For this ethnographic activity, I went to a bingo hall in Dundee with my classmates to observe people who were going about their business. I had never been to any bingo hall before, and I especially hate gamble and do not play so I was a little bit uncomfortable to go there though some of my classmates were very excited and jumping around. One of the reasons why I do not do gamble is I know I am easy to be addicted to something – tv games, sports, smoking cigarettes, and drinking… and I stopped “unhealthy” things some years ago then I am totally avoiding those of them.
Before I went I remembered my impressions for that bingo hall – lots of fat old ladies were smoking outside of the entrance and making phone calls in dirty words, I really did not want to be like them.
I knew how to play a general bingo game, but did not know how to play that bingo game in a bingo hall. Firstly I was wondering what I should wear to go there because when I went to casino once, a lot of people were wearing fancy dress or nice clothes. But I remembered people smoking outside the bingo hall and I decided not to dress up.
Firstly I was asked to be a member of the bingo hall. I just filled an application sheet. It was free.
Since we did not know how to play and also where we should go, a lady working there led us to another counter to get a bingo book. The lady told us there were several books but one of us asked her to give us a free book, and then she gave each of us a free book. I was thinking not to play but it was free, and I thought it was a little bit rude if I did not play. She explained us how to play but I did not really understand and she explained very slowly just for me again. She was so helpful. Then we followed her and took sheets in the hall.
It was very strange atmosphere for me. The inside of the bingo hall was very huge and there were so many tables like a big food hall of a shopping mall or a speedway. Also it reminded me of a stock exchange. It was not very busy but there were many people.
The numbers were called by a caller through a microphone very quickly in a specific way like “two and five, twenty five” and also showed on the screens on the wall. Nobody was speaking and the hall was very quiet. If I got lines or marked all numbers in a same block, I should shout like “Line!” or “House!” Everybody was concentrating on the numbers called, and once somebody shouted, suddenly there was a general stir occurred, but just soon after it stopped and everybody reverted to the game. I was almost lost – struggling to find numbers and catch up with the caller, but the other people were very quick. They just shouted, “House!” right after the number called. They would have more time to foresee the numbers or lines.
I thought more females than males were there. Some elder females like over 70-years-old were playing by themselves without any pal. Everybody seemed that they did not care about anybody around them. It was at around 7.30 pm and I was very hungry so had beer and chips but those people playing bingo were just concentrating on bingo and did not eat during the game. There are some break times, and some people got food and drinks during the break. And also I saw some people went to casino room just next to the bingo hall to play slot machine or other games. After the break finished, everybody suddenly became so quiet again to concentrate on playing. For bingo games, they used a specific marker pen called dauber and quickly mark the numbers. They seemed that they were marking numbers with a practiced hand. Nobody was chatting so they did not seem like being social.
After the game finished, everybody quickly left the sheet and moved out from the hall. Again, they seemed that they were coming there just for playing games and did not care about being social with anybody. However, I felt like the others were looking at us as new comers – maybe we were acting suspiciously or strangely for them.
For the second site, I went to the chaplaincy centre in University of Dundee with my friend when there was a Baroque ensemble concert at lunchtime. In fact we did not know there was a concert so accidently we sat for the lunch during the live concert.
There is a cafeteria on the first floor and the ensemble band was playing on the ground floor. They allowed us to eat food during the concert but my friend seemed she was afraid to eat. Almost all of audience were elderly and they seemed that they came for the concert not only for having food or tea. In that cafeteria, we should return used plates or cutleries to the counter. Everybody was caring and trying not to make any noise. And there was a lady having a big baked potato occasionally stopped chewing during the silent moment of the music – it was funny for me and I was almost bursting out laughing.
From my seat, I could not see the band. I knew some pieces of those songs but I saw some people were almost clapping their hands at inappropriate pause in between the movements of the song. They prepared their hands to make applause but stopped by watching other people around them. It often happens in classical concerts. I saw a person shouted “bravo!” to a female soloist at inappropriate moment once in a big classical concert. For females, he should shout “brava!” instead of bravo, but probably bravo was just known as the word to applause. I am still not sure if it is good or bad about the moment to make applause. Some people say if I was so impressed, it would be fine to clap my hands at any time.
At the bingo hall I tried to see other people and copy how to behave. At the concert in the cafeteria, I thought some people were seeing other people to keep quiet or know the right moment to make applause. And some people who came later to the cafeteria were automatically copying others or just reading the atmosphere to keep quiet.
Well, since I hate gamble I would not go that place again in the future, but it was not that bad, even better than I thought. Fortunately or unfortunately, that day was my birthday. Going to a bingo hall on my birthday was quite weird but maybe interesting experience. The atmosphere of the bingo hall was strange for me and I was a bit nervous to get used to stay in that strange silence. I had an explanation by a lady but I was not very sure how to play and behave, so I was acting like groping in the dark. Maybe if I go there again, I would be fine although I would not go.
ACTIVITY 3A: SERVICE DESIGN TOOLS
ACTIVITY 3B: ETHNOGRAPHY PRIMER
coyosa design 
Eating with violinists? That’s sonething Missed! I totally wanna do that. About “Bravo” I do beleive that english speakers don’t use “brava” as it’d be right in proper italian. So I think that what you s”saw was quite common.
Thank you for the comment. yea, I think “Bravo” is sort of like a “universal word” and not an Italian word any more…… like Japanese word “Origami” or “Tsunami”.