Horario... 2!

So I think it was last week that I wrote my first post concerning horario, or schedule.  I've been meaning to flesh it out a little bit and so I guess today's the day.  Here is what I had so far...

Week #

1- Get to know my host family, the people, and the area, building rapport the whole time.

2- Cultural proofs and language practice, networking and rapport building.

3- Language practice, networking and rapport building, slowly begin interviews.

4- Language practice, networking, rapport, interviews, and transcribing.

5- Language practice, networking, rapport, interviews, and transcribing.

6- Language practice, group retreat (tentative), transcribing, and planning for final product.

7- Language practice, networking, rapport, interviews, transcribing, and planning.

8- Language practice, networking, rapport, interviews, transcribing, and planning.

9- Language practice, networking, rapport, interviews, transcribing, planning, and writing.

10- Language practice, rapport, interviews, transcribing, writing, and translation.

11- Language practice, rapport, transcribing, writing, translation, and thank you's.

12- Language practice, rapport, writing, translation, goodbyes and thank you's.

(13)- Language practice, writing, translation, see Mexico City

First off, let me explain a little bit about each of the activities that I have planned and why they are important.

Getting to know my host family, the people, and area - This is possibly the most important thing that I will do while on my trip.  All of my research, as well as my level of enjoyment in the experience, will hinge entirely on how well I understand the culture and the people and how well I get along with my host family.  That is why this will be done first, and why for every subsequent week I will be continuing to build rapport.

Building rapport - How can I expect to make friends, much less get any good information, if I don't build a relationship of trust with everyone that I can.  I should always be meeting new people, new informants or possible interviewees, and so I will consistently be working on building rapport.

Language practice - This was the primary reason why I originally wanted to go on a field study.  I have since grown to love my project greatly, but even so my ability to successfully complete my project is contingent upon my ability to communicate and understand the Irapuatenses.  This also ties into everything I am doing in my Cultural Proofs class.


Networking - Preach My Gospel says "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find somebody to teach.."  This is also true with field studies; until I find people to work with I will not be able to get any good data complete, as such I will be consistently seeking to find.


Interviews - Now, I do want to make sure that I spend enough time in the field to solidify my language skills and to build good relationships with those with whom I will be interviewing.  However, I believe that the most time consuming activity will be transcribing these interviews.  Because of this, when I do start to interview people I will want to get as many accomplished as soon as I can so that I can get to work on transcribing these interviews.  If I were to make any adjustment to my previous schedule it would be, not to start interviewing sooner, but to try to complete the bulk of my interviews before my mid-semester retreat.


Planning - This process of planning the final work will take place gradually throughout the entire program.


Transcribing - This should be the most time consuming of my activities, but fortunately it will also be very beneficial to my language acquisition.  This is the last step that is absolutely essential to get finished while in the field.  More on the practicalities of transcribing later.


Translating - After the paper is written in Spanish I will be translating it into English.  This section could move into later August, after returning from Mexico, though it will definitely be started and completed as much as possible while in the field.


Thank yous - I will always be trying to show gratitude and reciprocity, but most especially during my final week or so in the field.