Interview with my father- Jan Janoian 

It was a sunny afternoon and I was at my house with my sixty year old father. My father, Jan Janoian, was born on July 15. He was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq until he was about eighteen years of age. Mr. Janoian went to Barnstaple, England to study and receive his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in the North Devon Technical College. He has lived here in the United States for about thirty-two years. Mr. Janoian now lives in Glendale, California with his wife and three kids, where most of his family lives, also. I interviewed my father about his everyday life in Barnstaple, England and how he dealt with all the stress and pressure that was put on him coming to Barnstaple. He was very enthusiastic to talk about the greatest and most challenging years of his life.

     Until I was about eighteen years old, when I finished my high school, my brother went to England and got me an acceptance there with the college. During that summer of 1968 I went to England, I went straight to Barnstaple and I got registered in the college there, the North Devon Technical College and I did my A levels for a couple of years and O levels and then the university three years after that.

I never spoke a word of English; it was very difficult to speak. My first experience was in the summer, the college started in September so I was there a couple of months before that and I lived with a land lady. We paid certain amount of money; it was five or six pounds a week that included bed and breakfast and dinner. They knew that we were from Iraq so they used to prepare certain food that were similar to Iraqi food so there won’t be any shock to us. In a few weeks I spoke English but slowly, I remember a few times when the school started, every morning the land lady used to come and wake me up. A few times in the morning I asked her in Arabic, “What time is it?” and she knew what I meant so she used to answer me in English and I used to laugh about it.

 When I first arrived to Barnstaple, I did go through culture shock but it was for a short time and I overcame it. The most difficult time period is during the first few months but I didn’t let that get over me because I started going out with friends. There is nothing really that’s similar to Iraq [laughs], the food that we eat in Iraq is different than the food that we ate in England, the weather is different, the customs, the way people drive cars, shopping, you name it is different.

 During free time, the first thing we’d do is relax, then have dinner and then we’d do our homework. In Barnstaple, it’s so small, we didn’t have cars; everywhere you go it’s a walking distance, we used to walk to the square, we called it square which is downtown. There was a café and everybody in our age used to go there for a break. There were pinball machines that was very famous in 1968-1969. There were theaters, downtown walking, window shopping, etc. Going through Barnstaple there was a river, we used to relax and gather there in the park which is alongside the river so it was very nice. To communicate with each other, we used telepathy, there is no cell phone, no laptop, no computer, the only communication was regular house phones.

During family gatherings, we would get together with the land lady and her family, I remember their names very well, Mr. and Mrs. Hutchings. We used to have dinner together and have afternoon tea, a tea actually means sandwiches and all that.

Comparing to the American houses, it’s a smaller house, but there were five bedrooms upstairs. The bedrooms were just enough for a bed and a desk. To shower or to bathe, the water was limited and so you can’t take a shower every day, they won’t allow us; we are only allowed to take one shower during the weekends.

You don’t find a neighborhood of very high class residence then other neighborhoods very poor, no. They are all the same, all the standards of living, all the houses they’re all sort of the same value and the same style. If you were to go to major cities like Manchester, or Birmingham, or London, oh yea definitely you’d find the very rich area, [inaudible] neighborhoods, and very poor but in Barnstaple, no.

Barn staple has definitely improved, the standard of living has improved, there is more roads, the transportation and especially the improvement are in technology, and the schooling; it has become one of the big centers so far to specialize in computer and control systems. If anyone wanted to specialize in computer and science, they come to North Devon Technical College because of the specialty of that. I haven’t been to Barnstaple lately expect what I have heard from the internet and I do see significant improvements in the buildings. The people over there rely on the transportation there, every five minutes there is a bus going and take you from one place to another. With the new technology, they have opened some new factories where they manufacture new computers. Basically over the years there have been definite improvements in standard living, technology, transportation, and factories in Barnstaple.

I would not go back to Barnstaple because I’ve been working here for a long time and I’m used to the system over here. It’s an entirely different life in England from the transportation to the standard of living to the accommodations to the residences and etc. The salary here is about at least four times more than the salary over there. At that time, the annual income an engineer used to get was 8,000 pounds where at the time over here, an engineer would get close to 60,000 dollars. I remember watermelons were very small, probably six to seven inches in diameter, the cost was five pounds (five pounds at the time is about eight dollars over here) while in the United States you buy one for three to four dollars max. Basically it is much more expensive in England than it is here in the United States.

                                                                                            Interviewed by: Nicole Janoian