Episode 1: Santiago Fieldwork, Fall 2015

Hello readers! My advisor Norma Mendoza-Denton advised me to keep a fieldwork blog while I'm gone, and I'm finally getting to it!

I've been spending some time reconnecting with friends, talking about my project at every turn! Almost every one of my friends from my days studying abroad here has said "Oh, I know someone from X neighborhood, let me hook you up with them!", which has been awesome! As my boyfriend says, no time spent talking about my project is a waste.

My first full day here (9/3), I met up with my contact at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, phonetician Domingo Román. I emailed him a few years ago asking him to be my Fulbright contact/support, and though that $$ didn't work out, he has been a great contact to hold on to. He used to work at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (where I took many of my classes, during my 2006-2007 study abroad), but recently changed universities. I didn't realize how much work I would have to do to sort of recreate the connections that I lost when he changed jobs, including potential participants and research assistants, but also the Phonetics Laboratory that he ran there, where he had offered me desk space as well as a soundproof cabin in which I could do my recordings. So when I was on campus last week, I was introduced through a friend of a friend to the director of the linguistics program at the university to ask about potentially using that Lab space, and he directed me to write an official request to the deans that he would present on my behalf. I'm waiting to hear back from that request, but hopefully it works out (and hopefully I hear this afternoon).

My first Friday (September 4) I headed down to my low-income neighborhood, La Pintana, where I did some volunteer English teaching in 2006, and have maintained contacts with the folks there. I met with a social worker there, who also coordinates the volunteer efforts, and explained my project and what I was looking for in terms of demographics. She said she would transmit my info/requests to the groups they run at the NGO, but that it would be a while before I could actually head down there (probably after the 18th, Chilean Independence Day and a national holiday). That was not quite what I was expecting/anticipating, so I had to do some reframing. I was hoping to get started there ASAP, and I was hoping that all 30 of my participants in that neighborhood could come from connections with that community center. I'm finally heading back down to that NGO this Wednesday, hopefully to do some recordings & figure out future schedules with participants.

Because of that reframing/potential setback, I started to pursue participants/contacts in the higher-income neighborhood, Vitacura, in order to not lose time. I'm very grateful to a particular friend who introduced me to several of her friends from that neighborhood, all of whom were kind enough to give me their information, and one of whom became my first informant! He was delightful & super chatty, and I look forward to analyzing his info. One thing he said that was interesting regarding my perception study (in which participants see images of people of varying socioeconomic status (SES) and ages, then hear an auditory stimuli, and have to decide whether they're hearing 'one' or 'more than one' item) was that "some of those pictures clearly don't go with that audio." I asked him to elaborate, but he just said that there was clearly a mismatch. This is something that the study I'm loosely replicating mentioned as well, and something to keep in mind/ask future participants about.

I have been up to the high-income site twice, in order to meet a contact at Vitalibros, the community library, as well as recruit at a workshop they hold there. That recruitment didn't go great; I made a quick announcement at the beginning of their class but nobody was really interested. Aside from my first interview that I got Monday of last week, last week was kind of a bust-- everyone was busy getting ready for the holiday weekend, and pretty much checked out. Oh, but how could I forget: Wednesday (9/16), I met with a friend of a friend who runs another community center in my low-income neighborhood, and took her to lunch and explained my project. She said that not only would she be able and willing to help me recruit, but that she also has a quiet space in which I can record: the radio station they host at the community center! Big win.

That night there was a pretty big earthquake off the coast of Chile, a few hours north of Santiago (Chile's capital). Mostly just spooky & shaky down here, but lots of damage up north. Thoughts & prayers are with the folks that are suffering. We've had tons of 'réplicas' or aftershocks, as well as several other small shakes (I'm pretty sure at least 2 as I've been typing this!), but nothing as long or as sway-ey as that first one.

After the weekend (which I spent with friends on the chilly coast, delightful weekend full of BBQs & flying kites), I geared back up to pursue recruitment at full steam (since ostensibly everyone was back from the holiday and returning to their normal lives). When I made my announcement at the library club last week, I realized that I needed to have something physical to give people, a handout of sorts, so I converted my poster into a handout, a half-sheet of paper, and this morning I went down to the university to recruit. I made 100 copies of that half-sheet (lofty aspirations!), as well as several copies of my recruitment poster (on which I also highlighted the payment information, mwahah). I got there right around lunchtime so lots of students were sitting on the grass enjoying the sunshine, and it took me a minute, but I screwed up the courage to grab some of my handouts, and just start walking up to people, asking if they were from Vitacura. It felt weird, but a girl in the second group I approached not only was from Vitacura, but as I explained my project to her, she sounded super interested! I gave her a handout and asked her to email me with her availability (I created a particular Gmail account for this purpose!), and hopefully she will.

I continued on like that for a while, stopping for lunch at one point, and in total got about 10 people who were from Vitacura and took a handout, of whom I'm hoping that at least a handful actually get in touch with me! I gave out a few others to people I just got in conversations with (some people were interested in what I was doing, and some had friends they could think of that were from that neighborhood, so I have them a handout just in case), so we'll see! I've already received one email, here's hoping that I get some more! :) Several different people told me to go to the Civil Engineering area, that more folks from Vitacura would be studying there rather than in the humanities or other areas I was in, so I plan to go back tomorrow and spend some more time there, as well as meet up with a former UCLA Spanish & Portuguese grad student for lunch!

I'm really thankful for technology in terms of keeping in touch with home! And happy to be back surrounded by Chilean Spanish :)

Feel free to keep in touch! mbolyanatz@gmail.com! New installment hopefully on Friday!

#photo #research #sociophonetics #santiago