Field Notes; OBSERVER – Adrian Jeremiah C.

Vargas
Friday, August 26, 2016 | 2:22 P.M.
Observation – MAP Meinardo Teves and Vikki Luta Interview
Actual Observation Observer’s Comments

There are three people in a rectangular table. The room is comfortable and pleasing to the
On the left side are the interviewer and field eye. It is more than sufficient for interview
notes taker – Moira Manuel and Adrian purposes, and the lights are bright enough for
Vargas. On the other side is the commentary the interviewers to take down notes. The air-
resource person, Ardiane Facundo. condition thermostat could be raised higher,
though.
The room we are situated in is in the eighth
floor. The building is made of concrete and
relatively maintained well. The room is
floored with tiles and sectioned off from the
other rooms by one glass pane. The top of the
room is covered with cement and lights. At
the back of the table is a door leading to the
main office of the association. The walls are
covered with many paintings with a flat
screen television on the upper left side from
my perspective. Two air-conditioners are
situated at my front. There are no windows in
the room.
Although they are not Mr. Junie del Mundo,
The deputy representatives has arrived in they work under him and have spearheaded
place of Mr. Junie del Mundo for our 2:30 the branding process under him. Because Mr.
P.M. appointment along with the assistant, del Mundo has assigned these people to be the
Mr. Ira Cruz. Deputy representative Meinardo ones answering, their responses will still be
Teves has taken the seat under the air- considered legitimate.
conditioners that are adjacent to me and
beside Ardiane Facundo. Ms. Vikki Luta has
taken the seat at the end of the table nearest to
Moira Manuel and Ardiane Facundo. Mr. Ira
Cruz has taken the seat to the far left of Mr.
Meinardo Teves from my perspective.
Apologies were sent for substitutes. All three
people have notes of some kind. Mr. Teves
has papers that talk about Sir del Mundo’s
article on nation branding, while Ms. Luta and
Mr. Cruz are brandishing laptops. [Mr. Ira
Cruz and Ms. Vikki Luta appear to be nearer
to our age than Mr. Meinardo Teves. Mr. The atmosphere is jovial and the respondents
Teves appears to be a much older man.] seem to be light in mood, laughing and
 talking in fun.
We were given water as we have requested.
The interview has not yet formally started. There seems to be some reluctance in
answering the question. There are some
pauses in answering the questions.
At two minutes and nineteen seconds, the first
interview question was answered by Mr. They seem to understand what they have been
Meinardo M. Teves. talking about; there seems to be an iota of
uncertainty in her voice.
At three minutes and fifty-eight seconds, a
follow-up question was answered by Ms. He has more confidence in his voice when
Vikki. giving his answer for the follow-up. There are
less instances of stammering.
At six minutes and twenty-four seconds, Mr.
Teves gave his own input on the follow-up They make notice of the other countries and
question. seem to be knowledgeable of the prominent
authors in nation branding.
At seven minutes and twenty-four seconds,
the interviewer asks another follow-up
question about Mr. Teves’ answer. Mr. Teves
answers the question with some follow-up
from Ms. Luta. They are make citations to the
other countries in nation branding Some
questions were answered at this point before Mr. Teves has become more involved in the
they were asked. interview while Ms. Luta seems to be in deep
thought at this juncture of the interview.
At twelve minutes and twenty-four seconds,
the next question was asked. Mr. Teves She appears to be a little bit nauseous.
answered the question.

At fourteen minutes and thirty-five seconds,

Ms. Luta stopped for a while when answering There are a lot of pauses for the answer.
the question.

At fifteen minutes, another follow-up

question was asked. Ms. Luta answers the He seems a little bit worn out. There are
question. Mr. Teves gives a little input. plenty of filler phrases injected into the
sentences.
At sixteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds,
Mr. Teves gives more of his input on the Mr. Teves has more body language in
question. comparison to the past minutes of the
interview. There are plenty of movements
At twenty minutes and four seconds, after the with his hands. Mr. Teves seems confident in
interviewer asks a question, Mr. Teves his answers for this question.
answers the question.
Both seem to be in deep thought and appear to
 need more clarification on this question.

