Project 2: The Diliman Mini- Ethnographies

What I see

• 3 Men playing Badminton- 2 nets are set up, but they use the one in the middle.
• A girl with earphones dancing in the gymnastics area. There are two other girls in casual clothing lying on their stomachs and using their laptops right at the foot of the balance beam. A guy is on his back, texting as well.
• 3 couples dancing in the mats area, as a bigger group of students watch. They are all in PE uniforms
• 3 people to my right at the bleachers
• The hardwood floors are shiny, maintained.
• In Court 1, there are 4 guys playing a casual 2 on 2 basketball game. At the other end of the same court is a guy working on post moves and jumpers. Soon after, someone joins the solo player and acts as a defender against the first guy.
• There is another guy in Court 2, working on his 15 footer and free throw shooting. He’s wearing UP basketball jersey shorts.
• At 3:35, 3 girls arrive and settle beside me on the bleachers. The badminton nets are set down, the maintenance person removing the poles and shutting the floor openings.
• My ex swim coach turned colleague arrives with a bag of balls. He sets up cones around the area where the men playing badminton used to be.
• 3 guys fill up the other end of court 2, casually shooting hoops.
• There were weights equipment in what used to be the mats area.
• A student in a PE uniform starts kicking one of the balls that coach Luis brought
• 2 girls play volleyball at the farther end of the badminton area. One girl’s spikes are precise, the other is sending the ball back poorly.
• More students join the student who is kicking the balls that Coach Luis brought with him. There are 2 people practicing solo, 3 are grouped together.
• A girl spreads her umbrella to dry by the side of the hardwood floor.
• The three girls that arrived and sat on the bleachers are using their cellphones. One is on twitter.
• The people that borrowed coach Luis’ balls and Coach Luis himself gather in the middle. They pair up and go for a round of “bato bato pik”. They play a scrimmage after.

What I hear

• The badminton players shout as their rackets whoosh when they hit the shuttlecock. Once, one guy screams  “Putang Ina” instead.
• The rain on the roof makes it impossible to hear whole conversations. It isn’t a pitter-patter. It’s a downpour.
• Folk dance tunes play as the people in PE uniforms dance.
• “Anong sked ninyo sa Monday?” “O yun, pwede ako noon!” from the three people to my right in the bleachers.  They talk to everyone that passes by them with lots of enthusiasm.
• The sound of sneakers on the hardwood floor.
• “Wait. I’ll just get dressed,” One of the three girls that arrived says to her companions.
• “Anong ginagawa mo dito?” Coach Luis to me as he sees me hanging out by the bleachers. “May kailangan lang tapusin” is my response.
• Weights clanging as people drop barbells on the floor in the weights area.
• Relative silence as the rainfall recedes.
• “Yes! Kaya na nya!” One of the students in the group of three people kicking the balls that Coach Luis brought.
• “Ok. Winners dito, losers on the other side.” Coach Luis after the class finishes a round of “bato bato pik”
• Coach Luis blows his whistle a couple of times during the scrimmage.

What I Infer

Most of the people in CHK during the time of observation seem to be students. There also seems to be 2 kinds of students present in CHK at that moment. The students at the gym area who are comfortably sprawled on the floor, the group of 3 people to my right who are boisterously conversing about schoolwork and schedules and greeting many people as they come by are probably from CHK. Perhaps, those that are playing as well, because they’re using the facilities without the supervision of an instructor. Those in PE shirts that were dancing were probably in the folk dance class, and with an extremely orderly system, I’m pretty ready to assume that they were having a certain kind of exam. The class that Coach Luis handled was probably futsal, considering that it was being played a lot like football but was being played indoors. I am vaguely aware as well that Coach Luis does play futsal too. The shiny hardwood floor too is probably because it’s being extremely well maintained because it had just been replaced.

