An Interview With Mr. Grant

In year nine English, the AE class had an assignment to interview someone and then present it. If you must know, Kim and I interviewed my next door neighbour at the time but never got around to writing it up (oops)... 

After spending last night reading through Helen's old transcript of the interview she did with Laura and Madeline, I had to post said interview here fully. No changes. All grammatical errors intact (I love that Helen now gives shit to everyone who is grammatically incorrect).

For some back story (for those who have forgotten or were not in our class), Mr. Grant was our sports teacher and a Canadian. He pronounced Freddos as Fraydos (I still remember Helen laughing at this over and over again). 

Now, enjoy it in all its unadulterated perfection:

Laura: Do you give us permission to record this interview and use the information for our presentation?

M. Grant: Yes

Madeline: What would be one way you would describe your childhood?

MG: um… that’s a good question

Helen: into the microphone

MG: in terms of anything, uh… ok… if I were to rate it out of ten I would give it a nine out of ten. Um… cause I had a really god mother and father and they put me through hockey, they took me to all of my games as well as all of my brothers, they did everything for me, birthdays, Christmases, they took us up to the cottage, skiing, can’t really complain about anything. To sum it up, fantastic.

Alex: Were your parents the reason you wanted to be a teacher or…?

MG: uhh… no.

A: ok.

M or L: What inspired you to be a teacher?

MG: Well, I always wanted to be a police officer, however because I have bad vision. I couldn’t get into the police force. So a friend of mine was doing teaching and said “Hey Matt, you gotta come to uni, come to uni, come to brock” – that’s the university I went to – and he told me all about the teaching course and so the next year I just started it and I’ve been going from there. But teaching was always on my list as something to do.

L: did you have to pay your own way through uni or college?

MG: I paid my way while I was actually working full time so I would work shift all night and then I’d get up and go to school. Or I would go to sleep for a few hours and then go to school.

A: how would you have the time do all your work?

MG: I didn’t have much time. I had a pretty relaxed job and it paid pretty well so I would bring my work, my schoolwork into work and do it there. My job, a lot of guys were actually, if you had your job one right then, if I had done my job right then I could actually go to sleep for about 4 or 5 hours, if I slept, I would never sleep on the job… I would do my homework.

L: Were you a bouncer at any point of your life?

MG: so then I did a four year uni degree so after the third year I switched jobs and they put me on a different shift schedule 12 hour shifts and I wasn’t able to do both so I had to quit my job and that’s when I started doing security with my cousin. And that was only on Friday and Saturday nights and I wasn’t making a lot of money.

A: What did you do outside work and school? What did you do in your free time?

MG: um I was doing, that was my fourth year of uni and in terms of workload I was doing a lot of course work so I was doing a lot of home work and stuff and I had to do a lot of volunteer hours, volunteering in high schools and coaching and stuff like that.

M: Did you have anytime to do anything besides your homework?

MG: yes of course. 

M: then what did you do?

[laughter]

MG: uhh.. played sports and stuff on sport teams I played um… recreational ice hockey, basketball, yea I guess that was about it, and you know, socializing with friends, watching the hockey games, basketball games during the week.

A: Did you ever think of any of those as a career?

MG: you mean the sports? Probably when I was young. Til I realized I was not good enough.

A: That’s harsh (!)

MG: well you know, you know when you young its really hard to make that kinda job.

M: Did you have any idol or inspiration when you were growing up?

MG: um.. yea probably like, most NHL players wayne gretzky, and for basketball most definitely Michael jordan, have you heard of Michael Jordan?

[agreement chatter]

MG: well yea.

MG: Well I actually loved the balls, I used to watch them all the time with Michael Jordan, absolutely loved them.

L: How long have you been teaching for?

MG: … 6 months.

Helen: wow your old.

[laughter]

H: why did you come to Australia?

MG: I had to come to do my teaching degree because I was on the waiting list back home because its really hard to get in to teaching at home.

L: So when you leave, are you going to be put on another waiting list to get a job?

MG: you have to apply to get a job so I wouldn’t necessarily have a job back home. 

