Poem (School Life)

Sitting in class

Thinking of my past

I hear the school bell sound

And I slowly place my feet on the ground

Waddling slowly to class

All I hear

Is “Pull up your Socks “

And “do your tie up”

These restrictions

There becoming the teachers addictions

When the bell sounds

So does the teachers’ lounge

When the Kids cry

The teachers laugh and sigh

Then homework comes in

“It mostly ends up in the bin”

The subjects are bad

The teachers are always mad

This school is just such a drag?

The End

By Andrew Jerogin

Destiny- Shalini Akhil
The author presents an Indian girl who is starting to experience an obsession with a television series

The description Shalini is of her as a young child with a dream to be wonder-woman. Coming from India Shalini grew up like any other child watching Television shows and making up their own imagination. After watching her favorite super-hero (Wonder-woman) in action Shalini decided that it was her destiny to grow up and be like her.

However whenever Salini's grandmother was around she did not agree. Saying things like "your Indian you can't be wonder woman, she has different eyes and different colored skin". However to make continue with her journey in becoming a super hero Shalini's grandmother suggested that she should become an Indian Wonder Woman. This decision was a wise one as the Grandmother was trying to protect her grand daughter from trouble.

The Grand Mother had suggested this for two good reasons. The first one being that she didn't want her Grand Daughter to get bullied by others because of her Skin color, eyes and her dream to become Wonder Woman when she was nothing like the real thing. Then the second one being that the Grand Mother didn't want Shalini losing her Indian culture due to the fact that the real Wonder Woman wasn't Indian. These two reasons just show how hard it was for Indians to grow up in Australia.

So in the end Shalini's dream wasn't ruined but was slightly modified to fit her appearance and abilities that she showed in everyday life. The importance of this story is that even though we grow up in different cultures and have different appearances, we all still have the same dreams and the same "DESTINIES".

The Relative Advantages of Learning My Language Opinion

The author presents herself as a young Chinese girl  and her connection with her Grandfather.

The description of Amy Choi aged 12  being not particularly kind to her Grandfather just represents the difficulty that people who speak English have with Chinese people. Living in Australia the author spoke English all day at school, listened to English all night on TV and she didn't see the point of speaking Chinese in Australia.

After experiencing the death of her Grandfather, Amy found herself regretting that she ignored her Grandfather after he had died. She regrets not being able to communicate with her Grandfather and experiencing the way that he used to live in China. Continuing with this guilt the author is able to relate to the readers, everyone has difficulties communicating with there grandparents when they come from a different cultures and lifestyles but in the end we all have to learn and try to ensure that the next time an elderly relative wants to communicate we are not willing, but are able

So after the death of her grandfather Amy Choi begins to realize that her grandfather had the most commonest sense of kindness and now she wants to become involved with her families cultures and lifestyles in order to be able to communicate.

The importance of this story is that even though we speak in different tongues our hearts beat as one, meaning that even though Amy's grandfather speaks Chinese and she does not they should still be able to communicate with one another as a family not a culture.

Conversations with my Parents

1) It is ironic that the father has to become sick for the author to actually communicate
2) It was very brief
3) She never mentions that she loves them
4)  The family express their feelings for the child by reminiscing about memories about happy times and that they always try to call and listen to the child. They also pressure her to live like they did such as by buying Vietnamese groceries and talking about meals such as Banh Xeo

My First Kiss by Lian Low

1. How does the author describe Malaysia in regards to showing affection?

Malaysia does not allow homosexuals to show affection in public

2. What happens to the author when she hits puberty?

She begins to have feelings about popular girls and envies men flat chests

3. What is the author’s experience at school when she first arrives to Melbourne?

She is only approached by overseas-born Asians and not any white boys or girls

4. What is it that made the author feel that she wasn’t Australian even though she spoke English fluently?

The author is placed into a Second Language Class for people who do not speak English as their first language which is all of the overseas-born Asians like herself even though she can speak English fluently and easily.

5. What else was it about the author that further alienated her from her peers?

When ever the author starts to speak her peers can easily hear her Malaysian accent 

6. What does the use of description like ‘crash hot’ do to the audience’s perception of the author? 

7. What opportunity does university give the author? What is it about university which would allow her to express herself more freely? 

It gives the author a way to express her feelings through movies 

8. What role does creativity play for the author? Why do you think that creativity would be so important to her?

The role of creativity helps the author to express her feelings in the way of films. It helps her overcome the worries in life that she has such as being queer.

