In “The Pain Of 'Perfectly Normal': A Vietnam Vet's Long-Silent Torment”
podcast on NPR’s Storycorps podcast section, a clip of Barbara Lau interviewing
her husband, former Vietnam soldier Hartmut Lau, is played in honor of Veteran’s
Day.
Before interviewing her
husband, Barbara did not know anything about what happened to him during his
time in Vietnam. She did not need to ask questions, but rather gently nudge him
into telling his story about a specific memory of the war, commenting when
appropriate and allowing Hartmut to get all of his words in the open.
Though Barbara did not
need to question her husband to bring his horrible memories of combat to light,
she prompted him into speaking of them by stating that although he has told her
about West Point, he has never told her anything about Vietnam. When Hartmut
pauses in his story, Barbara comments kindly, as though just in a conversation,
to urge him forward in providing details.
The interviewer,
Barbara, did not seem to have a strategy. She simply seems to be there to help
relieve her husband of his memories in Vietnam by getting him to tell the tale
and offering a listening ear.
In the beginning of the
interview, Hartmut seemed closed off and evasive of providing details. Barbara
handles this by telling her husband that he spoke as though he was explaining
something that happened to somebody else, but he was there. After this gentle
prod, her husband opens up to the painful details of his experiences in combat.
The relationship between
interviewer and interviewee in this podcast was evidently a close and loving
one, seeing as they are husband and wife. This arrangement was clever in NPR’s
part, for it was obvious that it helped for Hartmut to be able to share his
entire story with his wife rather than a random interviewer.
I learned from this
interview that when interviewing, one must be a good listener when the
interviewee is talking, for sometimes they will pause before getting the
strength to go on or to collect their thoughts. I also discovered the
importance of pushing the interviewee to go on by using short, simple words, as
though participating in a conversation.
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