For the participatory assignment that we had to do for the prep class, I chose to go to the grocery store with my friend. So, I was thinking about all of the things that the people would do. I must say that I thought it was going to be a piece of cake to go and just observe people, but I was so much in the daily-routine of grocery shopping, that I totally forgot what I had to do at times! I had to keep making myself pay attention and observe people. This made me think of what it would be like in the field. Obviously I won't be familiar with the surroundings in India, and so I have a feeling that I will naturally be more observant, but still, making a conscious effort to be really observant is challenging. Especially the act of actively observing my surroundings. I have always been a really observant person, but again, making a participant observation is difficult, yet not impossible.
In the grocery store, I saw a lot of different people, but I did see one thing in common; everybody was "in the zone", shopping and looking for what they needed. I didn't see any chatting with others, nothing of that sort. When there was someone who was standing over a specific product, like hovering around the price or something, I tried to scoot closer, as to grab something and the person would completely just inch away. I thought this was funny because I personally don't have a bubble or need space or anything when I'm around other people. However, the more I started thinking more deeply, I began to see things from a different angle and tried to think about if that were to happen to me, what would I have done? If I was at the grocery store, and somebody came up right next to me while I was trying to look at a price and everything, I would definitely scoot over too. This led me to think that sometimes I may make an observation about someone or something about them, and make an instant judgement. For example, my first thought when that person moved away from me, I said to myself "I can't believe this person, scooting away from me, like I was some weirdo". Rather, the other person might have been thinking "Oh, they must need something, I should be polite and move out of her way".
That experience stood out to me because there is no way that we don't all have pre-judgments. I want to just collect data and see details as they are, rather than judging the person on that action. When I go to India, and I practice participant observation, I want to make sure that there is no judgments on my observations and that I take my experiences as they are.
Other observations I made that were interesting: I actually ran into a friend when I was there and I decided to talk to her for a bit. She was with a guy, but he just kind of stood to the side. As I talked to her, you could tell that he was slowly scooting closer and just listening to what we were talking about, until my friend was so uncomfortable enough that she glanced at him, glanced back at me and said "well, it was good seeing you! I'll talk to you later!" As they were walking away, I was tapped him on the arm and said "sorry I kept her for so long", he acted really awkward and said "oh, it's ok". Although I found the experience humorous and there were no hard feelings on my part, I thought about what would happen in India, if I tapped someone on the arm or something, what would happen? This is just non-verbal communication for me, I am just used to doing that to people when I am trying to portray that I am just being friendly, but since I have to be sensitive to the culture, it will be interesting to see all of the things that I will be doing differently in order to not be rude or weird. I think that part of being a participant observer, is being willing to mold oneself to the culture. I love my own culture, and there are few things I appreciate more than when people take it upon themselves to be "hispanically" polite in my house and around my family. I am sure that when I am in India, my second-nature will be to act like my old self, but I think that I will be trying to learn and mold myself to the Indian culture as well, in order to really make true observations and remove myself from the picture, and see things from a different perspective. I think this will be a little more difficult than I anticipate, but I know that it will not be impossible.
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