Anh Do - Winner of Australian Literary Prize 2011

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3278641.htm1.     

  Who did Anh’s father rescue from the concentration camp?

a)      His eldest son who would later become Young Australian of the Year

b)      His wife’s two brothers who had worked for the Australian military

c)       Two of the armed guards at the camp who were really employees of the Australian military and were in disguise.

2.       What was the length of the fishing boat in which they escaped and how many people were on it?

a)      40 metres long with 9 people

b)      9 metres long with 40 people

c)       20 metres long with 20 people

3.       What honour was Anh’s brother given in 2005?

a)      Australian Refugee of the Year

b)      Australian of the Year

c)       Young Australian of the Year

4.       What was the main lesson which Anh’s parents insisted that he learn after coming to Australia?

Do as much as you can to give back to this great land

5.       Why was Anh able to attend a prestigious school like St Aloyisius?

a)      He worked in a sweatshop to earn enough money to pay his fees

b)      He won a half scholarship

c)       St Aloyisius always takes in a certain number of refugees as part of their charity work

6.       Explain how Anh tried to overcome the problem of having no text books for his lessons.

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7.       Describe what he wore instead of the official sports uniform.

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8.       True or false:

a)      His mother earned less than $7 an hour as a cleaner in a hotel.  T   or  F

b)      At school, Anh was the class clown and this was when he knew he had a future as a comedian.    T   or   F

c)       He was often punished at school with a strap.    T   or   F

d)      No-one at school knew at the time that Anh and his family were poor.  T   or   F

e)      Anh’s father left the family when Anh was growing up.   T   or  F

9.       What did Anh study at University?

a)      Fine Arts, majoring in Drama

b)      Law

c)       Pure Mathematics

10.   What did Anh do for his mother when he was only 23 years old?

a)      Gave her money for a holiday back in Vietnam

b)      Arranged for her to come and see his first public performance as a comedian

c)       Bought her a house

11.   How old was Anh at the time of this interview?

a)      30

b)      33

c)       40

12.   What was the motto which Anh’s father taught his children to live by?

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13.   Was Anh the victim of racism as he grew up?

14.   Write ONE extra question which you would like Adam to have asked Anh, and what do you think the answer would have been?

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My First Kiss by Lian Low

My First Kiss by Lian Low

1. How does the author describe Malaysia in regards to showing affection? The author says that there are laws against showing affection in public an people never show mouth-to-mouth kisses and that for queers the repercussions were even worse

2. What happens to the author when she hits puberty? She is a tom boy and when she hits puberty she stops seeing her friends and says at home in her attic and at school stays in the library and realises that she is actually a lesbian.  

3. What is the author’s experience at school when she first arrives to Melbourne? The authors experience when she arrives in Melbourne is that only Asian people approached her and she was put into ESL class even though he had been at a school where English was their main language, but now she makes some really good friends

4. What is it that made the author feel that she wasn’t Australian even though she spoke English fluently? The author thought that she was not australian enough because of her accent which was a mixture of Malaysian -lilt, manglish, Americanism, the queens english and australian. also when she tried to speak Australian slang people would ask "Where are you from" and "how long have you been here".

5. What else was it about the author that further alienated her from her peers? She thought that she had no-one to talk to and her diary became her best friend. She also felt alienated from her peers because she thought that all love stories started with the Hollywood romance and she knew that she could never feel that way about a man.

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?

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

Teenage Dreamers by Phillip Tang

Teenage Dreamers by Phillip Tang

1. What are the first two sentences of the story and how do they create a tension in the story? At the beginning of the book the Author says "father has a sixth sense for death". This creates tension because "death" is low morality word so it gives the reader an idea of what the story may be about. 

2. What has happened to the author’s father as a result of his wife’s death? Because of the authors mothers death his father has started to feel very lonely and down

3. How does the description of the father removing his hands from his face as ‘unmasked’ related to the seriousness of his following statement? His father removing his hands from his face and becoming "unmasked" is related to the seriousness of the following statement because its like he is finally showing his real self and not just hiding behind a mask

4. Consider how the father lives his life and conducts himself and the other people in the theatre for the film the author and his father are watching. How does this relate to the title of the story? ?????

My China - Kylie Kwong

My China by Kylie Kwong is a story about an author going back to to where her great grandfather lived until 1875 then, when he was 25, moved to Australia because of the promise of gold.  During his time in Australia he made many forged business connections to go back and forth to china to secure a futures for his family. Now over 120 years later the Kwong family has over 1200 people in his family and over 5 generations.
The story is full of descriptive language to describe what it is like to in the village and everything that she does "As I make my way through the village, it buzzes with life: mottled chickens peck at the ground, twitchy-eared dogs sniff the air and stare at us: farmers steer water buffalo through the lush, green rice paddies; worn and weathered wooden wheelbarrows lie by the side of the fields; ducks glide through the murky waters" and it keeps going on like that until the next page. This does not usually happen in many books, they way she describes everything that she does and how she feels about everything really gives the reader an idea in to what is really happening and how she perceives things 
As Kylie is walking through the town she finds her great grandfathers house which is over 130 years old and as she is walking along side it she runs her hand along hoping to feel a little bit of her great grandfathers spirit. when she does she is overwhelmed by the feeling that she really belongs soemwhere "on the wall is the Kwong family seal - I am overwhelmed by the feeling that i really belong somewhere

