Interview Research

The subject of the theme is about fitting in. As truth can be stranger than fiction, we are to conduct interviews targeted at people who are born in another country, but currently live in the UK.

List of questions for the interview:

1 - Did anyone help you out when you first came to UK?

2 - How did you deal with homesickness?

3 - Did you know English when you came here?

4 - How did you deal with the language barrier?

5 - Was it hard to make friends?

6 - What do you think is the biggest difference (or shock) for you with British culture and [their native] culture?

7 - Do you like the UK better or your own country?

8 - Did you find it hard to fit in considering you're from another country?

9 - We're you ever discriminated in any way due to your ethnicity?

10 - Did you ever pretended to like something or be someone you're not in order to fit in or gain approval from other people?

11 - Did you ever went out with people even though you didn't like them?

12 - During your time in the UK, did you chose to find people of your own country and join their communities or did you just prefer to blend in and get along with the English instead?

Planned and recorded by Sara Nunes and Tina Tang

Interview 1

1 - Did anyone help you out when you first came to UK? 
Yes, the school i went to was really nice. A lot people helped me.

2 - How did you deal with homesickness? 
My Parents was with me, so it was ok.

3 - Did you know English when you came here? 
Only a little bit.

4 - How did you deal with the language barrier? 
I try to look at the cartoons, they are Easier to understand.

5 - Was it hard to make friends? 
Yes, its difficult to communicate with people.

6 - What do you think is the biggest difference (or shock) for you with British culture and [their native] culture?
I find it ok.

7 - Do you like the UK better or your own country? 
UK is ok but i like china better.i think UK is more of Elderly lifestyle, not really good for our age.

8 - Did you find it hard to fit in considering you're from another country? 
Yes. You do feel different.

9 - Were you ever discriminated in any way due to your ethnicity? 
Racial discrimination? Of course, not just this country. People do that if you are different.

10 - Did you ever pretended to like something or be someone you're not in order to fit in or gain approval from other people? 
I dont, that might be why i dont have a lot friends..lol

11 - Did you ever went out with people even though you didn't like them? 
NO!!

12 - During your time in the UK, did you chose to find people of your own country and join their communities or did you just prefer to blend in and get along with the English instead? 
I like to blend in with Locals. You can learn more.

Interview 2

1 - Did anyone help you out when you first came to UK?

Well not quite, the university did provide a bus to come pick international students at the airport but I think that’s about it. I had to manage the rest on my own.

2 - How did you deal with homesickness?

It was rather hard at first since I had never been out of my country, took some time to adapt but it all went well in the end, talking with my family through skype helped quite a bit.

3 - Did you know English when you came here?

Yes, just basic English they teach us at school though.

4 - How did you deal with the language barrier?

Took me some time to get used to the accents and how fast people would talk, so it was hard at times to understand what they were saying, even today I struggle a bit with that sometimes.

5 - Was it hard to make friends?

Not really, it was easier than I was expecting to actually.

6 - What do you think is the biggest difference (or shock) for you with British culture and [their native] culture?

I guess their lifestyle maybe? People here seem very fond of pubs and such, even older people. That really doesn’t happens in my country at all so I must say I was caught by surprise.

7 - Do you like the UK better or your own country?

It’s a bit hard for me to tell, here in UK I have access to things more easily and I guess I can say it’s better than my country in general but this isn’t where I grew up and lived my whole life so a part of me likes my country better for that fact alone.

8 - Did you find it hard to fit in considering you're from another country?

No not really, sure I may feel different at times because different cultures and so on but I think in general it wasn’t very hard to fit in.

9 - Were you ever discriminated in any way due to your ethnicity?

No, but I guess we’re all always “afraid” that it might happen someday, you never know, some people aren’t very tolerant of foreigners and that’s something that happens in any country really.

10 - Did you ever pretended to like something or be someone you're not in order to fit in or gain approval from other people?

I have, but this is something that quickly wears me out and see no point in doing, so I just end up not caring and just be myself, some things just aren’t worth your patience sometimes.

11 - Did you ever went out with people even though you didn't like them?

More or less yeah, just for the sake of not seeming rude or anti-social.

12 – During your time in the UK, did you chose to find people of your own country and join their communities or did you just prefer to blend in and get along with the English instead?

Well I did try to find people of my own country but they seem to be really rare findings, and the few I found were just horribly arrogant for some reason, so I choose to just get along with anyone really be it English people or of any other nationality. So yes I guess I did prefer to blend in in the end.