At twenty-one minutes and seven seconds, the

interviewer asks Mr. Teves. Ms. Luta has not Ms. Luta has more body language shown in
been addressed for a while at this point. comparison to before with her hands giving
more gestures frequently. She seems to have
At twenty-two minutes and four seconds, Ms. plenty of knowledge on this part of the
Luta answers the questions to the follow-up. subject. Both respondents appear to be more
comfortable and relaxed, noted by their body
language. Perhaps this may change soon.

She seems to be thinking about her next

thought for her answers. She has started to
shift between two languages – English and
At twenty-five minutes and twenty-seven Filipino.
seconds, Ms. Luta took a small pause from
answering the question. He has also shown more passion on the
subject. Plenty of body movements with his
At twenty-six minutes and fifty-five seconds, hands are seen, yet again.
Mr. Teves gives his own input on the question
asked. Both are thinking about the question for a
period of time; however, they picked up the
At twenty-eight minutes and eleven seconds, pace shortly after on the questions asked.
a follow-up question was raised. There is some pause in the answer.

It may be due to the cold temperature of the

room. His hands seem to be hidden under his
At thirty minutes and twelve seconds, there is legs to heat them up, if I am observing
much commotion in Mr. Teves’ seat, shifting correctly.
his body position more frequently.
Mr. Teves again shows more body language.
While he still appears to be frigid from the
At thirty-two minutes and four seconds, the cold, he has more body movements.
interviewer asks the next question.
He only made mention of observing the
interview taking place as his function. His
At thirty-three minutes and twelve seconds, leaving the area did not signify anything
Mr. Ira Cruz has left the room. detrimental to the interview being conducted.

There is some difficulty in articulating her

answer; however, the answer was given
At thirty-four minutes and thirty-three immediately after the question. There is much
seconds, the interviewer asks the next emphasis on their use of body language,
question. Ms. Luta answers the question. specifically the hand movements.

He is participative of the conversation and

 maintaining the same rhythm as seen
At thirty-six minutes and forty-two seconds, previously. There is still an emphasis on body
Mr. Teves follows up on Ms. Luta’s answer. language.

This is a sign that the respondents know their

subject and are experts on the topics we have
At thirty-eight minutes and nine seconds, I been conversing about.
observe that they have not utilized too much
the materials they have brought with them. There was a pause in answering the questions
as she was looking through her material. She
At thirty-nine minutes and fourteen seconds, glances more on her laptop as she talks about
Ms. Luta checks her laptop to reference the answer. This is understandable as she is
Futurebrand’s indexes to help her answer the referencing a very long material which would
question. be difficult to memorize. Both respondents
still appear to be participative and light in
mood.

Perhaps this is due to some exhaustion. It has

At forty-one minutes, Mr. Teves yawned as been forty-one minutes of non-stop back-and-
Ms. Luta was giving her answer. forth conversation.

There is still the same observations noted

At forty-three minutes and thirty-three above.
seconds, the interviewer asks the next
question. Mr. Teves answers the question.
There is still the same body language with
At forty-five minutes and fifty-six seconds, emphasis on the hands. There is still the same
the interviewer asks a follow-up question. Mr. tempo, it appears, in answering the question.
Teves answers the question.
There was a long pause in the question. They
At forty-seven minutes and twenty-four seem to need more clarification. They thought
seconds, the last question was asked in the about the question, and when the answer was
formal Key Informant Interview guide. given, there were long pauses. Ms. Luta is
having difficulty articulating her answer.

This may be due to him being under the air-

At fifty-one minutes and fifty-four seconds, conditioner and being exhausted from the
Mr. Teves is shifting more frequently in his time of day and the interview.
position again. He also gives his input on the
question. At this point of time, the interview
is at its closing.