Observation Ethnography Essay

Submitted By ferivas
Words: 1366
Pages: 6
Open Document
Observation at Kenzie’s Coffee Shop

Beatriz arrived to the office at 7:34AM on Friday 16 of May 2014, she walked in to the office wearing a maxi skirt purple and a white tight blouse. First thing Beatriz did was to say hello to everyone on her way to her desk including me. As soon as she reached her desk, Beatriz turned on her laptop on and waited for the computer to be loaded. She checked who was around for a coffee. I walked to her desk to remind her that I was recording her morning routine; just to be sure she was ok with it.
After few minutes on her desk and having checked her emails, she sent the first group message on same time; same time is a lotus instant messaging application used within the company. Beatriz only got one replied to her message from Heidi Ross. Heidi was sitting two and half metres from Beatriz desk, and she responded she was up for a coffee that morning. Although when Beatriz sent the message, she was trying to contact her colleagues or girls from level six.
After few minutes, Beatriz got two instant messages to her phone; these messages were from the girls from level six. One of the message said, Who’s up for a coffee?, Beatriz instantly replied the text message writing see you at Kenzie’s in ten.
I asked Beatriz how they do it every day, how the logistics work and if they have the same routine every day. Beatriz responded that it depended on who gets to work first; some days the girls from down stairs come up and wait for Beatriz, some other days Beatriz went down to level six and waited for the girls to arrive. I asked Beatriz if there was a specific reason for inviting only girls, and she said she had asked us several times to come down for a coffee and we usually declined the invitation; in additions Beatriz mentioned that she wouldn’t think I would like to hear or to talk about what happen last night in The Voice or Revenge.
Beatriz, Heidi and I took the lift to grown level and walked out the building towards Kenzie, it took us around five minutes to get to the coffee shop. When we arrived, Salwa Salim and Desiree Merick from level six were already waiting at the coffee shop. One thing that I noticed was that the waiter at the cash register and the barista knew the four girls, they called Beatriz and Heidi by their name and before they placed their order, the guy at the cash register said: the usual, and Beatriz and Heidi replied yes Tommy, the usual. Tommy was the barista and based on his looks he had Asian background; however I was not able to identify any accent.
The guy at the cash register asked me if I wanted anything, so I ordered a long black. The barista already had started to make the girls’ coffees. I noticed this place has outdoor tables or smoking area; furthermore, this place was also a boutique. It has an antique look however it is very simple and quite cosy.
I asked the cashier how much was the coffee but the girls had paid already for Beatriz and Heidi so then I paid $3.50 for the long black. Salwa asked the cashier to stamp her loyalty card for my coffee which had eight stamps. Once they got ten, they can get a free coffee.
At the coffee shop I there were three long wooden tables in the outside area, also there were tables distributed across the shop, including inside the boutique area which caused me curiosity however the boutique area seemed closed. I asked Beatriz if she had ever bought any clothes in that boutique, but Beatriz laughed and said that those sorts of clothes were not her style. I just realized that we were in china town and the boutique had a particular style and the clothes were rather small for an average size Brazilian woman such as Beatriz.
As mentioned before, I did not hear what Beatriz and the other girls ordered because the barista knew their orders even before they asked for anything, so I asked Beatriz if she knew what the girls had ordered and she said, of course: “I ordered a strong soy late, Heidi ordered a vanilla cappuccino, Salwa
Show More

Related Documents: Observation Ethnography Essay

Ethnography Observation

On Thursday afternoon from three to four, I spent a fair amount of time in the Undergraduate Library acquiring preliminary observations for my ethnography study. I was observing the use or absence of electronics while studying among the students present in the library. My first observation I made was that almost every single student in the library had headphones in their ear. Most were listening to music while they took notes where the screen of the device where the music was coming from was not…

Words 306 - Pages 2

Final Handout Essay

What is Ethnography? Creswell (2013) defines ethnography as a qualitative design where the researcher describes and interprets shared and learned patterns within a culture sharing group in which includes: Values, behaviours, beliefs, and language. Ethnography focuses on an entire culture sharing group, which means that the participant group would be large and would include the researcher to commit themselves to living in the participants environments and engaging in extended observations. An ethnographic…

Words 499 - Pages 2

Tim Ingold's Use Of Ethnography

Tim Ingold begins his article That’s enough about ethnography with his objections and criticisms of what constitutes “ethnography”. He notes that the word “ethnographic”, as well as its lexical counterparts, have become so overused in the discipline of anthropology itself, as well as other disciplines within the social sciences, that it has gotten to the point of “doing great harm” (2014, 383). The overuse of the word “ethnographic” has gotten to the point that it has become synonymous with distinctly…

Words 803 - Pages 4

Analysis Of Street Kids

we will be talking about a group of GROUP STUDIED: Street Kids who are scattered around LOCATION: the East Village neighborhood of New York City and in which the author took it upon herself as an anthropologist to study their life style by using ethnography methods as she mentioned in the book. WHEN WAS THE FIELDWORK CARRIED OUT: The fieldwork was carried out the moment she found out that Street Kids were considered Gutter Punks. She was also interested in learning alternative youth subculture, so…

Words 1127 - Pages 5

Essay on A quick look at Harvard Referencing

Doing your research project. 5th Edn. Maidenhead: OUP. In your text According to Bell (2010), ethnography is a research method with roots in anthropology. According to Bell (2010), he states that … XXXX Bell (2010) states that / claims that / suggests that / points out that ethnography is … Direct quotation: Bell (2010, p. 15) says that ‘participant observation is the cornerstone of ethnography.’ E-books If it is just like a paper book, e.g with publication details and page numbers, then…

Words 422 - Pages 2

Lila Abu-Lughod Summary

In this ethnography, anthropologist, Lila Abu-lughod presents a set of interesting viewpoints concerning the freedom, or non-freedom experienced by women in the Muslim world. She argues against the common western world velief that women's rights are fringed upon in the Muslim world. Abu-lughod states," when you save someone, you imply that you are saving her from something. You are also saving her to something." I agree with Abu-Lughod's argument that to save someone there has to be something to…

Words 583 - Pages 3

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Ethnographic Essay

Some strengths and weaknesses of ethnographies are the detailed descriptions that challenge stereotypes, lack of replicability, and bias observations. Ethnography allows a particular community and their stereotypes to be challenged by going in depth on why their lives are the way they are, what their motivations are, what they need, and what their resources are. On the other hand, ethnographies lack replicability, or the ability for a study to be replicated by another researcher to be tested and…

Words 598 - Pages 3

Ethnography: From Migration To The United States

urged them to have the discipline of a scientist while simultaneously having the adventurous mindset of an explorer (UER). This method would come to be known as ethnography. Ethnography is essentially when someone observes a person’s life, actions, and beliefs from an everyday perspective. Over an extended period…

Words 1724 - Pages 7

Summary: Island Possessed

Possessed, I came to realize Katherine Dunham was not just dancing but remembering, an approach she took to performing in her professional life as an anthropologist and dancer. What interests me in Island Possessed is Dunham’s creative feminist ethnography. Dunham trained in anthropology at the University of Chicago, one of the first African Americans to do so. She is the author of several books, including Journey to Accompong (1946), Kasamance (1974) and Las Danzas de Haiti (The Dance of Haiti)…

Words 822 - Pages 4

Disenfranchised Grief In Nursing

Ethnography in the field of nursing and in health care settings has established itself as a powerful method for understanding health care context (Leslie et al., 2013). Murphy and Dingwell (2007) explain that ethnography involves researchers spending extended periods of time in a setting such as a hospital ward, a laboratory or an outpatient clinic. The objective…

Words 2365 - Pages 10