Interpretation

                CHK is home to our athletes. The University is striving to provide their athletes not only a place they are comfortable with, but one that will be able to cater to their needs as students that represent the school in various sporting events. They have recently upgraded many of their facilities to adjust to the demanding tempo of life as a student athlete, what with the recent building of an extra basketball court, the re-flooring of the one on the main building and the opening of a better cafeteria.

                Also, the gym is much like the AS Building. It’s one of the few buildings you will find a student of almost any major in because all University students are required a certain number of PE units. The gym then becomes an inescapable part of student life in the campus, whether one wishes it to be or not.  

Reflection Paper on "Interviewing"

While reading the assigned chapter, I could not help but keep thinking about the time I was very actively pursuing a personal research project and got the chance to interview many different people about the topic - in this case, a particular religion. I had one rule that I kept to faithfully: I was not allowed to ever say to anybody "I know that already." Even if I had to listen to the basic tenets of the religion again and again and again and was in reality tired of hearing them, I would never interrupt. I had two reasons. First was that these were all different people with different backgrounds and who had different understandings of the religion. I wanted to know if there were subtle differences, even if it was simply in how they explained things to me. Second was that even if I learned one single new thing about the religion from one person, it was worth hearing everything else I already knew again. I figured that if I said "I know that already" even just once, my interviewee would start assuming I knew things and would possibly skip over some things - even in my follow up questions - that I in fact did NOT know yet. It was better to start from zero and build my way up than hold the interview on a higher level but have all these holes at the bottom.

This made me wonder though: if I had kept at that, how could I ever reach the "deeper" beliefs of the religion? If I always pretended to know nothing, yes, the basics would always be explained to me over and over again, but I'd never get beyond that. A solution I considered was to develop relationships with some of the people I interviewed and slowly build it up with them. But that would take eternity. So I realized then that perhaps my approach was a tad bit too cautious.

And another thing: when I interviewed these people, I never told them what my religion was - unless they outright asked me (which a few did). Even if they would say things like, "Well, I'm not sure what you believe in..." I would never offer an answer, I would simply smile. I always wondered if that was wrong. I never lied to any of them, but I never freely offered them the information either. Are half-truths lies?

The assigned chapter covered some of these very topics, and it made me want to redo some of my past interviews again - but like the last paragraph said, once we are finished cringing at our past mistakes, we move on and interview more people. Practice makes perfect, and everything is a learning process.

(By the way - I did maintain contact with some of my interviewees and we ended up becoming friends. In that time, they managed to figure out how much I know and have learned about their religion, and to my surprise, it's made them much more willing to answer my questions and help me understand because they know I am genuinely interested and am not just mildly curious. This proves just how terrible I am at predicting people's reactions. But as I said, this is a learning process, and I'm learning!)

One last thing though - while we can learn many things about interviewing in this chapter and it was a great, informative read, a big chunk of it is concerned with tapes and tape recorders, things that are now obsolete. In another research project I was involved in a little under a year ago (an actual UP project this time under the UP Sentro para sa mga Industriyang Likha at Kultura (UP SILK), headed by CAL Dean Dr. Elena R. Mirano), I had to tape my interviews and hardly any of the things in the chapter were still accurate. With our cameras and cellphones and new gadgets, it is no longer an issue when to turn to the next side of the tape. You can record as long as you wish. And people are so accustomed to being recorded and filmed, it might be even more difficult to find someone who still gets nervous than someone who wouldn't give a second glance to the recording device. I would think that a problem now is no longer so much how to record, but perhaps the format in which to keep our data. With technology evolving as fast as it is, will we still be able to access our recorded interviews in ten years? Or is it important nowadays to constantly update and "re-save" our files into different formats every few years? It is something to consider.

Folklife and Fieldwork

Hi to all. I might have given you the wrong keywords to search the assigned reading. Here's the URL: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/

Reflection Paper on the reading “What is Ethnography?”

What is Ethnography?

