I did my interview on a cultural artifact of my informant, Michelle: her plush (stuffed animal) of a Pokémon named Eevee.  The interview was about 30 minutes long, and the transcription I gave to Kristina to review was a four-minute segment of that.

 

J: So first why were you interested in all the Eevee’s, and why’d you choose that Eevee [evolution] in particular?

 

M: I think I was interested in all the Eevees because they’re my favorite Pokémon

 

J: Mhm, do you know why?

 

M: they’re really cute, and I think it’s cool how they all stem from this one Eevee, and they can evolve into any other type of Pokémon, so it’s a very cool evolution.  Also, they were the only ones that were massive-size, while the other ones were normal-size.  Like, the size of a baby.  And they’re very soft and squishy.  They didn’t have the whole collection of Eevees, but out of the ones they had, I did like this one the best.

 

J: So, why’d you prefer that one so much?

 

M: the other ones have a flat tail, but this one’s tail is really big.  The others didn’t have almost any stuffing at all.

 

J: Ok, that makes sense.  It’s funny that you particularly reference the Eevee plushes being the size of a baby while you cradle it like a baby.

 

M: [laughs] Kieran and I got them with the intention of swapping, which we have done once.

 

J: hmm.  So, how long do you think you’ve been interested in Pokémon?

 

M: I think 10, I want to say, because I had a Nintendo DSI, and I never bought Pokémon for myself, but someone just gave me one of their Pokémon games for free.  So, I started playing it and I really like the game.  And I would watch the show that was running at the time.  But I also had cousins that were older than me who would play Pokémon with cards, and they would trade them, so I already knew about it before.

 

J: did you like watching them play with the Pokémon cards?

 

M: I would watch them sometimes, but they would never let me play.

 

J: Ok, so do you think that was why you were first interested, or was that just first how you knew it?

 

M: That’s just how I first knew it.  Then I got interested because I got a free game.

 

J: Ok, so why were you so interested in Pokémon years later with Kieran?

 

M: I think when Pokémon go came out in 2016, it was really exciting to get to play, and I played Pokémon go pretty avidly that first summer.  So, I think that reinvigorated our interest in Pokémon.  At least it did for me; Kieran has always been really invested in Pokémon.  He has made it his mission to collect every single Pokémon game, and he’s almost there.

 

 

Reflection

Firstly, Kristina helped me figure out what practices I should continue in interviews.  She liked the validation that I gave to my informant’s verbal and nonverbal expressions (for example, “It’s funny that you particularly reference the Eevee plushes being the size of a baby while you cradle it like a baby.”).  While I had not thought about this during the interview, in hindsight, I see how affirmation is important for an informant.  Secondly, Kristina and I both thought that my use of open-ended questions helped bring more depth to the interview, and I plan to continue using mostly open questions.  Even partially closed questions, such as asking “How long do you think you’ve been interested in Pokémon?” instead of “For how many years have you been interested in Pokémon?” helped me get information while leaving space for additional thoughts.  Finally, Kristina liked how my excerpt began with my informant’s past, then went to her present, then ended by merging her past and present.  I think in the future it would definitely be useful to further organize interviews around certain themes and trends in the informant’s life.

There were multiple things that I learned from looking back at my interview, from Kristina’s comments, and from Kristina’s interview.  Looking back at my interview, I wish I had followed up on my informant’s comments more.  For example, when my informant said “Kieran [friend] and I got them with the intention of swapping them”, I think I should have asked more about the swapping plan rather than changing the subject.  Kristina’s comments helped me realize that I should have thought more about the themes of the interview.  She mentioned that I could have asked about the informant’s favorite way to engage with Pokémon; I think this could have helped to tie all of the different sources of Pokémon together.  Finally, Kristina’s interview helped to understand how to better understand rapport.  In her interview, she frequently mentions shared knowledge or experiences with her informant.  I think this is the perfect way to connect with an informant, and to better understand their experiences with one’s own perspective; I plan to do this in future interviews.  Overall, I found this exercise (both interviewing and analyzing another interview) to be both useful and interesting.