I grew up in the west of Melbourne, during the 80's. We lived in public housing for a very long time. It was a melting pot of cultures back then, people from all over the world, were your neighbours.
Life was never dull, to say the least, what I remember vividly was, the sense of community. Sure you had your interesting characters, but everyone looked out for each other, especially the kids. And we were out and about until the sun set, riding our bikes, rollerskating or skateboarding, without a care in the world.
However it wasn't all peaches and cream, life presented it's challenges.
My first language was Macedonian, my parents spoke very little English, in fact hardly any at all. I look back now and I wonder, how they did it, to migrate to a country where they didn't know the language, didn't know the culture and they didn't have their family or community.
When I got to school, I could speak English, but I struggled. What was hard for me, was having parents that couldn't help me. In fact, I was teaching them. Hard gig for child.
In the primary school years, we moved around a fair bit, until we settled into a house in a suburb further west.
I guess why I'm writing this post, is to get people talking about, trying to fit into a society when you come from a different cultural background.
For me I found it extremely difficult, my parents strict Macedonians.
Through high school I had friends from a variety of cultural backgrounds.We all got along, each of us having issues with our parents, which teenager doesn't!!
The struggle I had, was trying to live with the values my parents tried to instill in me from their culture and trying to incorporate that into Australian society. Everything I came across, made me question, what my parents were telling me. It was a confusing, confronting time. It felt very restricting, and I pushed the boundaries. I wanted to extend my frontiers, and in a way, I still am.
This is just the beginning of this post, but I want to hear from you. Where do you come from? What challenges has your culture presented to you? And how did you manage.
Cheers or na zdravje!!
Life was never dull, to say the least, what I remember vividly was, the sense of community. Sure you had your interesting characters, but everyone looked out for each other, especially the kids. And we were out and about until the sun set, riding our bikes, rollerskating or skateboarding, without a care in the world.
However it wasn't all peaches and cream, life presented it's challenges.
My first language was Macedonian, my parents spoke very little English, in fact hardly any at all. I look back now and I wonder, how they did it, to migrate to a country where they didn't know the language, didn't know the culture and they didn't have their family or community.
When I got to school, I could speak English, but I struggled. What was hard for me, was having parents that couldn't help me. In fact, I was teaching them. Hard gig for child.
In the primary school years, we moved around a fair bit, until we settled into a house in a suburb further west.
I guess why I'm writing this post, is to get people talking about, trying to fit into a society when you come from a different cultural background.
For me I found it extremely difficult, my parents strict Macedonians.
Through high school I had friends from a variety of cultural backgrounds.We all got along, each of us having issues with our parents, which teenager doesn't!!
The struggle I had, was trying to live with the values my parents tried to instill in me from their culture and trying to incorporate that into Australian society. Everything I came across, made me question, what my parents were telling me. It was a confusing, confronting time. It felt very restricting, and I pushed the boundaries. I wanted to extend my frontiers, and in a way, I still am.
This is just the beginning of this post, but I want to hear from you. Where do you come from? What challenges has your culture presented to you? And how did you manage.
Cheers or na zdravje!!
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