There is no concrete well-defined form that can be described what is ethnography at once because of its complex historical used in various social sciences research.   But this does not mean that it has no distinctive character of its own.  It is described in the reading that the “natural settings,” and the used of exploratory and open-ended approach are the main or distinctive features of ethnography which I think contributed to its “flexibility-ness”.  Ethnography being used in many social sciences masked its identity at first glance.  But looking closely, you I discovered that it has a well-defined general feature that also fits with or overlaps with other processes used in research methods, and my assumption that it is the reason why it had been used widely in various disciplines may be true.

Positivism viewed ethnography through the lens of the objectivity of scientific logic which regarded it as ‘subjective’ and inappropriate for social sciences research because it does not conform to or not limit itself to the boundaries of scientific method.  Ethnography then leaned towards the philosophy of naturalism which, as opposed to positivism, proposes that the social world should be studied in its natural setting, on everyday context, undisturbed by the researcher.  Overtime, these philosophical positions continued to assert themselves in research each claiming that the product of their research accurately represent the reality of the social world.

However, these ideological movements share common goal in their futile attempts in limiting if not removing the influence of the researcher on the group being researched.  The inherent biases and prejudices of the researcher should be, instead of suppressing them, used as an adjunct tool in bringing about, if all possible, the social reality with total acceptance that it is relatively true.

Another concern is that texts cannot described exactly what is actually seen in the field, and they are just reconstruction of the event using rhetorical strategies of the researcher.  And all social sciences research, whether under the controlled environment or in the field, the inherent reflexive nature of it should be considered including the implications to the interpretation of data with precautions on the political motive of the researcher behind.

In my opinion, since all philosophical standpoints cannot stand alone, it is not rational to adhere to any philosophical ideas in understanding a social phenomenon (because social phenomenon behaves differently from physical phenomenon) because it really has no permanent basis and cannot be generalized because meanings change constantly from one place to another and from one time to the next.  One ideology may make sense today, but tomorrow it could just be madness. 

Treasure Hunt: Original Location of the UP Conservatory of Music

Because I don't know how to blog, I accidentally created my own blogspot for this project.  Please have patience in clicking this link.  Thank you. :) 
http://mul192insitu.blogspot.com/

Small Project 2: Mini Diliman Ethnographies

Date: September 2, 2014, Tuesday
Time: 1:30-2:15pm
Place: Katag (Cafeteria of the Faculty Center)


What I See

The cafeteria is nearly full of people. White plastic tables are scattered all over the space, and some have been adjoined to others to form longer tables. The only form of ventilation is in the ceiling fans, but only 1 out of 3 is being used. Most of the people present are sitting around in groups. Only 2 tables have single occupants, both of whom are wearing earphones. Not many people are still eating at this time, most are now just sitting around and talking to their group of friends, or possibly acquaintances. Most have their school bags with them and carry around photocopied readings or other thick books. There is a constant stream of people entering and exiting the cafeteria, most of whom line up, buy some food or drink to take out, and leave. The five servers use a sort of rotation method to cater to the students. Though the line may be long at times, it moves quickly. When a group stands up to leave their table, a janitor comes to pick up their used trays, plates, and glasses, and wipes the tables down.

An interesting phenomenon: between 1:50-2:00pm, the cafeteria nearly completely empties with each group leaving after the next. The rest of the time is very quiet with only a few occupied tables left and all of them except one occupied by only one person eating hurriedly. The five servers behind the counter finally stop their frantic serving of food, and start chatting with each other.


What I Hear

The sound of chairs and tables being dragged is frequently heard. Now and then, a blender is turned on behind the food counter. There is the clacking sounds of metal cutlery hitting plastic plates. Generally there is a constant stream of chatter that is amplified by the echoey space of the cafeteria. But some snippets I catch are:

From the table on my right:
"Target grade."
"96-100."
"Math 17."
"Exam."