Lessons from My School Years


1. There is a stark contrast created in the opening of this story between what the narrator had been doing before entering school and what will be expected at school?   What is this contrast and what does it immediately create in the story? The contrast that is created at the beginning of the story is that which is juxtaposed with the true reality. The authors intensions and thoughts of school is to learn what he wants to learn when in reality it is to be obedient and to learn what is being taught. 

2. The author continues this theme of contrast at the start of the story. How does he do this in his description of his experience of Sydney’s North Shore? He describes the North Shore as being very different based on location. There is areas which are full of leafy green and solid brick houses which he doesn't like. His whole world revolves around this and the highway with is juxtaposed with the positives such as the library, the back lane and the park.

3. What was the father’s background in business before he opened the fruit shop? What has helped him become successful? The fathers background in business was non-existent, he had no background when he moved to Australia. To overcome this he used his personality and greeted all customer with a wide smile, asking them what they want and being very friendly and chatty.

4. The narrator’s description of his father is complex. What makes the father a complex character? The narrator's description of the father is very complex because the father has many different aspects about him. He is a happy, chatty, friendly man who strives to make people feel welcome in his shop. He also is a very hard diligent worker, having started a successful business in Australia with no english or business skills, and is very motivated as seen through the checking of account every night in order to make sure everything is good. This shows that he has many different character traits which make him a very complex person.

5. (91) How does the author describe his role in doing ‘things that counted’? His purpose within the family was to listen and watch what his siblings had to say about school in order to learn for himself what is acceptable and what isn't within schooling life. This to him was the only way of learning because he couldn't ask questions because they would be seen as insignificant. 

6. What experience does the author have at school while keeping to himself? What does he learn from this experience? The author experiences a bad situation at school by trying to keep to himself. He is centred out because of not only his difference is race (an asian in an australian environment) but because he keeps to himself and doesn't talk. He learns not to be afraid of the people around him but be nice and friendly.

7. How would you characterise the narrator’s tone in regards to the events that are occurring around him? The narrator would use a rather mono tone, that of a single note. He is seeing the world in one major way, that it is horrible. His expectations are very different to reality and this sets in a negative mood and a very one-sided view.

8. How does the narrator characterise the ways that one could ‘get the strap’ and ways that one could avoid it? The narrator characterises the way that one could 'get the strap' as being very easy to get and very hard to avoid it. Simple things that happen daily would get the strap such as mis-spelling a word in a spelling bee, getting an answer wrong, walking to fast or to slow, etc. There was very few ways to avoid the strap.

9. What event evokes a racist speech to the class by the teacher? The boy in the story could not swim and therefore, his sister wrote a note to excuse him from the swimming carnival. The teacher than reads it to the whole class, that stating "we all know these chinese people never contribute to anything".

10. What effect did the author’s experience with ‘Strap Happy Jack’ have on him?It made him think about the minority of the chinese people within the area and the fact that racist comments like "chinese people never contribute" not meaning much and having little effect on the population.

11. What was the one advantage school provided the author? One advantage that the author found was that as he went on through high school, some teachers noticed talents in him and one teacher for example told him that his test scores indicated a very valuable future for him.

12. What did the author do at his school? What was his motivation for doing it? What did he feel was lacking at school? The author started a workshop program, something that interested him and was something that he enjoyed. He was motivated to do something that he enjoyed (the motivation coming from interest that he set the boundaries for the program), and he felt that the school was lacking the ability for him to choose his own future.

13. What did the parents want their son to do at school? What did the author fear would happen by obeying his parents? The parents (mostly the mother) wanted their son to be a specific profession. The mother wanted her son to be a doctor, something that he feared and hated to do. She chose this because of her culture and her wanting of a doctor in the family. The author feared that he would end up having to follow a path that was based on the teachers decision, because he mother told him to learn what is begin taught and learn what you want after, which to him sounded like he would miss the opportunity to learn what he wants.

14. At school, what did the author learn about his own type of thinking and how to use it? He learn, by being at school, that his own type of thinking is very different to the next persons and that he has to follow his style in order to use it to its full potential.

The Early Settlers

1) This title refers to the early European settlers that have arrived to the country and the later foreign settlers
2) It gives you the first idea that the Grandfather is from another country (declarative statement)
3) saying that they are a potential terrorist or each a foreign devil  many feel uneasy because
they are from other countries meaning that they are different from us
4) He juxtaposes the terrorist and the farmer
5) He speaks in his own language
6) It is ironic that immigrants are hated when they 'settle' because they once would have had to settle and that they all come from different backgrounds. They all have there descendants and all would have felt the hatred experience but now put the same pressure on other people