1st Interview Report

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In preparation for the interview that I had conducted with Carl Grundell, who is from Sweden, I gathered some information about Sweden, had created a list of questions that I had emailed him prior to the interview, that way Carl would be able to look over the questions. The objectives that I have with the interview is, I want to learn the struggles that someone would have with coming over to the United States and trying to make a living, also want to learn about Carl’s country. When it came time to interview Carl, we decided to have the interview take place at his home, because he is a very busy man and that way it would be most convenient for him. He lives in Lakeville, Minnesota. The interview took place on October 24, 2009 at noon; he could not do the interview during the week because he works and only the weekends work for him. When it came time to decide how I was going to the record the interview, I went and purchased a recording device.

The recording device became very helpful when I found out that I was going to have to approach three students, who are international, and I was quite nervous. The first thought that ran through my head was how am I going to approach students without feeling embarrassed. After class, I had called my mother with ideas on how I could approach students, instead of giving me ideas on how to approach students my Mother suggested that I interview Carl Grundell, who works with her. I thought this was a terrific idea, because everyone else in the class is interviewing students, how great would it be to get an adult’s perspective of the United States. To get in touch with Carl, to see if he would be willing to let me interview him, I had emailed him and asked. Carl was more that happy to let me interview him. So through emails we were able to set up a time that worked best for Carl.

When it came down to decided when, where and how the interview was going to be conducted, I wanted to make sure that it was going to be most convenient for Carl, after all he is taking time out his day to help me. He and I decided the best time that would work would be on a weekend day, we couldn’t do a Sunday, because he loves to watch football, on Sunday, October 25, the Vikings and Pittsburgh were playing each other, and those are his two favorite NFL teams. So we decided that Saturday, October 24^th at noon, would work best that way he didn’t have to wake up early and after the interview he would be able to do what he needed to do. The interview would take place at Carl’s house in Lakeville, Minnesota. The interview was conducted in his office because his wife Kelly, and three-year-old son Eli were home, and he didn’t want them to bother us. When it came to recording the interview, using my small recorder.

The person to whom I interviewed was Carl Grundell. He is from Sweden, the southern part, a town call Malmo. He moved to the United States in 1955. He is 35 years old, lives in Lakeville Minnesota, with his wife, Kelly who was born in the United States, and has a son, Eli, who Kelly and Carl adopted from Guatemala two years ago, and Eli is three years old. His interests are working out, hanging out with friends, going to the movies, and sports especially Hockey and Football. His favorite football team is the Minnesota Vikings, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The interview process for me was easy, because Carl spoke excellent english; he was quite willing to let me interview him. During the interview, he gave me good information, but I do wish I could have gotten more, before the interview started he stated that he could talk about the questions for hours, but he do his best to summarizes. He could not go on and on because his father was in town. The interview went smoothly, there really was not any awkward silence. If I would think of more questions on the fly, he was willing to let me ask them and we would talk about them. He has a dog, which was a Boxer just like my brother dog, and we were able to talk about that for a minute, and we also rambled on about a sports for a bit because we both enjoy hockey and football. What shocked me the most about the interview was when I asked him if he missed his country and if he would ever go back, he stated that he did not miss Sweden and that he wouldn’t go back. I thought he would definitely would miss Sweden, but he thinks of the United States as his home, and Sweden is just a place that he would go and visit for a vacation and not a place that he would live. There was a part in the interview that did move me, and that was when I asked the question, what things are unacceptable in your country compared to the United States. He stated that when it comes to drinking and driving in Sweden no one does it. When people go to a party and have a couple of drinks they do not get into their car and drive home, they will have a sober cab or they will spend the night. Sweden has a very strict no drinking and driving there. He is quite surprised to see that so many people here will go out drinking and then go home, he stated that, that would never happen in Sweden, people know better. Also, when I asked, what is the attitude towards divorce, he stated that Sweden has the highest divorce rate in the world, I thought that the United States would be one of the highest because I know so many people that their parents are divorced. Other than, the absolute no drinking and driving policy and the divorce rate, I wasn’t really surprised or shocked about his answers.

Sweden where Carl is from is located in Northern Europe, the capital is Stockholm, and the population of Sweden is nine million. Sweden is called, “The land of the midnight sun,” or, “The land of the Vikings.” The Swedish flag is based on the Scandinavian Cross design first adopted by Denmark about 800 years ago. The colors were taken from the Swedish coat of arms; the flag has a yellow cross on a blue background. Over half of Sweden’s population belongs to the Swedish church, which is a Lutheran Church. The Swedish language is similar to the English alphabet, but the Swedish language has three more letters. The currency of Sweden is Krona, Sweden is not connected to the Euro. When it comes to the food, the food that is most popular would be the Swedish meatball, pasta dishes, they have a lot of German foods, the preparations are pretty similar. The types of clothes that people wear in Sweden are similar to what people wear here in the United States. When it comes to transportation in Sweden they public transportation, many people will use the public transportation rather than use their own vehicle. In family’s household, they will only have one car, rather than each person have their own vehicle. The important Holidays in Sweden are January 1^st, Easter, Good Friday, Church Holiday in May, Christmas Day, and Christmas Eve. When it comes to sports in Sweden the most popular sport is Football, which is Soccer to the United States. Sweden has a similar government system as the United States. Sweden is a great country, I would love to go and visit this country some day.