Tutorial #10

During this week's tutorials the class practiced their interviewing skills by setting up the classroom as a press conference. Several students sat in front of the classroom to be asked multiple questions by their peers. Each person was only allowed to ask five questions each and they had two minutes to get as much information as they could to create a story.
Marie, the lecturer, suggested that we do not follow leads from other journalists, and instead find our own angle. She also said that the person being interrogated should not help the interrogators, they should give simple answers and not give too much away. We were given no prior information about the subject except their name, age and where they are from.
The first person to be questioned was Nick, who took the "don't give too much away" part too seriously. Deciding to be a smart ass, Nick gave as little information as possible. For example, when I asked about his family, he said, "Fine thanks." After the two minutes was up, hardly anyone had a story because of the way it was handled. Although some people blamed Nick for this, Marie stated that there are no bad questionees, just bad questioners.
The next person to sit in front of the class was Dana. The main story the class got out of her was her aspirations to become and actress, but her studies to be a journalist are a more down to Earth and realistic option for her.
The last person to be questioned was Yunki, a quiet exchange student from South Korea who was asked by the lecturer to be questioned. Because of his ethnicity and situation, there was a lot more that the class could ask Yunki about, so Marie gave us a whole five minutes for the interview.
Yunki was asked about the sports he played both back home and here. Back home he would play basketball, football, and all those types of sports. Here in Australia, however, he plays ultimate frisbee (a frisbee also being the one thing he would take from Australia back home to South Korea).
One of the major interests that the class asked about was that Yunki had to serve at least two years in the military as a compulsory part of life. During this time, although he had no real interest before the military, Yunki developed a hatred of North Korea, fitting in with the cliche of North vs. South.
When the interviews were finished, the class had developed more interviewing skills because of the exercise. Putting us all in such a real life situation made us all think about what to do and how to go about it.