Conversations with my Parents by Oanh Thi Tran

Conversations with my Parents by Oanh Thi Tran

1. What is ironic about the way the author and the father become close? What has to happen to the father? It is ironic that the author becomes closer to her father because he went to the hospital they didn't talk and after he went to the hospital and he went to see her dad they started talking. this is ironic because usually father and daughter talk to each other but this time the author doesn't talk till her dad until he is in hospital

2. How would you characterise the conversation that the author has with her parents? I believe that the way that the family talks to each other is like they are all stranger and all their conversations are very short if we didn't know they were family we could even think they have not much to do with each other

3. What is it that worries the author most about these conversations? The author is worried about that in all of their convosations she never tells them that she loves them.

4. There is a gap between the author’s need to express feelings common in western countries and her family’s lack of desire to express their feelings verbally. How does the family still express their feelings for their child, just not verbally? The family expresses their feelings for their daughter by telling her stories and remembering old memories. they call her in and tell her that they want her to be save and want her to be happy and talk about their culture.

Lessons From My School Years by Ray Wing-Lun

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 trees and solid brick houses which he doesn't like. But his whole world revolves around the shop and the backlane

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, was very friendly and talkative.

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 very happy, friendly man who strives to make people feel welcome in his shop. He also is a very hard worker, and the fact that he came to Australia with no English skills or business skills either

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. 

6. What experience does the author have at school while keeping to himself? What does he learn from this experience? The author's experience while keeping to himself was very bad. while he was at school a group of boys came up to him and started being mean to him because he was quiet so now he was learnt not to be quiet and afraid

7. How would you characterise the narrator’s tone in regards to the events that are occurring around him? The authors tone in regards to the events that have occured around him are very straight forward. he is seeing the world in just his view and it gives the story a negative feel

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 getting an answer wrong, walking to fast or to slow or other things like that. There was very few ways to avoid the strap.

9. What event evokes a racist speech to the class by the teacher? He could not go to the swimming carnival because he couldn't swim so his sister wrote a note and the teacher read it out aloud to the class and said "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 in 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 school provided the author was in high school when his teachers started to recognize him and the talents that he had

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, he did this because it was something that interested him and was something that he enjoyed doing. He was motivated to do the workshop because enjoyed it 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? His parents wanted him to be a specific profession, such as a doctor. The author feared that he would end up having to follow a path that was based on what his mother wanted him to do, If he followed what his parents wanted him to do 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 learnt, 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.

EXAM

• Another cultural perspective
• culture
• Immigrant struggles
• greater insight
• historical perspective
• evokes sympathy
• common themes
• beloning
• recism

The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi

The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi

1. The author opens the story with an anecdote. What is the anecdote and what effect does it have on the reader? The author tells us a story about how she was very rude to her grandfather and did not have much respect for him 

2. What is the author’s view of the Chinese language in the 2^nd paragraph? She thinks that now she is living in Australia with all the English spoken around her she thought it was not necessary to keep Chinese in her vocabulary

3. What is symbolic about the house that the Grandfather mistakes for his own? What does it say about the assimilation of his family into Australian culture? What does it say about his understanding of Australian culture? What is ironic about the inhabitants of this house? Its symbolic that the grandfather makes the mistake because it shows that all the other Asian/Australian families all have the same type of  style sense and that their understanding of Australian culture is trying to get better because they are living in a brick house with a ford falcon

4. What does the death of her grandfather inspire the author to do? The death of her grandfather inspires her to relearn how to speak Chinese but not write it

5. Why is she motivated to know Chinese? What is it she wants to ensure she is able to, regretting that she couldn’t do it with her grandfather? She is motivated to learn chinese because of her grandfathers death and because she was very ignorant to him. she wants to insure that if another elderly relative asked her to listen to something that she had the ability to do that not like what she did to her grandfather

The Early Settlers by Ken Chau

techniques: pun, alliteration, vulgar slang, ambiguous pronouns

The Early Settlers by Ken Chau

1. How does this title refer to two groups of ‘settlers’? Who are they? The title refers to the asian settlement in austraia and the brittish settlement in australia. Asians and Brittish.

2. How is the first line of the poem successful at being ‘forceful’ regarding the Great-Grandfather’s presence in Australia? It is forceful because because it is very straight foward and straight to the point and everyone knows what has happened

3. What action are the ‘early settlers’ doing that gives them equally a strong presence? The are doing work in the crops and on the farms in australia which gives them equilly a strong presence

4. How is the intention of the Great-Grandfather juxtaposed to the beliefs of the ‘early settlers’? He is juxtaposed with farmers and terrorists

5. What action does the Great-Grandfather do that ties him both to the ‘early settlers’ and to his own culture?    He comes to australia to become a farmer and earn money and that he speaks his own language
6. How does this short poem highlight the irony of the hatred that immigrants experience when they come to a 'settled' land like Australia? It is ironic because he came here to work and help the Australians on their farms but is call a terrorists for what he has done, which i believe is very unfare to the immigrants. they are discriminated on because they are from asia and speak a different language