Growing up Asian in Australia

Year 7 2010 NAPLAN Reading Magazine

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?

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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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Wei-Lei and Me (Aditi Gouvernel)

Wei-Lei and Me (Aditi Gouvernel)

1.  What word in the opening sentence means ‘short and flat’?

2.  What is so ‘Australian’ about Barry West?

3.  What is the opening interaction between the two characters about?

4.  What is the protagonist’s home country?

5.  What word means “noble and splendid”? (p75)

6.  In what way is the protagonist’s home country “aristocratic”?

7.  Where did the protagonist’s father move his family to? Why?

8.  What is the protagonist’s attitude towards the citizenship ceremony? (pp75-6)

9.  How is Barry West the antagonist?

10.What is the irony of the comments made by Amy and Cris? (p76)

11.What is “you have to face the world” a metaphor for? (p76)

12.What is the teacher’s hair compared to? Is this an example of a metaphor or simile? (p77)

13.How is the children’s cruel creativity put into action once Wei-Lei arrives? (p77)

14. Explain the relevance of the ‘cat and toy’ metaphor. (p77)

15.How does the children’s cruel creativity have a more sinister side?

16.What does the protagonist mean by “the afternoon passed like a death sentence”? (p78)

17.Why does the protagonist see everything Indian “lit by a spotlight”? (p78)

18.How does the story build to a climax? (p79)

19.What is the irony of Barry’s fate? (p80)

20.Explain what the protagonist means by “as our faces changed, so did Canberra” (p81).

21.What do you think the protagonists’ definition of being Australian would be? (p81)

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?

Ginseng Tea and a Pair of Thongs  by Haitha Lee

The author presents a stark portrayal of an immigrant family from Vietnam surviving the slums in an attempt to transition into their new lives.

What is most confronting about the story is the raw objective style that the author employs. This description of Em suffering from allergies, a relatively minor difficulty, exemplifies the authors tendency to exaggerate the pain felt in this family. 'Her dull eyes, the white no longer white, the black with yellow...' This is a haunting description of a group of people suffering through their new life. This challenges the cliched version of the immigrant experience that usually include a narrative of hard work and perseverance triumphing.

Continuing with this stark writing style is the brutal honesty the author employs. The description of Youngest Con 'abnormally curious about sex' and possessing a brain hat 'thinks of being a lady' gives access deep into the psyche of the immigrant. This honesty is again confronting. It challenges the cliched representation of immigrants as quiet and reserved inside their new worlds. Here we have a family full of struggle both externally and internally.

The importance of this story is that it removes the veneer of the immigrant experience. It doesn't beg for sympathy or admiration but rather attempts to show the suffering that the immigrant transition often brings. The result is that the reader is left jaw agape wondering how people chose to live and made it through such experiences.

My First Kiss by Lian Low

My First Kiss by Lian Low

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

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

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

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

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

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?

2. What has happened to the author’s father as a result of his wife’s death?

3. How does the description of the father removing his hands from his face as ‘unmasked’ related to the seriousness of his following statement?

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?