MECG6M1_Sanitised (Text)

File contents

I think it's probably going now.  Alright, so, what is your name?
I'm REDACTED.
Mhm, and where do you live?
Ah, in REDACTED.
Mhm, and have you lived there for a long time?
Oh yeah, all my life, I think, our, family moved.
So you were born in REDACTED?
Um, yeah, born in, born in Melbourne, yeap.
Okay, do you have brothers and sisters?
Ah I've got two older brothers.
Mhm, they still at school or?
Ah no, they're both, they're both at university, one's about to
         finish his degree.
Mhm
The other's in second year I think.
Mhm.  And where are your parents from?
Um, they're both from Australia, my um Dad was born in New South
         Wales and Mum was born in Victoria.  But they've
Mhm
lived overseas in England for a bit but
Mhm, what about grandparents?
Um, my my grandpa was born in um Germany
Is this your father's father is it?
Yeap, that's right.  And ah, his wife was born in England, but both
         my other grandparents were born in Australia as well.
Right, so ah, what languages do your parents speak?
Ah they're both English speaking, yeap.  Er, Dad learnt German at
         school but his not, he can't speak it.
Right.
so.
And your grandfather, is he here at?
Um yeah that's right, he he lives in Australia, he was just born in
         Germany really.  I mean, he's not German but
He doesn't speak German?
No.
Right, because REDACTED must originally have
         been
Yeah, it's a German name, but, a long way back.
Right.
Yeah.
So there's no tradition of German speaking in the family.
not really, no.
Okay.  Um.  What sort of, what work do your parents do?
Ah, Dad works in a, um Chemical firm, he's a, he's sort of a manager
         there now so and um my Mum's a part-time teacher but, I mean, she
         doesn't do much anymore so.
And, how much schooling did they do?
Ah they've both done university degrees.  And ah
Here?
Yeah, in Melbourne.  Yeap, and Dad did a sorta postgraduate course
         overseas in England, after that.
Okay.  And are you learning any languages here?
Oh yeah I do French, and Latin.
Everybody
Yeap.
who's come to me does Latin, what do you think about Latin?
Oh, I enjoy it actually, yeah.  It's, ah it sort of appeals to me
         that you get a bit of history in it as well um it's more than, I
         don't know it sort of looked pretty interesting to see how
         different languages are formed and
Yeap.
I suppose that's the oldest type you get, I s'pose.
There's a few older ones but yeah
Oh yeah, I'm sorry.  Yeah.  In the back there.
Um, so you know your passive conjugations and
That's right, yeah.
And ah, are you reading any particular um things in Latin at the
         moment, any
Ah no, we're just working from a sort of text, the Cambridge Latin
         Course, but we haven't really done any ah classics yet or anything
         like that.
Will you go on with it?
Oh, yeah, next year I'm doing it and hopefully I'll do it in Year 12
         as well.
So you'll be reading some ???
Yeah, that's right, yeap.
Good.  Um, so what would you like to do when you leave school?
Um, not really sure, I've, sort of, my family's sort of science
         inclined I guess, they're both, Mum's a science teacher, so, I
         guess there has to be a bias on me but, I I'm interested in sort of
         history and literature and like that, but I'll probably end up
         doing something science based as well, I think, yep, in what field
         I'm not really sure.
Mhm, okay.  But you'll, will you go to university?
Oh, hopefully, yeah, yeap, I think.
And what's your favourite subject at the moment?
Um.  Oo probably Latin at the moment, yeah.
It's absolutely extraordinary.  Um, you're not the first to have said
         that, and I, it's been several hundred years I think that such a,
         anyway um.  So why do you, well, you've already talked about Latin
         but, I I am astonished to find that so many people like Latin.
Yeah, um.  I don't know, just, it's people say it's hard, but I sort
         of find it easy, it's sort of fairly neat language, I mean, the no
         obviously no oral, or or there is but you don't sort of get exammed
         on it, on anything like that.  So yeah.  I've.  I don't know, I
         guess it's got something to do with the teacher as well, Mr
         REDACTED (??) is pretty good teacher so, it
         makes it interesting.
Mm.  Mm.  Well that brings me onto the next subject, do you have, or
         have you ever had, teachers that you really like?
Um, yeah, last year I had a history teacher that, I found really
         interesting, he sort of, um, I don't know, teaching at a sort of
         school like this yeah, he sort of had a different view of life I
         guess, that opened people's eyes to life a bit more, sort of told
         them, you know, what life is outside the private school and stuff
         like that, so, yeah it was quite good.
