Benson

=Benson=

Podcast
media type="custom" key="12081259"

BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Mrs. Benson immigrated to America from Germany in the 1980’s. She came from Germany when it was not at its economic peak, but it was still functioning well in the way of monetary values—in other words, affluent. Germany has a system of government that is different to America’s: they’re a socialist country and they have an elected president, like here in the United States//__.__//

Claudia’s hometown is Heidelberg, a city renown for its rich medieval history, education and architecture. At the age of seventeen she moved to America as an exchange student, whereupon she met her future husband. After the exchange program ended, she moved to America to marry him. Today she lives in Xenia, Ohio, far out in the country with her husband, two dogs, four cats, two horses and two children.

=Creative Writing=

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Cheyenne Benson

Claudia Benson

**//__ INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT __//**

This is an interview with Claudia Benson. The interview was conducted on November 26th, 2011. The interviewer is Cheyenne Benson, representing the Dayton Regional STEM School.

Cheyenne: Hello, my name is Cheyenne Benson and I’m a student of the Dayton Regional STEM School. I’d like to interview you on your experience as an immigrant to this country. Why don’t I start out with this question: why did you move to America?

Claudia: Well, when I was seventeen I was an exchange student for a year to the United States and that’s where I met the man who’s now my husband, so I moved here to become—to get married.

Cheyenne: Is that the only reason?

Claudia: Yeah, pretty much.

Cheyenne: So what was your life like //prior// to moving here?

Claudia: //(thoughtful pause)// Well, I was working, I had taken an apprenticeship in the hotel and restaurant business and I was working in a hotel, at the front desk, in a big hotel, and I was in a little apartment and I had dogs.

Cheyenne: Did all that change once you moved here?

Claudia: Life here was quite different, yes, I moved…the distances are different, I’m used to a city, to a city environment, we moved [my husband and I] out in the country at first…vast distances, and my work experiences here were quite different than my work experience in Germany.

Cheyenne: Okay. What would you say the advantages/disadvantages are of the two countries, in your personal experience?

Claudia: In my opinion, they balance eachother out. What I don’t like about here, I like about Germany, what I don’t like about Germany I like about here, so there…I…I can’t say one is nicer than the other, to me they’re pretty much balanced.

Cheyenne: Anything specific?

Claudia: Well, for example, in Germany when you lived in an apartment house, you know, you can’t shower after 10 o’clock or everyone else in the house hears it, you can’t run your washing machine either, you can’t go grocery shopping on a Sunday…all that, here you have a lot more freedom to do things, I guess it’s ‘cause you’re not all crowded one on top of another; I like being able to have horses here, I would not be able to afford that in Germany, but, I do miss the German food and the German culture, the closeness of things, I’m still having a little bit of trouble with the distances, here, it’s just //huge// distances in this country, here, compared to Europe.

Cheyenne: Are there any family or friends you left behind? When you moved here?

Claudia: Yes I was the only one—well, up until a few years ago, I was the only one to move to the United States from my family, my mom is—or, well, was, still in Germany at the time, as was my brother, cousins, aunt, uncle, grandma…

Cheyenne: What was your immigration like?

Claudia: It was a lengthy process, it took me six months, I had to appear at the consulate for interviews, I had to pay fees, it really took me six months to get the whole process finalized, and get a visa, and then that visa gave me only ninety days to marry and after that I had to apply as a permanent resident.

Cheyenne: How did you adapt to this country?

Claudia: The German culture and the American culture aren’t all that different; they’re both western cultures…but I did find out, for example the tone of voice—Germans have a very harsh tone of voice, and I had to change that, because in this country, people, people who I worked with, not friends, thought I was being rude, when I went back to Germany, and I realized, ‘wow, that’s not how we talk in America,’ so that was a huge adaptation for me, to, to figure that out…other than that, like I said, the distances here, there’s a lot of driving, in Germany I could be wherever I wanted to be in a very short period of time…now that I have children I realize how much time is taken up taking care of children, in Germany the child takes itself places, riding the bicycle or taking public transportation, here you basically have to chauffer the children around, that was something that was not, not something that I realized would be happening, and, and… //(hesitant demeanor)// Americans have a little private bubble around themselves that Europeans don’t, we kind of push and shove eachother around, and I had to learn about the private bubble that goes hand-in-hand with that tone of voice and the melody, so it’s just subtle differences, but they can make an impact in day-to-day interaction with people…other than that, the cultures are fairly similar.

Cheyenne: What parts of your old culture do you still try to incorporate into day-to-day life?

Claudia: A lot, the food, I still try to cook a lot of German food, I’m in many ways still very much European like-minded, I’m concerned about how much garbage I produce, and very conscientious of what I use up or need, I think it’s more of European thing or, at least, more of a German thing then an American thing. I think that’s about it…oh, well, I also tried to raise my children speaking German, but I didn’t quite succeed because I’m the only German-speaking family member in the household, so I’m trying, and I try to speak to them in German regularly and teach them about the culture there.

Cheyenne: Do you have any relics or memorabilia of your time in Germany?

Claudia: I do, I have calendars with nice pictures, a teaset from when I was a teenager, not too many because you have to, kind of, ship it across the ocean.

Cheyenne: Alright, thank you for your time.

Claudia: You’re welcome.

ANALYSIS
**//__ ANALYSIS __//**

The interview with Mrs. Benson demonstrated how immigration policies have changed since times like the late 1800s to early 1900s, to now.

Even though Claudia went through a difficult immigration process, having to wait for six months just to get approved, at least everything was legalized and documented. She said “ It was a lengthy process, it took me six months, I had to appear at the consulate for interviews, I had to pay fees, it really took me six months to get the whole process finalized, and get a visa, and then that visa gave me only ninety days to marry and after that I had to apply as a permanent resident.” At least she could keep her name the same and she wasn’t treated rudely. In earlier time periods in American history, immigrant officials could change immigrants’ last names on a whim, and often did to make it easier to process. They passed along each immigrant as quickly as possible, and treated him or her rudely and impersonally.

Also, these people would have to endure crowded voyages across the ocean where death and disease roamed rampant. Claudia’s only troubles were adjusting to culture, which she said wasn’t that terrible. Claudia commented, “ The German culture and the American culture aren’t all that different; they’re both western cultures.”

Things may have been hard for Mrs. Benson to adjust, but things were harder for past immigrants. America has opened itself up and become considerably more welcoming to immigrants.