Interviewing Foreigners: The Experience

On Saturday, I went to Malioboro with my classmates Irene, Kezia, Nadya, Hilda, Thea, Cevy and Dona, looking for foreigners to complete the final project of ‘Speaking 1’. Before we go, we gathered in front of the chapel at 8 am for a breafing. I came there from Bantul at half past seven, and when I arrived in the front of the chapel, no one came yet, noticing that I came the earliest. So I waited for them. After waiting for an hour, we were all finally complete, at last. The we had a briefing and then we left tha chapel at 10 am

Arriving at Malioboro, we stopped by McD because there were still few foreigners walking around Malioboro Street. After 30 minutes waiting in McD, we went out and walked down the street toward 0 km Malioboro area. In front of Vredeburg Museum, we saw foreigners with the traditional dancer across the street. And, did you know? One of the dancer was Didi Nini Towok! It seemed like they were having an event. My friends and I wanted to take picture with him, but none of us dared to speak. Finally one of the foreigners walked toward the flute seller. Then my friend Nadya became the first one who interviewed him. Then we decided to look inside the mall and we were very grateful that although we were rejected by the foreigners three times, but many of them came to us and wanted to help us. Even there were foreigners from Australia volunteered themselves to be interviewed and asked to take picture with us. They were friendly, funny, and talkative. There were also two handsome foreigners, Irene and Hilda got chance to interview them, but my other friends and I only got chance to take picture with him. In Malioboro mall we also met our friends from other classes, but they complained that many foreigners rejected them.

Finally we got the foreigners, but Nadya, Kezia, Dona and I wanted to repeat the interview because we felt very nervous in our first interviews. I went to the 3rd floor looking for another foreigner, and when I saw one who was walking alone, I quickly approached him. Luckily, he accepted my offer to interview him. His name is Robby and he is from United States. He said that Jogjakarta is his favorite cities compared with the other cities that he has ever visited. His favorite local food of Jogjakarta is fried rice and noodle, and he also said that “Jogjakarta has the typical food”. The interview was very fun, and I think he’s friendly. Although sometimes I don’t understand what he said because of the noisy condition, I felt very happy to do this project because it seemed like I was playing with my friends, but sometimes hot weather and crowded condition made us feel hopeless. After that we ate at KFC Malioboro mall and went home.