My boyfriend has always been someone that I look up to, we are really different yet similar in so many ways, and doing this interview with him was no doubt a good way to get to know each other better and it was a fun experience for both of us.
He came to China a year and half ago, working as an English teacher at an English tutoring center, most of the times we are in different countries but we always try to make the best of every situation.
I set up the interview over Skype and started by a pretty common question, "why did you come to China in the first place? "
"A good friend of mine, Tom, you know him, he was working at this English tutoring center with his wife and they both loved the job and the city. So when the tutoring center needed a new foreign teacher, I took the chance and applied for the job, I'm still really glad I did."
"Have you been to China before, or any Asian countries?"
"No, I haven't, but I have heard so many wonderful things about Yantai from Tom so I wasn't that worried. I went to Japan with my parents when I was little so I can't really remember any of it but I think I had fun."
"Which country do you like better? England or China?"
"To be honest I love it here, England is always so gloomy and cold and wet all year round, the weather here is quite perfect, and the people are really nice to me all the time."
"Is Chinese hard to learn?"
And then he started to laugh real hard with a little embracement on his face, "you know how it has been for me, it is so hard, I can never get those intonations right but I am glad that you are always there to help and correct me."
"What is your biggest passion?"
"Music, guitar definitely, guitar was my major back in University and I have been playing guitar for 12 years." And then he pointed at the two guitars right beside his bed, one electric and one acoustic and laughed.
"Wonderful, I'm going to go on to some personal questions, are you ready for that?"
"Always."
"How did we first met and how long have we been dating? Don't get it wrong haha. "
"Well, we first met at the English tutoring center during my first week in Yantai, you were my teaching assistant and we have been together for over a year now and it has been great, I am glad that we have been together for so long, I feel like I have matured a lot in that time. You have been by my side during all that time, and being in a relationship with someone who you care about so much is really easy."
"What's the most important thing in being in a relationship? "
"I would say you have taught me that good relationships really depend on honesty and respect, and if you have that, it is pretty natural."
1. I liked how I could get to know China better and that writer showed clearly how her interviewee felt about the question such as his laughter and his expressions.
ReplyDelete2. I could understand everything clearly.
3. I think writer's purpose of this interview was to get to know her boyfriend better.
4. I felt like I could hear the direct quotation "always" with the writer's boyfriend's own voice.
5. I think there are a bit too many direct quotations in the interview.
6. So I think it would be effective if some of direct quotations are written in indirect quotations.
- Bo-won Kim