Jeremiah Fagen Interview

After interviewing 19 year old Jeremiah Fagen I gained lots of knowledge about the life and culture of Kingston, Jamaica. I found great interest in interviewing Jeremiah because Jamaica is such a well known destination vacation area that hundreds of people travel to while I personally have no knowledge of the actual culture and what it is like to permanently live there. I also was intrigued because Jeremiah is the same age as myself and I found it quite fascinating to hear the story of someone the same age as me moving to new countries on their own. I found great importance in this interview because personally I have never left Ontario let alone the country, so to hear the story of someone making such a drastic change in their life and learning

Since Jeremiah and I had only spoken one or two times prior to the interview, he was more reluctant to give me more in depth, personal answers, especially over a Facebook conversation. Jeremiah began by explaining the process in him preparing and entering Canada. He explains “No, not really many steps are required. Only a medical and background check is required when your under 18”. When asked about the barriers that he may of faced he says “I experience barriers a small bit, but the key thing that I would suggest to anyone new in Canada is to listen to how everyone else talks and form your own unique way of speaking from that”. I found this statement quite interesting since Jeremiah speaks two languages, English and Patois, so he has first hand experience with the struggle of learning a new language. On the topic of adjusting he comments “Well it’s taken some time but it wasn’t that difficult to adjust really...it’s just a matter of extreme observation and paying attention to how the people around act and act based on that.” I found this answer quite surprising. I believe that quite often we may forget how difficult it may be for people moving here to adjust to the little things. When it came to politics and laws Jeremiah did not seem to have much to say on the topics. When asked about politics he just simply replied “Honestly, I don’t

When I asked Jeremiah why he chose Canada as his country to live he answers “Well as far as I know my dad used to travel back and forth from Canada a long time before I was born and he’s been living here permanently for 19-21 years. He wanted me to move here to have a better life for myself”. It takes a lot for a 17 year old to move to make the final decision of moving to Canada on his own. He was able to see that there were opportunities available for him here even though moving here required him leaving his family and friends behind. I then asked him where he saw himself in the future and he said “I want to make a lot of money through working hard and start a family someday when I get my life together”. This statement right here proves that he is willing to work hard for his accomplishments in life and he wants to be proud of what he has done throughout his life. He also shows an understanding of wanting to be in a good position and have that better life created before he moves onto the next chapter of his life (starting a family). His whole reasoning for moving into Canada is to create that better life for himself and work towards his goals. One thing that I was quite excited to learn about within this interview is the difference in the education system. Jeremiah states “I probably hate school even more now”. When asked why he said “Just everything here is more technical here and has a