What ah, what area of history were you studying?
Ah, Australian history then, but yeah we sort of, modern, I mean not
         modern history, sort of set, um set, early settlers and stuff like
         that.  But yeah, we sort of did a range of things, sort of um, to
         do with Australian identity and stuff like that.
Did you learn anything that surprised you?
Not so much surprised me, but sort of made me more aware of it, I
         think, cos, you know, just, we did a fairly major project on
         Gallipoli, and um mainly not the general facts of Gallipoli but how
         it's changed Australia, really and um, how it's sort of given us an
         identity and that's sort of you know, sort of gave me a better idea
         why we are what we are, I s'pose.
Mm.  Do you have a big thing on ANZAC day here?
Um, yeah we've got, oh there's a cadet, co, cadet um parade that we,
         all the cadets, I’m a cadet myself so.  Probably, I went in, er the
         city this year to march for the Anzac Day parade.
How did that make you feel?
It was good actually, yeah, I'd never gone to see it or anything like
         that before so, yeah.  It was really um, I felt pretty proud.
Mmhm, and when you see the old diggers marching by?
Yeah, it was pretty, emotional I guess, walking down beside them.
         And, yeah, their emotion sort of spreads on to you.  Yeah.
Did you get to talk to any of them?
Um, yeah.  They weren't um, none of the er World War I veterans but
         we talked to the Second World War um airforce people and things
         like that it was fairly interesting, yeah.
Are there very many World War I veterans left?
No, that's right, yeah.  Not ones you can easily get around to talk
         to, anyway.  Normally they've big crowds around them and.
When I was your age, there were still people marching from the Boar
         War.
Gee.
Yes.  Bad sign.  Um.  So, do you have any teachers that pick on you?
Um, no, not really I wouldn't say, pick on me.
What do you normally do after school?
Oh, sort of, h, quite heavily involved in sport.  I have sports
         practice normally four days a week after school.
Are you missing something now that you should be at?
Ah, no, it's sort of in between seasons a bit but, I am missing
         cricket training but it's only a voluntary thing so.
Oh well, sorry about that.  You did volunteer.  Um.
That's right.
Ah, so, wh, what are your sports?
Um, I do cricket, football, water polo um athletics and kayaking.
That's a reasonable spread.  Ah, so what about football, do you
         follow the AFL teams?
Yeah, I go for Melbourne, unfortunately, or fortunately had a win on
         the weekend.
So what is your um what is your opinion of their er their um ah
         what's the word I'm looking for?
form, this season?
Yeah, form this season.
Oh I think we're going for the professional season, getting the two
         draft picks at the end of the year, sort of, sort of next year
         we'll bounce back I think.
Somehow I've heard that before.
Well Footscray did it last year, and they've finished pretty well
         this year so
When was the last time Melbourne won a premiership?
Um nineteen sixty-four.
That was back in Ron Barassi's day.
That's right, yeap.
Yeah.  What you might call pre-history almost.  Okay, um so have you
         been playing football with the school?
Yeah, we've just had our season finished last week.
How'd you go?
Um, better than normal, we're not a particularly strong team, we won
         three out of our eight matches, which doesn't sound great but it's
         fairly good cos there's ?? competition which we play in, it's
         fairly tough competition so.
Wh, like, who are you up against?
Ah, there's sort of schools, oh it's REDACTED,
         REDACTED, um, REDACTED,
         um, REDACTED
Okay.
Yeap.
I once played hockey against REDACTED, not, did
         I?  Against REDACTED I think I was in the D
         team, anyway.  I do remember where it is, sort of.  Okay, um.  Is
         there a, well.  Tell me about something that ah, that happened in
         one of those football games that went well for you personally.
Alright.  Um, would've been in the REDACTED
         game, we were played, we played REDACTED and
         they're traditionally a pretty strong football team, there's a lot
         of AFL players that come from there and things like that and, our
         coach was um, oh he's quite nice, and he sort of realised that we
         didn't have a chance about half way through the ah game when we
         were hah down by about twenty goals or something I think so he
         said, sort of go out and have a bit of fun, do your best, so, we
         already were but, and um, yeah there was a, one of their players,
         their fullback, kicked it out, and on that day it was incredibly
         windy, and blowing straight against him, kicked out the ball and
         it's sort of sat up in the breeze and I went and took a fairly big
         mark, which was good, so I got, got something out of the game at
         least,
Right.
