Preston Chamberlin Ethnography Final Analysis

Intro (context, who what when where, name community, set the scene): Monday, the day the routine starts all over again, but also the day I got to spend some time observing the people who make up UNC Charlottes Chinese club. Every week this club meets on the second floor of the student union in room 265 from 5:00 6:00 PM. The clubs focus is on Chinese culture and the language itself, with the aims of broadening peoples cultural knowledge. The community is mostly made up of Asians with some Chinese relation in their family, but there are also people of other ethnicities and are just interested in the culture, community or want to refine their knowledge of the language. Main claim ( what does an outsider need to understand?, purpose/function; goals; defining characteristics, or philosophy/beliefs) Chinese club is a stress-free environment where anybody can learn about the Chinese culture and language, no matter what your race, ethnicity, religion, culture or background. The Student Union is a big place, but I didnt have any trouble finding the room which resided upstairs on the third floor. A few days prior I sent an email to the president of the club asking permission to observe and interview somebody, but he never replied back to me, so before I did anything I wanted to find the President and make sure he was okay with what I was doing. I kind of remembered what he looked like from when I found out about the club at their booth from SOAR earlier on in the year. I finally caught up to him and asked if he received my email, and he said he did but just didnt have time to respond. I then introduced myself and he was totally fine with me being there to observe. Now all I had to was wait for everybody else to show up and begin my notes. I didnt really know what to expect, and as it got closer to 5:00 PM there were only around 6 people there so I was beginning to feel like this wasnt that big of a group. The club didnt really start until the other regulars showed up, and you could tell it was a pretty relaxed environment because nobody cared if you were late or anything. At the start of each meeting the President hands out tea to everybody which he brewed up himself in his ceramic tea pot. I was there a bit early and there were only 2 or three people there, just sort of waiting for others to show up. The room itself was about the size of a normal classroom and had a formal feel to it. The desks were arranged in a rectangle outline with an open space in the middle. The President and leaders of the club sat at the front of the room below the projector screen, looking out towards the rest of us. Although this felt like a formal layout it was pretty effective in being able to get everybody in the conversation and relay information effectively.

(Put together argument supporting claim using data from observations/interview etc. )