From the table on my left:
"Volume 1... 18th century ... Volume 3."
"Can I borrow after?"
"In the story"
"Aristotle"
"Mayaman na Jewish family"

What I Infer

Majority of the people are university students. The table to my right are most probably freshmen, because I don't know many people after freshman year overly concerned with the number equivalent of their exam grades and because of the mention of Math 17. They are possibly students from one of the science colleges. The table to my left are probably some students from the Department of Comparative Literature. The rest of the people in Katag who are not students are probably faculty or staff from the College of Arts and Letters, the cafeteria being in the Faculty Center building after all. Most of them are very comfortable in this space - comfortable enough to know they are allowed to rearrange the tables as they wish. The servers are all well acquainted and familiar with their system, none are new (or too new, that is).

Interpretation

According to the more or less standardized class times of UP Diliman, 1-2:30pm is a time slot of its own and most students are either sitting in class at this time or waiting for their next class to begin from 2:30pm onwards. The students in Katag were probably doing exactly that - waiting for their next class to begin. This would explain the sudden emptying of the cafeteria at about 2pm. The students were probably heading to their next classes.

Katag is right next the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) building, a building where many General Education (GE) subjects are held. GE subjects are a requirement of all UP Diliman students regardless of specific degree programs, and this would explain the varied backgrounds of the students, some coming from the sciences (those discussing Math 17) and those from the English department (those discussing books). I am also guessing that many of the students present were freshmen. Aside from the grades comment, I think it is common for upperclassmen to belong to student organizations, each of which have their own tambayan. If these students are using the cafeteria as their venue to wait for their next class, perhaps they are not members of any organizations yet?

It is Filipino culture to always move around in groups. Anywhere one goes, it's common practice to bring along a friend or two. This would explain why nearly everybody was sitting in groups. People are used to having their friends along with them and always be chatting with them. It may be a far stretch but I am guessing that maybe it even explains why those who were sitting alone had their earphones on - perhaps it is not within our culture to be comfortable when we are alone, so we try to distract ourselves with music. Or maybe it is simply a sign of the times. This generation is always "plugged in" so to speak, and always need to be listening to something and always have "background music" available to them.

Katag is technically not a very comfortable place to "hang out" in - it is rather hot and noisy. But what is attractive to students is the openness of the venue (it not being limited to only a few select students, such as an org tambayan) and the convenience of the location (right next to the CAL building). The food is not bad too - which is probably the most important factor considering it is a cafeteria after all.

Small Project 2: Mini Diliman Ethnographies

Place: Lutong Bahay (LB) Cafeteria in Area 2

What I see:

1.     Green tray food with 3 sections to place rice, 2 viands, and a sauce

2.     Wall displays (pictures) of fruits, coca-cola with a sign of Have you opened a coca-cola today?,” and men playing football

3.     A tarpaulin at the back of the table where the main dishes are sold, where other menu is written. Tarpaulin says: The Original Lyn’s Lutong Bahay: Combolicious Meals

4.     Wall clock

5.     Airconditions (Brand: Kolin)

6.     Black and red striped backpack of a boy wearing shorts and shirt

7.     A dog

8.     Tables and mono blocs (chairs)

9.     Gray jackets

10.  Converse backpack

11.  Plastic cups (yellow, green, pink)

12.  Water jag

13.  Ice cubes

14.  Tongs

15.  Utensils (spoons and forks)

16.  Wallet

17.  Spyder Helmet

18.  “God Bless Our Home” Sign at the doorpost

19.  yellow wristband

20.  toothpick

21.  condiments (salt, soy sauce, vinegar, chilli, ketchup)

22.  loom bands

23.  eggs

24.  tocino

25.  little girl running around wearing sando and shorts

26.  old man carrying barbeques to grill

27.  rice

28.  watch

29.  softdrink cases with bottles (sprite, coke) – Sakto coke and sprite bottles

30.  lumpiang shanghai

31.  2 girls talking and laughing while eating; one wearing a pajama or a jogging pants

