Just had my first interview with the coach from Northeast Passage Quad Rugby team. Totally did the "uh huh, mm hmm... OK" I couldn't help it. I knew I was doing it, but it wasn't until I listened back to it that I really heard how much I was responding.
I couldn't really give him my "winning smile" because I didn't want him to think I was mocking him or not real. It is so painful to listen to myself and have digital evidence of how awkward I am. I am so happy that I am not being recorded all the time. I know what I wanted him to tell me but I didn't know how to ask him. Basically just sweated it out, got some good stuff. But I think when I go to the tournament on Saturday I will get better stuff because it will be a more natural environment. I think it will trigger better questions in me.
I put the recorder into my computer but my computer didn't read it. So I couldn't save the file. But other then that the recorder worked fine. I am worried how well it will work in the gym because of the background noise.
So overall I think there is stuff that I can use and it was good start to meet a representative of the team and to go from there.
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8 comments:
Kristine,
First, great blog post. You are doing the most important thing which is getting out in the field and trying. You can't learn if you are not willing to make mistakes. So brava for your courage and honesty.
Why don't you e-mail me your sound clip and I'll see if I can convert it into something you can use. Also, tell me what system you are using that was unable to read the clip.
Finally, who is Daisy Roberts? Is that something I should know?
Howard
Kristine,
I definitely said "uh huh" during my interview, so your not alone there. I did catch myself using the filler toward the beginning though. Basically I started to nod or smile to help lead my interviewee along. One way to help prevent fillers is to try and practice not saying fillers during all interviews; that's what I've been trying to do.
-Steve
I know what you mean about the awkward verbal interjections when trying to capture great audio. My experience has been that it's less stressful if before you turn on the mic, you can preface what the interview is about, and how its going to go. Establish some pre-rapport, if you will. Then those silences won't seem so bad, or at least that's the idea.
I agree with Abbie, about telling your subject beforehand that if you don't respond don't take offense because you need the sound bytes without your voice. I also think, since you heard how much you said "uh huh" and "okay", you probably will be more conscious of it now.
I found it real strange when my interviewee would make a joke and I'd have to respond without laughing. Not too used to that. So now my audio has the joke then some weird acknowledgment/laugh/loud breath sound. All I was trying to do was be polite.
Kristine,
I definitely agree with you about how awkward it is to not respond and try to smile. I tend to laugh at the end of most people's sentences haha>>(even on blogs, emails, ims, texts, etc...) so I found myself silently laughing...which is probably more awkward-looking than what you were doing. I just explained and said that I couldn't respond while they were talking. I also noticed my voice gets deeper and more serious like I'm a weather man or something...I have no explanation for that haha. Sounds like you have a cool story though.
-Cat
I agree, not interjecting can be very frustrating. Especially because those interjections can really ruin audio clips that have valuable information in them.
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