M: What would you do if you were put on to another waiting list to get a job?

MG: I was on a waiting list to get into the final year of school, like, the year of teaching, I wasn’t on the waiting list for a job, I was on a list to get into uni. So I came here to do uni.

M: but hat would you do if you go home and there is no jobs available? What job would you do?

MG: I don’t really know… maybe work in a bar or something.

H: ambitious…

[laughter]

MG: Well I would definitely would, it would just be a matter of time before til I’d get a job teaching. Or I would go somewhere else maybe. If there were no jobs, a friend of mine sed that he’s teaching in North West territories of Canada, and they pay really well. But, that’s if you want to go up there. That is cold.

H: so wouldn’t you be able to come back to Australia?

MG: would I ne able to? I can stay til January im just leaving because this jobs over and the Canadian school starts in September so if I leave in august I figure I can get a job and go from there. There on summer break right now.

M: How is life here compared to life in Canada?

MG: um… in terms of …?

L: in terms of your opinion.

MG: How it affects me, being here without family and all the friends you grew up with and that’s a lot different cause it feels like your on your own. In terms of weather and the people and the [h: students] stuff here, its fantastic. Its been great. 

H: so you don’t have anyone you know here?

MG: yea like friends I met last year through uni and stuff. There’s a couple. 

M: So you have no relatives or …?

MG: No. And that makes you really relies how important family is, I know that’s cliché, but it really does mean something when your away for a long period of time. 

L: What part of Canada did you live in? [A: We need details]

MG: Toronto Canada its in Ontario.

A: In school, were you classified as a trouble maker or the complete opposite?

MG: I was in between, I was doing well until about year 10, and that’s wen I just started being a bone head for the last couple of years, adolescence being stupid and yeah. 14, 15, 16 year old… but up until then I was a good student. 

A: Did anything provoke that or…?

MG: I think just going through puberty and rules and parents… 

M: If you weren’t a teacher, what career path would you have followed?

MG: maybe … uhhh… an electrician.

L: why would you be an electrician?

MG: I don’t know. It wasn’t until recently cos a friend recently got into it, and I thought, maybe at this age, I would’ve gone into it. I never thought that before yea I don’t know. Maybe um… maybe the window person at hungry jacks.

H: No you have to start as a kitchen hand first and you progress.

MG: but see yea, that’s what I would want, to be that window person.

L: what are your future ambitions?

MG: ive thought about that a lot lately cause I wasn’t sure whether or not I was gonna stay here. So my plan right now is … they’re always changing for whatever reasons… is to go home, start working at home and then as a teacher you can work as a teacher for 4 years… sorry you work for 5 years and then u get that last yar pff with 80% of you pay, so I an do that and then come back here in like, 6 years, and maybe teach for the year, cos I really enjoy it here. Yea so that’s probably what I would like to do, and then get married and have two kids a boy and a boy. No a boy and a girl. Boy first though… 

H: how old are you?

MG: 28.

L: do you think you will keep in contact with the people you’ve met here?

MG: yes, through email definitely. i have not, or have I wrote a letter, no I don’t think I have, oh I have written a letter. 

L or M: Do you think there’s a difference in the education standards from Canada to Australia?

MG: definitely. firstly the leveling system and second of all in terms of the TEE exams they don’t do them at home. ------ high school at home its year 9, 10, 11 and 12, there’s no seven and eights in the school. There’s no little kids running around the school and there’s no big kids so I think that’s a big influence on them. The Canadian high schools, basically in year nine you have to decide whether you are going to go to college, which is like trades sort of thing, or university which would be the academic sort of thing. So you decide that in year nine basically and then your path is basically changes from there, unless you decide to swap, which would be hard going from the easier college choices to the harder university choices. So I don’t like the fact that at home your basically deciding what you are going to do in year nine. Where I think that’s too young. 

H: so what’s the actual difference between university and college? Cos I have a friend…

MG: you can go from high school to college to uni, or going straight to either one from high school. College is like trades and stuff, uni is more like advanced things. But a lot of people would do college for two years and then go to uni.

[end]

J