Are there any differences between the interactions of Americans and internationals

1) Choose a site (a place) where you can make observations of Temple students (and perhaps also Temple faculty) that clearly relate to your chosen topic. For example, if you are working on the topic “Social life and making friends on US university campuses,” then you must find a place where people interact with friends, and/or make new friends.

2) Plan to spend at least one (1) hour observing your site.

3) At your site, take complete observation notes. These must describe:

The physical space:

· Quickly draw a sketch of the physical space. Include structures, objects, locations of people, approximate numbers of people at different locations.

People and activities:

· What kinds of things happen in the site? Are people buying things? Selling things? Doing something (like playing Frisbee, singing, eating, talking casually)? If possible, note the ethnicities of people.

· Is there any pattern to what is happening in the site, or does everything seem random?

· Are people meeting up and heading off somewhere else? Are they walking briskly next to each other and avoiding eye contact? Are they sitting silently?

· If people are alone, are they using mobile devices? Reading? Staring off into space?

· How do the people you observe interact with one another? Are they talking to others, and if they are, do they seem to already know those people or are they meeting there for the first time?

· Are Americans interacting with internationals, or are people staying within their own ethnic groups?

· If you can hear conversations, what are they about? What language(s) are the people speaking? Do they mix languages (e.g., English and Arabic)?

· Are there any differences between the interactions of Americans and internationals and people staying within their own ethnic groups?

· Is there any clear emotion in the people you are observing—do they seem happy, sad, confused, worried, or neutral (or other)?

Your own experience:

· Pay attention to how you feel, too. How do you experience the space or the people? Do you feel comfortable or do you want to leave? Do your feelings change over the course of the hour?

· Does anyone talk to you or notice you? If yes, what was your conversation about?