So, yeah.  It was right in front of all the coaches and stuff like
         that so.  Good place to take it.
Excellent.  Excellent.  Um, okay, um, is there a group of kids that
         you hang round with?
Um, yeah, I've got a fair few friends they sort of, it's interesting
         that not all um do, sort of, is hea, oh, what's the word, they're
         not sort of, .. not all of them do the same things that I do,
         there's sort of a cross group of people that get along pretty well
         with me.  Usually have some common interest.
Is there anybody in that group that everybody listens to?
Um, don't, yeah I s'pose there is, yeah, there's oh a few people but,
         yeah they're generally the more popular ones that sort of have a
         bit of a, oh, more of a say I guess, yeah.
Have you ever been in that position yourself?
Um, I guess way back in primary school or something, I think yeah
         but, yeah um.  I I was sort of quite happy sort of um, letting
         others take it, I guess but, I mean, I can sort of excel in other
         fields I guess, I'm sort of happy letting them lead in that front
         yeah.
Do you have a best friend?
Ah yeap, I've got a couple actually, yeah.
Right, and are there particular things that you do together with them
         that's different from?
Ah, yeah, one of my best friends is in, actually in Year 11, I'm in
         Year 10, so, I, he's my kayaking partner and ah, I guess that's a
         sport that sort of brings you together because when you're paddling
         twenty k's or something you can't really have a fight with your guy
         that's paddling with you, cos it's generally better to get along
         with them and get there faster but I suppose that's formed a pretty
         good friendship really, yeah.
Um, okay, do you, what kind of things do you argue about in your
         family?
Ah.  Oh that's a tough one, oh.  Generally, although we, have our
         differences I suppose, Mum, she's got a rule that we're not allowed
         to watch TV during the week, and that's always been a tough one
         when other people get to school the next day and say oh, did you
         see this, did you see that, and, you haven't seen it at all, so,
         but, yeah, but.  Use the VCR a fair bit.  Yeah, um.  It's tough
         really, oh I can't really think of many things that we commonly
         have an argument about but, yeah there's always little things that,
         sometimes.  Argue with my brother sometimes a fair bit, he's got a
         fairly dominant personality I guess and can always, I I mean I more
         of the same, I guess but he always thinks he's right and I guess I
         always think I'm right so, bit of a clash.
Common human problem I think.
Yeah.
Um, not unique to your family.  Have you ever been in hospital?
Ah yeah, I've had a broken arm, and had to just, I got that from
         falling out of a tree, when I was pretty young but, the day before
         we were going to go skiing but, had to stay in hospital for a
         couple of hours but I haven't stayed overnight or anything like
         that.
So what did you feel?  Can you remember how you felt about that?
Oh, it was, I don't know, it was exciting in a way, like I mean, you
         know, I was, in shock when I first broke my arm, I didn't really
         fe, it didn't really hurt that much and I'd never had anything
         broken and, guess it's exciting, I was fairly young and so, you
         know, get a cast and everything like that and, yeah it was fairly
Do you think the older generation understand younger people today?
Um, oh it's a bit of a generalisation I guess, saying the older
         generation but, I know a fair few people that understand us pretty
         well, I'd say.  I mean, my parents, I think they understand and
         Dad's certainly been, sort of, understand the position I'm in, and
         my brothers are in, and I guess he sort of sees himself in us a bit
         so, yeah I think he can understand it, um.  Yeah, I I'd say on the
         whole they will, or would.
Okay.  Um, how do you think your best friend would describe you?
Ah, I think he'd say I'm pretty determined and um, pretty determined
         to do my best ah, I guess I, a bit soft-skinned at times, um.  He'd
         probably say that I don't have a good sense of humour, that I
         couldn't tell any jokes, like that you'd probably laugh at them,
         ah.  Yes, that's probably about it I think, yeah.
And what about a best friend who's a girl, how would she describe
         you?
Alright, I think she'd probably, she'd probably say I'm fairly fun to
         get along with and have, easy going, um, yeah, fun-going I s'pose I
         guess.
Okay, and finally, um how would you describe Melbourne to a visitor
         from interstate?
Oh I think we've got a fairly good mix of multiculturalism and other
         lots of different restaurants and landmarks and things like that, I
         think we've got a bit of a sprawling metropolis but there, inner
         city Melbourne's fairly picturesque I guess and got a lot of
         landmarks that we should be proud of.
Okay, that's good.  Thanks very much.