Interviews (Crit.A continued)

The questions I asked:
1) What characterizes the year that you were born in time?
2) What defines your generation?
3) What are some good points of being an adolescent?
4) What are some bad points?
5) Do you wish that you were born in another generation? why or why not?
6) what are some problems you face as a teenager?
7) What influences your thinking during your teen years? (Moral, educational, and political)
8) How important is friendship to you as of right now?
9) How important is love to you as of right now?
10) Are you happy with your life?

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Zina


1) What characterizes the year that you were born in time?
The war that started in 1992 and went on for 5 years.

2) What defines your generation?
Again, the war. Back home my generation is known as the “war kids”.

3) What are some good points of being an adolescent?
Everyone gets to be an adolescent in their life at one point. We do make mistakes but we learn from them. So in the future we will know what to do. And someday when we have kids we will know what they are dealing with and how to help them for example.

4) What are some bad points?
We are not as experienced and we do not make good decisions all the time. We don’t listen to the elders at times because we think that we are the smartest and don’t trust anyone.

5) Do you wish that you were born in another generation? why or why not?
Not really. This way I saw the bad things that happened during the war. I saw the development of my country from being the poor and helpless one to a developed country today.

6) what are some problems you face as a teenager?
Any family issues, school problems, friends, boyfriends etc.

7) What influences your thinking during your teen years? (Moral, educational, and political)
Mostly my family and friends. My family helps me a lot because they all have gone through similar things in their lives so they help me with making my decisions. While my friends help me also through advice but also through their attitudes. I think that it is important to see what my friends think of me and will they judge me which in my opinion is not an advantage in life.

8) How important is friendship to you as of right now?
Very important because friends are the ones that understand me the most I could say. They help me, listen to me, give advice and are mostly always there. And my best friends would never judge me.

9) How important is love to you as of right now?
Love of any kind is important because in life we need love and support to keep going. And I think in my life I need love to keep me going.

10) Are you happy with your life?
Well when I look at individual things in my life they are not as good as they can be. But life in general is satisfying and I personally cannot complain about it. And as the question states, I am happy. :)



Bilegt




1) 1994, right after when democracy showed up (after socialism).
2) No comment.
3) Time where you actually grow up to take care of you own life, not being told what to do etc.
4) the time where many changes happen, mentally and physically. this can change your life
5) i do not wish to be born in a different generation because there was no fun back in the 80's and 90's and its too weird to be born in the future.
6) emotional meltdowns, but i almost never face them. biggest problem is rejection, you feel very bad about yourself.
7) everything: parents, friends, things happening around you (news)
8) Very important. Every teen, not only teens, everyone hates rejection. they need people around them
9) not that important. Though we all want relationships, i first need to struggle for my own life
10) pretty much happy


Nalini


1. 1993 for me was when bill clinton became president
2. we have grown up in the 21st century with many more technological advancements
3. more freedom
4. more responsibilities
5. yes, i wish i was born in the 50's. because they had awesome diners where the waitresses would get payed to rollerblade. and they had awesome music and juke boxes.
6. school.
7. parents, friends, media
8. very important
9. not that important
10. ehh, for the most part


Mother-


My mom and me last year


My mother during her teenage years

Q. Tell me about your teenage years.
A. Well, my teenage years were similar to everybody else, I guess. Everyday, I would go to school, take the classes, and practice the piano until 5~6PM at the school. My school was really far away from my house, so it took 40 minutes by bus to even get there. The trips were absolutely nauseating, but that’s school (laughs.) I don’t think my teenage years were any different than yours. Ummmm… if there is anything, it would be that we didn’t have a cell phone, so we’d had to call beforehand and go to a friend’s house. I guess another different thing was the whole guy-girl relationships. My high school was an arts middle and high school, so there were very few guys, especially in high school. So I didn’t have a relationship until college. Ummm all my friends there were rich, so we usually hung out at good and fancy places. We didn’t face any financial challenges at all, because arts, especially music, takes a LOT of money. Oh, one more thing. My parents weren’t THAT strict about academics. They liked to see me be “the top of the class,” but I usually were there, and they didn’t force me. I guess the academics are more rigorous at my middle and high school though, because an arts school is similar to an ordinary high school, and ON TOP OF THAT, you have to do some form of art. So during school days, everyone is busy studying and practicing. But on weekends, we can go out. With my friends, we usually went to their house or to a café and mostly gossiped. Then, we went to church together and were in the choir. Parents would invite us over each week to have lunch or dinner. I don’t think we slept over at each other’s houses though. Also, we couldn’t hang out late, because there was this thing called “restriction hours” and no one is allowed to wander the streets after 10 PM. If you did they’d arrest you. So, there.
1) Based on the stories that you heard, how was parenting different when they were young?
It wasn’t extremely different. It would actually be closer to right now, where I am. However, if there was anything, the focus on academics weren’t that great, but nonetheless important. The parents didn’t allow you to sleep over at another’s house because it was considered rude in the Korean culture, especially during that time.
However, the rest are the same as today. The parents thought school was important. Family time was also important. The parents showed hospitality towards close friends of their children.

2) Why do you think adolescence has changed so much in the last thirty years?
I actually don’t think it has changed greatly. However, it did change. I think for the most part, it is the increase of population and therefore the increase in competition among the teenagers. The adults definitely see that, and they push their kids harder to study at school, so that they can get a good job and live happily.
I also think that it is due to the advancement of technology. As technology becomes more sophisticated everyday, we receive more information from all sources, especially the media and the internet. Therefore, we begin to communicate with our friends in a different way, than they used to during my mother’s generation. Even though we still hang out with our friends a lot of times, the time we spend chatting to each other online has increased dramatically.

3) Are you happy to be an adolescent today, or do you wish you had been born in a different era? Why?

I am actually quite content with my teenage life. Of course I have problems and conflicts such as the school work and other stuff, but still, I think it has its own merits. For example, I enjoy every moment of having a good quality TV as well as a laptop, which I wouldn’t have had before. I also am happy at the fact that I wouldn’t have to worry about getting home in time before the restriction hours.
Of course, sometimes, I wish I was born in the past generation. There was not much of pressure for studies, which is one of my largest portions of stress. However, I believe that wishing and hoping does not do anything. If I so much so desperately want to be born in a different era, I would try hard to act like I was in one. I see no practicality in hoping and therefore, I “do.” I do not “hope.”

4) I think our generation can be defined as the “plugged-in” generation. Teenagers are especially intimate with modern technology, so much so that we spend so much time using one, such as the TV, laptop, iPods, etc.
I also think that our generation can be defined as the one-in-hundred. What I mean by that is the competition level has increased so much from the past that only one out of hundred people become and do what they wanted to do. Of course, I’m only saying this in a metaphorical sense. So, if we want to be “successful,” we have to “stand out.”