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?
Before he started school he played in the sand pit and kicked stones , this is contrasted with what he is expected to do in school which is sit on the bench and do what he's told.

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?
The contrast between his families clean and tidy fruit shop and the b hoack streets and hard brick houses.

3. What was the father’s background in business before he opened the fruit shop? What has helped him become successful?
When he came to Australia he had no business experience and now he is an experienced businessman who draws the customers in with his wide smile.

4. The narrator’s description of his father is complex. What makes the father a complex character?
He has a very wide array of interests and personalities.

5. (91) How does the author describe his role in doing ‘things that counted’?.
He defended himself against a bully, He made friends with people and they had play fights behind his parents shop.

6. What experience does the author have at school while keeping to himself? What does he learn from this experience?
A bully comes and bashes him, he defends himself and he knows he can look after himself.

7. How would you characterise the narrator’s tone in regards to the events that are occurring around him?
Tough

8. How does the narrator characterise the ways that one could ‘get the strap’ and ways that one could avoid it?
Any thing you did wrong you would get the strap, anything like walking to fast or getting a question wrong, and there wasn't much you could do to not get the strap.

9. What event evokes a racist speech to the class by the teacher?
The boy can't swim and his sisters write a note to ask him to be excused from the carnival.

10. What effect did the author’s experience with ‘Strap Happy Jack’ have on him?
It affects him greatly. He became very lonely and all that mattered to him became a bad dream.

11. What was the one advantage school provided the author?
He was able to cope better after the strapping experience and once he became popular in high school.

12. What did the author do at his school? What was his motivation for doing it? What did he feel was lacking at school?
He did every thing he could to try and please his mum who wanted him to become a doctor. He felt a lack of purpose was present at school.

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 do really well and become a doctor. He didn't want to become a doctor, he didn't like the the sight of blood.

14. At school, what did the author learn about his own type of thinking and how to use it?
He decided to use his skills and he started a workshop. He learned how satisfying it was to care about what happens to other people.

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 British and the Asians.

2. How is the first line of the poem successful at being ‘forceful’ regarding the Great-Grandfather’s presence in Australia?

It's very short and sharp. The Asians sort of just arrived with no warning.

3. What action are the ‘early settlers’ doing that gives them equally a strong presence?

They are already dug in in Australia, there's lots of them.

4. How is the intention of the Great-Grandfather juxtaposed to the beliefs of the ‘early settlers’?

He just wants to live there and farm, and the British are hostile.

5. What action does the Great-Grandfather do that ties him both to the ‘early settlers’ and to his own culture?
He calls them 'a fucking bastard' but in 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?
There hatred reflected back on to them by the Asian immigrants

Growing Up Asian in Australia: Intro + Pigs Questions

Introduction by Alice Pung

1. What were Asian-Australians referred to as when the author was growing up?

Power-Points

2. How does she interpret this title?

As Asians having 'electrifying brain power'. She thought it was because they were so smart and dweeby in a dynamic microsoft-magnate sort of way.

3. What did this title actually refer to? Did the author find this demeaning? Why/why not?

The title actually refereed to the fact that the Asian's face's looked like a power-point. She did not as she thought the power-points looked cute.

4. ‘All that untapped potential! All that electrifying brain power!’ What techniques are being employed by the author? How do they highlight her misunderstanding?

Imagery is used is used by the author as well as exaggeration to highlight her misunderstanding. Exaggerating how smart Asians are shows a bit of ignorance.

5. What did the teen author take away from teen fiction? What did she feel that she needed to do? Why? What does this say is essential to fitting in to a culture?

That she need plastic surgery. She felt she needed to read other books such as the John Marsden because they wrote about growing up.

6. Who are the authors that she turns to? Why?

John Marsden and Robert Cormier because they wrote with raw honesty and real felling about coming of age.

7. In the third paragraph how does the author use repetition. How does it highlight the focus of this book?

She repeats the word 'first'. It highlights that the book is the first of it's kind a book about growing up Asian in Australia that wasn't wrote by an outsider.

8. What metaphor does the author use to highlight the writers and the writing style in the third paragraph?

The writers are the tree who write from it's roots. She means, the writers write the true story and not the worst parts of it like other authors.

9. Why does the author use a quote in the 4^th paragraph? Wlihat does it say about her reaction to the stories in the book?

10. On page 2 the author talks about the themes that she loosely choose for the collection. What are they and why is it ironic that they show up in this book?

11. At the bottom of pg 3 on to page 4 the author says that sociologists have described Asians as the ‘model minority’. What is meant by this? What difficulties arise out of this label for young Asian-Australians?

