Chloé Freeman
EN109F03
Roland
Interview
I interviewed Imants Dolgins. Imants, 23, is from Riga, Latvia where his parents and sister still reside. His mother, Ubolv, makes a living as a real estate agent and his father, Vladimir, is the president of an underground drilling company. He also has an 18 year old sister, Eli¯na. Since Imants is the only family member in the U.S. he tries to talk with his family at least once a week. Usually they do this by using the internet and their web cameras. Imants also gets to go home every summer and winter break, for this he feels lucky. When asked about relationship changes since coming to the U.S. he said he feels there hasn’t been too much change at all. Obviously there are new things going on in everyone’s lives but the personal relationships have not changed much. Imants really didn’t feel it was very hard to come to the United States. He said he remembers people talking about culture shock but he didn’t have anything like that. Yes, it was hard to be away from his parents for so long but it wasn’t as difficult as he was told.
Currently, the international relationship between Latvia and the U.S. is that Latvia really supports the U.S. Latvia wanted to be part of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the military protection. This is because politically, Latvia is kind of scared that Russia might take them over again. Historically, Latvia was under the Russian empire until after World War One. When Latvia finally became an independent country it was run under a parliamentary democracy. It stayed this was until 1939 when Hitler and Stalin signed the Warsaw Pact and then divided up Europe. After World War Two Latvia was under the USSR rule, or communist rule, for fifty years, and then in 1998 Latvia gained back their independence and is again a parliamentary democracy. With this type of system there is a Prime Minister and a President. The Prime Minister is the head of the government, and does most of the decision making. The President, who is a woman, serves as a representative of international affairs. The parliament consists of one hundred deputies.
When asked how he felt about the U.S.’ assumed role in combating global terrorism he said you have to do what you have to do you know. He is usually pretty neutral; but he thinks that it is good that someone has taken a leading role. We need that, and the U.S. is doing a good job at it. He believes that if there wasn’t someone doing it we would have a seriously huge mess.
When moving into culture, Imants said one thing he misses is all of the fish they eat in Riga. He loves fish; and since Riga is right on the Baltic Sea there is tons of it. He figures if he were on a coast they’d probably eat more fish, but not here in Minnesota.
As far as hobbies go Imants loves hockey. He plays on the men’s club team here. He also enjoys weightlifting and running. Imants actually started playing golf this semester as well. He said he really likes it and will probably play when he goes back home, too. Religiously, Imants is Catholic. But, because of the communist rule people weren’t allowed to practice religion for along time, so, he has generally been raised separated from the church. He said that his friends talk, sometimes, about what is God and what is religion, but it’s not as close to them as it may be for someone else.
Imants said he thinks people here are happier and that in Latvia there is less trust because of the communist history and bad economy, but he thinks it is getting better. He is sure there are differences between the two cultures also, but nothing too major. We do pretty much the same stuff here that they do in Latvia.
In Riga, the capital city, there are one million people. The total population of Latvia is two and half million. Imants said that structurally the downtown area is very old, and they keep it this way to attract tourists and for historical sightseeing. He said that you can see several centuries in the architecture.
The climate in Latvia is also similar to that of Minnesota; however, it is not as extreme because of the Baltic. The sea makes it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Though, in the summer the humidity is very high. It’s usually about ninety to one hundred percent humidity. So you may feel really hot but chances are it’s the humidity eating through your clothes.
Not only is Imants fluent in, what he considers his native tongue, Russian, he is also fluent in Latvian and English. Imants has studied English since he was in seventh grade, but he said he was a bad student so he really didn’t learn much. He said he pretty much picked up the language when he came here. It’s so much easier to learn when you are in the culture with the people.
On why he decided to come to the U.S. Imants replied that it is considered very prestigious, in Latvia, to have a U.S. degree, and because it is a good education. Another plus was that he now is pretty much fluent in English which will help him a lot if his dream comes true. Imants’ dream is to be an ambassador and work for the Latvian embassy, this way he would be able to travel. Otherwise he doesn’t know where the best place to live would be. He said wherever he would be rich, because unfortunately money is everything. He does want to get married and have his own family and they would just travel with him.
Imants says he has never really had problems establishing relationships first of all, when asked if he felt it was easier to form relationships with American students or international students. He has tons of friends through hockey, work, and his RA position. It is easy to communicate with everyone. He believes people usually establish relationships with those who have common interests. Such as hockey, when he plays hockey it is not about whose Latvian or American, it’s about hockey players, teammates.