February 25, 2014 Instructor Course: Dance and Culture, 1010 Assignment Favour Mbaogu Ethnographic Interview Noosha

is my friend who came from Iran, we are good friends since the time we took ESL class together .the day I called her and told her that Ill like to interview her for my assignment. She said know problem then we schedule time. And during the interview everything was successful even she email me some of the information that I didnt get on the first day. I chose her for this interview because I always hear many thing about Iran like nuclear weapon and war. She came to the United States in 2012 by herself. She has been staying here for two years. She told me a lot of things about her experience seeing everything different from the culture she grew up with because shes a Muslim. I learned many things about Iran. She told me that Iran have two official language Persian and Farsi. one of the things that surprise me is when I ask her if shes married, she said according to their Culture she have to be at least 25 years old before getting married. Because they need to get an enough experience how to take care of their family before you get married. She told me they have two different types of currency, Persians and Toman and the value of the money compare by U.S dollar, one dollar there is valued double, for an example $1 is 4 Persians while $1 is 3500 Toman. And. I remember asking her about the houses and she laughed a little bit, and said houses in Iran is made of brick while in the United States here they build most of the house with wood, houses made of wood seem to her like toy

houses made for dolls. Noosha said another thing surprise her here is, you cant pick a taxi on the street whenever you need unless you called them to come, while in Iran taxi is always available on the street whenever you want to go out .And Elders who retired or discriminated from work are usually hired, so they start working as Taxi drivers. Due to this you will see multiple taxi cabs waiting on the streets. Not just Taxi drivers but many street vendors as well selling foods and a other articles she mentioned that transportation her is difficult sometime if dont have a car. According to what she told me about the Iran Culture, in Iran family is basis of social structure. People care about each other and friendly to everyone. Families always lived together and do everything together. But the Americans have individual life, the concept of the family is more private than in many other cultures. She said family made to protect each other from outside influences and are taken care of at all time. And Iranians take responsible to their family quite seriously. And one thing that making her unhappy here is seeing young people not respecting the elder the way they do in Iran. And when grandpa and grandma become older their grandson will lived together with them in order to take care of them. but in the United States here Teenagers moved to their own house or do whatever they want as soon as they become 18 years old. In Iran young people respect who so ever that older than you, when their entered bus, like public transports in Iran young people allowed elders to seat down first before they seat or stand to show dignity to the elders. I also learned that, there are four different types Religion in Iran such as Muslim, Zoroastrian, Bahia, and Christianity. But seeing like Muslims are the majority among others. There is a law in Muslim culture called sharia law. This sharia law is very important in Koran, it tell them what to do and what not to do. For an example they cant drink alcohol believing that alcohol has an evil spirit which can

Lead them to evil things. They dont eat pork meat because according to the Koran, they said that pig is an evil and unclean animal which is not good to eat as food. Another important thing I leaned is, Muslims usually pray up to four to five time a day and before then, they must washed they face, hand and leg before praying as a purification. In the Muslim culture women are not allowed to expose their body in the public believed that only their husband is allowed to see their body. Every woman must cover her body with vale while going out on the street. I also understand that woman must remain virgin until she get married, according to their Sharia law its an abomination to have sex before married. But is not all of them are keeping this law, meanwhile, those that keep this law not to have sex until their married. The day she will get married according to Muslim culture it be a very big celebration honor and respect to the family of the girl. The Persian or Iranian wedding is different from U.S, for instance the ceremony takes place in a special decorated room with flowers and beautiful designs, fancy dresses. They invite a lot of people and dance for a couple of hours in the wedding. Through this interview Noosha shows me different type of Persian food like (kabab) which is one of popular food in many countries. They prepared it with rice. They also have (Tah-Chin) a savory saffron rice-cake with filling, commonly marinated chicken fillets. (Chormeh Sabzi) is prepared with green vegetable stew. And( Abgoosht) is made with meat. After I interviewed Noosh, I understand some of her difficulties experience since she moved to Utah here. She complain about feeling lonely some time I ask her why, she said people in Utah are not friendly that many occasion she asked and trying to get help from people here that they didnt respond and ignore her. And there is inequality, discrimination and tribalism in Utah. She said, the day she got ticket from police she feel so sad, I ask her why you got ticket and what did you do?. She said, the police man said that she is not maintaining the speed limit.

And she dont know that every road here has a speed per hour. But in Iran they dont have speed limit, you can speed as much as you can. Another big problem according to her is language by learning English as a second language, sometime people dont understand her accent so she keep repeating all the time for them to understand her. Employment is one of most thing she experience when she came her till now, she said if youre not from here or members of ADS church will not get job easily as well. My conclusion in this ethnographic interview is all about culture differences. When you moved to another country that doesnt have the same culture with you. You will experience a lot difference, thing will not be easy for the first time. When you moved to a new country the first problem you will face is, the types food they have, and you learn how to eat it, but you might be sick for the first time until you custom system. Follow by language barriers. You cannot do anything or communicate without the language. After learning the language, then you can be able communicate with people around. Then the next thing you need to do is to start learning the culture which is different from your culture. Learning the new culture is very important so that you will not get in trouble, this tradition and culture will direct what you need to do and what not to do. For an example each and every road in Utah has speed limit per hour which other places doesnt. Sometime you might be discriminated because of your Race or Religion. Finally, I really enjoy this ethnographic interview assignment because it help me to understand many cultures and tradition from different country for an example after my interview with Noosha I learned a lot of things about Iran which I do not know before. Such as Iranian currency are Persian and Toman and the languages Persian and Farsi I also learned the three different religion Muslim, Zoroastrian, Bahai and Christianity.