Delta Sigma Phi Research Paper

2. Fieldwork among the Noi’bla: Language
In this fieldwork, I am presenting Delta Sigma Phi from the point of the members themselves. To understand their current lives, it was necessary to immerse myself in the culture and learn about their thoughts about Greek life, their experience as part of the community and future plan as a member. My goal is to reveal the unique aspect of the fraternity I chose.
Both of my interview was held in private setting of Delta Sigma Phi because I wanted my conversation to be informal and open as possible. I started off asking each of them about what it means to be a member of this specific fraternity, what can your fraternity offer you and what makes your chapter unique and sets it apart from other chapters.
Their responses were very different and interesting from each other. My first participant was a junior majoring in English. He gave me a very definite and important answers to my questions from the way he experiences his college life living in fraternity housing to what he expects in the future. He was a very nice person and our conversation lasted about half an hour which makes it the longest of the two. Whereas my second interview was a bit intimidating. His answers were short mostly very broad and open-ended and the usage of his words were a bit limited. Probably the reason why I didn`t get the answers I want is because he was informed beforehand. As a senior member of the chapter, he must have felt obligated to keep any “secret” information leaking out. Overall, I think I had a successful interview with the participants, and their responses changed my way of looking.
During the interview, I noticed many words that my culture doesn`t use in a similar way such as pledge, hazing, mixer, chapter etc.
Back home we used the word pledge in places like bank or company to talk about business, extract money or property as a bait. Here pledge means being accepted as a member. The primary process of pledge is to teach newcomers the group’s values, customs, and fundamental facts about fraternity life. Another purpose is to allow upperclassmen to exert control over newcomers, thereby preserving traditions and teaching newcomers how to view the group, the upperclassmen, and themselves. Another example is “mixer”. It is supposed to be a kitchen utensil used for baking cake but here it`s used as a theme of party among the members. Mixer is a place where you can play games, have fun and meet new people. If a mixer is said to be “dry” it means they doesn`t permit alcohol on their house premises. Some fraternities are going dry at certain times (usually during rush), and all have different levels of "dry". Usually this term applies to fraternities since sorority recruitments always permit alcohol. Lastly, chapter can be viewed as a branch of a Greek life not a book chapter. Each named differently and usually designated by Greek Letters, in my case, it is Delta Sigma Phi. Chapter House is a house on campus where members of the organization live together. But not all fraternities have chapter houses. Some have designated rooms given to each of them, or a
special dormitory where each group gets a floor. Some groups have no house or room and use whatever room is available at the university.