The Field Researcher S Handbook: A Guide to the Art and Science of Professional Fieldwork by David J. Danelo

Author:David J. Danelo [Danelo, David J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Methodology, Social Science, Reference, Research
ISBN: 9781626164376
Google: wPrTDgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 33255033
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 2017-01-15T09:13:53+00:00

You sit on a bench, eat, and take notes on your morning observations. You have some idea how to get to the café a few blocks from the hotel where you are supposed to meet a classmate’s former study abroad sibling, but you aren’t willing to chance missing the visit on your ignorance of the local bus route. You walk to a busy street, flag down a taxi, and take it back to the hotel. You check out of your room, stash your luggage in the storage closet that the hotel offers for outgoing guests, and make your way to the café.

The meeting is courteous, if inconclusive. Although your new friend does not know anyone who is connected to your research industry, he was familiar with several good restaurants and had useful tips on other places to go. Back at the hotel, you grab your gear and take the bus to your Airbnb rental. The spare apartment room has all the necessities: bed, shower, laundry, kitchen, desk, and Wi-Fi. You’ll be fine staying here for the rest of your research trip.

You put your things away and find one of the restaurants your friend recommended. The waiter asks if you want bottled water, and you point to the tap instead. Yes, many people are paranoid about drinking the water in other countries, but you decide since you will be there for two weeks, you will get the local bacteria in your gut as soon as possible. An experienced field researcher gave you that tip: a day of bowel discomfort is better than enduring weeks of water paranoia. Once your intestines are acculturated, you can feel more comfortable with Anthony Bourdain–style eating and drinking. Most tap water is purified worldwide—to the point that many European and Asian countries warn their citizens not to drink water while traveling in the United States.

Two days after your first restaurant visit, you are on your way to your first interview. Through a LinkedIn connection, you are able to meet up with an official—she doesn’t seem to speak your language any better than you do hers, but you feel comfortable hiring the college friend you met on the first day to translate. You use LinkedIn to research other industry associations as well. At first, the staff you contact doesn’t respond, but you eventually find an association representative who will welcome you for a visit.

At the first interview, your friend’s translations were slow and choppy. It made the interview so difficult to follow that the official eventually switched to hand gestures with drawings on a white board. Although it went well overall, you decide you will leave your friend behind for the next meeting, an industry association visit.

Since arriving, you have been testing the Benny Lewis method to expand your linguistic skills. A polyglot author, Lewis tells his online tribe, Fluent in Three Months, that the most important part of speaking a new language is having “a direct motivation to live that language and use it as a means of communication and connection.

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