Last time I was here, I was politely corrected by a well meaning English gentleman who thought I was too direct in my response to his question. After informing him I was from New York, he gave me a few pointers to make sure I understood the proper way to converse while I was visiting. I took his good advice and continued to remember the adage "When in Rome..." This also reminded me of the reading regarding entering a site as researcher, field issues and the interview process.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Observation, love?
On holiday this week in London visiting my daughter and having a go at the sample observation assignment. Reading and taking lots of field notes (I feel a bit like Harriet from the children's book Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitshugh), I now just need to focus and write up one observation. There have been so many interesting situations to choose from being in a different city. Not sure if it is that I have actually had the time to sit and watch the people around me or that maybe this week I am starting to "see" through the lens of a researcher. The culture has also been very interesting as both a participant observer and direct observer.
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Wow, London! I'm jealous... I am wondering if you observed similar reactions during observation in London as I did in NY. When people noticed me looking and tallying, women tended to look at me with suspicion, sometimes hostility, while men didn't take much notice. Did you notice reactions like that in London?
ReplyDeleteYes, I will agree that I felt like a little spy taking notes. My notes where in the form of numbers, but I still felt like I was being intrusive. My observations were on the train and people stared at me.
ReplyDeleteMy behavior was a little erratic because I would look up, take a count of the people, jot the number down on paper, hide the paper with my hand and then wait for the next stop to do it all over again.
As I started to say in class yesterday, I visited London once years ago. I had difficulty understanding what they said and they certainly had trouble interpreting me. I remember asking someone where the "tube" (subway) was and she just looked at me blankly. After I politely repeated myself twice, she said, "Oh, you mean the 'choobe'" (spelled phonetically). After a week of that I found myself lookng forward to the next city on my itinerary--Paris, where I tortured them wtih my high school French. (This was when one didn't need a bank loan for air travel!) Anyway, it sounds like you had a great time with your daughter and that's all that matters.
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