32.  mirrors on both sides of the canteen

33.  baskets

34.  hotdogs

35.  fried siomai

36.  a middle-aged lady carrying a big silver CLN paperbag and brought out several green puto  inside

37.  thermos

38.  A sign of “Smart/Globe/Sun Load Here”

39.  People quietly eating their food

40.  Students falling in line to get food

41.  Men coming in and out with trays of food

42.  Rice (plain and fried)

43.  Middle-aged lady, taking orders at the counter and serving the food

44.  Old man putting rice on tray food

45.  More backpacks

46.  A boy yawning while eating

47.  People lining up to get water in the water jag

48.  A boy-helper filling in the ice jag with ice cubes

49.  Fruits and blender

50.  Milk

51.  People coming in and out

52.  Students wearing shorts, tshirts, slippers, or sandals

53.  Coins

54.  The middle-aged lady at the counter talking with the little girl wearing the sando and shorts

What I hear

1.     May dalawang piso ka?

2.     Ate, magkano isa?

3.     Penge apat

4.     Dapat binigay na lang kay Reyes?

5.     Take out?

6.     Oy, ano ba?

7.     Rice? Ilan?

8.     May sauce ka?

9.     Pakuha fork

10.  Hahaha… (more laughters)

11.  Oo kaya..

12.  Paano na kaya ako pag ako na?

13.  Forty lahat!

14.  Tak-tak-tak-tak

15.  May tatlong piso ka jan?

16.  Araw-araw?

17.  Thank you.

18.  Eto te, siomai!

19.  Mommy, kausapin ka ni Mama Jo.

20.  Sabihin m okay Mama Jo, sandal lang

21.  Oy eto na, eto na

22.  Tocino po at hotdog

23.  Uy anong bagay ba?

24.  Isang rice lang, noh?

25.  Oy, hingi ka pa ng itlog dun sa kusina

26.  Kelan? Ano gusto mo gamut?

27.  Perez apelyido mo?

28.  Anong gamut mo jan?

29.  Balik mo nga dun

30.  Isang order nga ng siomai

31.  Pwedeng 3 siomai tapos 4 na shanghai?

32.  Isang order ng asado tapos, ano pa?

33.  San ka pupunta bukas?

34.  Uy kuha ka ng yelo.

35.  Eto, sixty-eight lahat!

36.  (Dog barking)… arf arf arf

37.  (Door banging)

38.  San ka na?

39.  Inaantok pa ko

40.  Okay, sige punta ko

41.  Ate fried rice sa kin

42.  Oy, sabay na ko sayo?

What I infer?

            The Lutong Bahay, located in Area 2 is a popular place to go by students. It serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dormers and students are the usual people who go to this place toe breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The food is cheap so there are many customer. It is owned by a family and the middle-aged woman at the counter is the of the cafeteria. She also lives in the place with her family. The little girl could be her daughter or grand daughter. She hired a lot of helper-boys. They get to have many customers everyday and I guess people love their food. The cafeteria profits a lot since the place is airconditoned and the continuous flow of food and rice never ends. They also own the fruit shake stand outside their café.

What I Interpret

            University of the Philippines is a home to many food establishments and restaurants to cater to the students, faculty and passers-by. Not only it is popularly known as a hub for outstanding students and outspoken activits, it is also known for its budget-friendly food establishments. Food is a thriving business inside the university. Front houses within the UP compound are most of the time converted to eateries and cafeteria and some have stood and stayed for years and decades already. Dormers and students who are on a tight budget are the usual and loyal customers. Good food, cheap price, good ambience are 3 of the most common reasons why people and students patronize a university’s cafeteria or establishment. Food is important and a necessity and every student needs proper nourishment not only in order to survive a day in school but in order to become excellent in their academics. The UP Lutong Bahay has grown its popularity among the students because they get to be full and nourished in spite of a lack of budget. Also, the ambience make the students feel at home since every food served are the usual home cooked meals.