Preparing for this interview was a new process for me. I went into this knowing that the person I was interviewing was from Zürich and I was interested in knowing more about her business and the language atmosphere of her business. I started thinking of questions that I was going to ask. My goal was to have the questions relate to one another and to create a nice flow. My main focus was on asking about her business and the languages spoken their but I also wanted to ask about the differences that she saw between Swiss and High German since I haven’t had any experience with Swiss German before. My only concern going into the interview was the possibility of an accent, however that ended up not being a problem in the interview.
Arriving at her business, Revel, was exciting because I was looking forward to meeting her and getting to know more about the atmosphere of the bar. I started off asking about where she was from and for her to tell me about her business. My questions led into the meaning behind the name of the bar and what her goals were for the bar. After discussing the bar I asked about language differences and to my surprise she mentioned that she did not see much of a difference since she has grown up with both languages.
Filming the interview was a fun process because I got to meet someone new while connecting with them on a cultural level. Before filming, I was, however, a little bit nervous because I was worried about my German and possibly messing up. After I started filming though, those nerves went away. It turns out she was also nervous so we both sat and focused on having a conversation and forgetting the camera. One issue that I came across and had to overcome was sound quality.
Conducting this interview was a very cool process because I was able to see how cultures blend within Tucson. Planning for the interview required the most time because I had to decide what I wanted to ask and how I would create an interesting and natural flow. Overall, planning and conducting this interview was a lot of fun and I feel that I got to see a new aspect of Tucson that made me wonder how many people from different backgrounds surround me everyday.
-Alexander Zormeier, 5/5/2017