to do it here because I already did it there. What I want to say is we took the higher level classes at younger age. The other difference is when we were in high school we can choose to be an art or a science. So for me as a science student I never did economics or other subject like drawing or geography I just did physics, biology, chemistry and math for the core subjects like English and social studies. If you’re science students in high school then it’s easy for you to branch when you went to college. You could art or visual art but it’s hard for visual art students to learn biology or chemistry. I like it here a lot because Here because you got a chance to try everything you’re not limited to take few subjects they have a good system you can choose what you want to take and they have lots of departments and you can change your major as anytime. This helps a lot for students that don’t know what they want to study. I was in college in Ghana for one semester and they don’t take attendance classes are not mandatory and the professors are not like those that are here. Here they are willing to help you anytime.
Sisay: - What are your goals in life?
Nora: - I want to be a pharmacist I am taking a pre-pharmacy courses and I want to apply to University of Minnesota pharmacy school or University of California San Francisco so if I want to apply there I feel like I need to get a degree because its competitive there and it’s expensive and I need to get a scholarship same time. I want to do both pharmacy and forensic science actually I want to do minor in forensic science because I am so interested in it. I always had a dream of having a pharmaceutical company so I want to do it first in my country and then expand it in other countries.
Sisay: - Do you think coming to America will help you achieve those goals?
Nora: - Yes I think there are a lot of opportunities and I guess they don’t have to come to you but you have to go to them so here there different opportunity to better myself such as experiencing so many things, meet different people from different countries and if I got a degree from America and went back to my country I will have a good and competitive degree than someone that’s graduated from my country.
Sisay: - Do you plan to go back to your country after graduation?
Nora: - Umm I don’t know I am still thinking about it because I would like to stay here but it’s not like I want to live here I love my country and I want to do something for my country. My country needs lots of pharmacist so I want to help. There are only 110 pharmacists in the whole country for 18 million people. It’s not only in Ghana that pharmacists are needed here too. So I would have a great chance to find a job here.
Sisay: - What is your native language?
Nora: - Everybody speaks English but there are different languages depending on the area that you’re living but at the same time English is spoken by everyone and then we have Akan which is spoken by everybody where I live in the south. Akan is the dominant but the working language is English.
Sisay: - What are the main festivals in your country and how do they compare to the festivals that we celebrate here?
Nora: - Well they have a festival called Udra. Udra festival is to remember who were dead it’s like Halloween here. We have a festival called Kundum or Yam to celebrate harvest so when the harvest time comes they gather to celebrate it by preparing a big fest. The other festival is called Depo which is like an initiation for young boys and girls.
Sisay: - What do you think is the reason for not starting dating at early age in Ghana?
Nora: - I know for fact my dad he cannot tell me that he did not date anyone when he was my age but I guess the fact that I am a girl. If I was a guy he would be much more like he wouldn’t care but because I am a girl he feels like more protective over me because for my brother he doesn’t even care what he’s doing if he dating this girl or dating that girl he just tell him the basic stuff about protection and all that not to go there and getting someone pregnant but he doesn’t take it so personally like he did with me. Because he knows guys he was in that age. So he knows what most guys intention is at that age plus where I live is a small town and if I do something and if I am in the outside and if someone see me hugging my friends the next minute they will tell to my dad oh we saw her hugging someone and he doesn’t like that people telling him those things. It’s not like here because when I talk to my American friends they say so you can’t bring your boy friend for dinner I am like what no it’s not like here in Ghana. If you’re sure that you’re going to marry that person then you will introduce to your families.
Sisay: - Do you think the United States has affected your country in any ways? Positive or negative?
Nora: - Yes lots of western cultures come to Ghana we’re watching the same movies, we’re listening the same music lots of stores that are here like Macy’s are opened in Ghana too. A lot of people think that when you come here life will be easier and you will be rich like the celebrity life so lots of people are so eager to come here.
Sisay: - You have answered all of my questions, thank you. Do you have anything that you would like to add?
Nora: - Umm yes I think I just want to tell people that America is a wonderful place to live and is a land of many opportunity but there are other places apart from America you know people are focusing to come here but there are other place that have different cultures and incorporated to your cultures.