the journal about my sound research project

China is in the opposite side of United States. We need to take 17 hours from Shanghai to Syracuse by airplane. However, now Chinese students are the biggest group of people among all the international students in the Syracuse University.

As a Chinese student myself, I can contact with many other Chinese students. I find that because of the differences on languages, the differences on culture, and the differences on outlooks, a Chinese student’s life is different with an American student, and also different with other Chinese students. So what’s their daily life? Do they suffer from homesick? Can they understand what teachers said in the class? Are they happy here? I am interested in these questions.

Actually, the student example “assign3_rsch_Jlee_final” gives me this inspiration first. Students reported are international students. They talked about their experiences and habits in that work using their native languages. So I think I can also do a sound research about international students.

What’s more, I decided to do this research also because I have many Chinese friends here, their life and thought make up the center and the edge of the culture around me.  As a result, I chose this topic.

After decided the topic, I start to collect the information. First I went to the Slocum Hall- the hall of architecture, since I have many friends majored in architecture. They are all very hard working since they stay up all night to do their project even in Saturday night. By the way, I also collect some sounds like the sound of using scissors and the sound of cutting materials hope that they may be the background sounds of my work.

I reported many architecture students, but I found that my interviewees’ lives are too similar, so I began to report students in other majors. Then, as I supposed before, I got much more different information.

However, I meet some trouble about the research. I have no idea about whether the interviewees speak Chinese in the work is better or they speak English is better. If they speak Chinese, my sound research may seem more authentic and spontaneous. But if they speak English, my audiences would be easier to understand the content. I have also considered about use both Chinese and English, but I am afraid that if I do so, maybe the final project would be very chaotic. But I still record both the Chinese version and the English version of the report. Maybe I can figure out this problem by try both of them when editing my work.

6 questions:

1.     (In the angle of native American audiences)

Is it better for interviewees to use English to talk or use Chinese?

2.     (In the angle of all the audiences) What is the highlight of this works?

3.     (In the angle of professor) How can the work get a high grade?

4.     (In the angle of interviewees) Is it Ok if I show the interviewees’ personal information in the work?

5.     (In the angle of myself) Can I add some rhythm in it although the rhythm is nothing to do with the content?

6.     (In the angle of Chinese audiences) Could this work show the situation of most Chinese students in the Syracuse University?