Long Interview with Catherine

Research Goals

Get another perspective on the outside-of-Syracuse discourse group.

Figure out if that group is a community and/or a discourse community.

Expose any discourse community specific dialects or actions.

Interview Questions

1. Can you tell when another person on campus is not from the Syracuse area?
2. Do you feel a connection with other people not from the Syracuse area?
3. Do you think there are certain aspects that differentiate you from people from the Syracuse area?
4. Do you want to be part of the Syracuse area community?
5. Do you feel like people from Syracuse have a certain dialect or set of actions?
6. Do you feel you would be at an advantage if you were from the Syracuse area?

Concerns/Limits

Many students are often afraid to admit problems either socially or academically, which may cause students to code-switch to avoid embarrassment.

An outsider could understand this discourse and might code-switch to answer the questions the way they “should” be answered rather than give the real answer.

Observatory notes about Catherine

Catherine seemed calm and readily consented to interview. She was wearing a New England Patriots shirt and jeans. Catherine seemed confident and outgoing. Before the interview I discussed the patriots loss on Sunday and she seemed angered at the topic as she was wearing a Patriots shirt. She was deeply angered about the loss and went on to talk about the game and Tom Brady’s touchdown record being broken. She told me that she planned to return to Boston this weekend to visit her family. When I asked her if I could use this interview in my blog she comically said know, until I convinced her I would change her name.

 Observatory notes about location

We met in the Boland hall lobby where we had a short conversation before starting the interview. Catherine seemed hesitant at first, but she quickly opened up and began answering the questions more thoroughly.  It was fairly late at night, so it was pretty quiet and there were few distraction, except the few people I had to motion to be quiet.

Q: Can you tell when another person on Campus is not from the Syracuse area?

A: Sometimes.

Q You say sometimes?

A:Yea.

Q: Like give an example

A: like some people obviously know there way around and they know the city and others don’t, so I don’t Know.

Q: Do you feel like they have an advantage?

A: Knowing there way around? Yea.

Q: Like academically ?

A: No.

Q: Not academically?

A: No.

Q: Socially?

A: Socially, Yea.

Q: It gives them an advantage socially?

A: Sure.

Q: In what examples have you seen this?

A: I don’t know, kids just know how to navigate downtown really well so they don’t have to stay in campus area, so that’s like a different place to go.

Q: Do you feel a connection between other people not from the Syracuse area?

A: Sure, I feel a connection with everyone

Q: And how has that affected your time here?

A: I don’t know, usually people from the same state and stuff, I have more to talk to them about

Q: Does that give you an academic advantage?

A: No.

Q: Social advantage?

A: Sure.

Q So your socially advantigized by…

A: That’s not a word.

Q: Advantagized…

A: Not a word, you’re at a social advantage.

Q: You’re at a social advantage because you know people from Syracuse and can recognize that?

A: Sure.

Q; And you can recognize these people?

A: Yea.

Q: Do you think there are certain aspects that differentiate you from the people of the Syracuse area?

A: I hate all New York teams. That’s about it; and I say wicked.

3 Documents Catherine wrote:

Analysis

During my interview with Catherine, I kept thinking about the first thing she said. Just prior to the interview, when I asked her if I could interview her for this project, answered with the phrase “cool beans”.  When I heard this I realized that this phrase was part of the dialect of the non-Syracuse discourse community. Catherine stated that she did not think that non-Syracuse and Syracuse people were separate groups or that she did not have enough friends from Syracuse to recognize the group. Catherine said she did not think the were separate groups, but she later said that her particular actions and dialect were affected by her location. Catherine said she uses the word “wicked” and “hates all NY sports teams”. These aspects of Catherine’s Identity are directly related to location and reflecting upon  my interview with Kiernan, my roommate from Syracuse, I realized that he had his own specific dialect that originate from the influence of his location. Location also affected Kiernan’s actions similarly to the way location affected Catherine’s actions. Kiernan does laundry weekly, unlike most people who do it once every two weeks. Kiernan is able to do this because he takes his laundry home every weekend and has his mom do it. These actions influenced by location create discourse communities based one location. Catherine also mentioned that someone from Syracuse would know there way around town better. This adds to the idea of different dialects based on location. If Kiernan started talking to Catherine about a street downtown, Catherine would not know what street he was talking about. This makes Catherine and outsider to the Syracuse area discourse community. When I finished that interview I was worried that the interview had not answered my research questions, but as I reflect on the interview I am surprised at the amount of evidence that Catherine gave me that the from-Syracuse and not-from-Syracuse discourse communities are very different. Overall I am glad that I chose Catherine to be an interviewee for this project and, although she did not believe the argument that  from-Syracuse and not-from-Syracuse are discourse communities, she provided evidence to make an argument that they are.