12. What are the editor’s hopes for the collection of stories?

Pigs from Home by Hop Dac

1. How does the author start this story which is in direct contrast to the title of the story? What effect does this have on the reader and their expectations of the story?

The title gives the impression that pigs are good and welcomed, but the story starts off saying how horrible pigs are. It makes you confused.

2. What core Vietnamese value is instilled in the author?

That animals are kept at home to be eaten.

3. What is humorous about the mother’s ‘flair for natural medicine’ in regards to her personality?

She a hypochondriac.

4. How does the description of the killing of pigeons continue the style utilised in the introduction of the story?

It's normal to slaughter the animals that you keep and eat them.

5. What is the author’s opinion of pigs? Give two quotes to support your conclusion.

They are despicable and unworthy of a name. 'That miraculous, repugnant beast: The Pig' 'The nameless pigs.

6. In the paragraph on pgs 53-54, give two examples of alliteration employed by the author. 

'Bellies of babies' and 'prime position'

7. On pg 54 what simile is used to describe pigs? How does this simile work for the situation it is used?

'A pig is like the ocean.' It is a term that would be used a lot in Australia and shows that the character, although Asian is becoming more Australian, particularly when compared to the parents. 

8. What simile does the author use to describe her mother sunning herself? How does this relate to the core focus of the story?

'turning herself slowly like a rotisserie chicken.' She is a hypochondriac but when she suns her self she is literally burning her self like a chicken.

9. What does the author describe as ‘the divide between the old world and the new’? What do you think is meant by this statement?

Her grandmother offered her some of the slaughtered duck. She declined. this is the divide between her Asian ancestry and being Australian. She is loosing some of her Asian traditions and customs. An Australian wouldn't want a duck that had just been slaughtered in front of her. If she was in Asia she would have accepted it. It is a representation of changes that the different generations of immigrants  go through.

10. What is the author’s reaction to the slaughter of the pig at night? What statement does the author make about the neighbours which displays the way he feels about the whole experience? What is important about including this statement?

She is transfixed to the sight. She wonders if the girl next door who catches her bus had heard the commotion. This is an important statement because it employs that she is changing and finding that something that is normal for her family and culture is now distressing and she wants to fit in with the other Australian kids.

11. Why don’t the parents have pigs anymore? How does this relate to the description of the burial of the last pig they owned?

They have friends who have a pig farm and they get free pork every time they go there. They don't give a great deal about the pigs, their just food not pets.

12. How would you characterise the description of the mother’s treatment of the pig’s blood? Is it appetising?

It's sounds pretty disgusting.

13. What is ironic about the way the author has a popular Vietnamese dish? What is it about the way the author describes the experience of having pigs that makes it ironic?

The author despised the whole pig killing and the blood dishes. It's ironic because now she has it all the time.

14. How does this story relate to the title Pigs from Home?

It reminds the author of home when she has the Vietnamese dish. 

15. Why do you think this story is in the Battlers section of the book?

The author was having to deal with the pig killings of which the author felt, living in Australia, wasn't right.

why does it matter?

Read any story that we haven't read yet and write a review of the story and explain why it matters. Why should anyone care about the story/read it?

Hot and Spicy by Oliver Phommavanh

In this story the author gives an incite into the life of an Asian family who work and live in a Thai restaurant. Albert is a young boy going to an Australian school who is sick of his parents food every night. This is a contrast to Australian's diet as his school asks Albert if his parents can makes some of their Thai food for a special lunch. The Australian school children are interested in the foreign Thai food whereas Albert is sick of it and finds the canteen the best place because he can have pies and sausage rolls. 'The canteen is the best thing about school. It's got meat pies and sausage rolls and chicken burgers.' It is important to know about the different lifestyles we have because many of us are left in the dark about foreign people's private life. They live in the back of the restaurant which for many Asian families living in Australia back then would have been normal. Living in a restaurant, Albert and his siblings have to try all the new recipes and spices. Albert doesn't want the school canteen to have Thai food in it so he puts lots of some of his dad's hot curry paste in the food so when the teachers try it, it would be too hot to eat and they would not want the food in the canteen. Albert's parents are used to the hot food and Albert's dad encourages Albert to put in more. Coming from an Asian background he is used to eating hot, spicy food. Although some teachers found it too hot, they agreed that they liked it and that they wanted some more. 

This passage shows the contrasting lifestyles and diets that Australians and Asia have and is important to know because we are a multicultural country and we take foreign food like Thai food for granted, and we should have more knowledge about the immigrants who provide this exotic food.People like Albert find Australian food a treat because they eat their Thai food more often than us. The contrast of these two nationalities is not obvious in real life but this story is a good representation of the different lifestyles we share in the one country.