Interview

Name: Andrea Age: 14 Gender: Male Location: Rovigo, Italy 1) How many brothers and sisters do you have? I have only a brother who is younger than I am. 2) Describe your house. My house was built in the 1960s. It has one single floor and its inside bears the features of the traditional Venetian house—that is to say a central and very wide corridor, which is more the size of a room, dividing and connecting the other rooms on each side, and they are very spacious ones. When you enter the house, you find this hall in the center. On its left is a large and light kitchen with two windows, a long rectangular table in the center, a sofa, the television set in front of it, and all the other kitchen features spread against one of its walls. On its right there is the living room, then my parents' bedroom and my bedroom. Opposite to my parents' bedroom is the bathroom and my brother's bedroom. A small corridor takes you to the laundry, the second bathroom, the garage, and a small kitchen that is used in the summer when we eat outside in the courtyard. Outside there is a big garden at the front of the house with many trees. On the two sides, paths take you to the courtyard in the back, where there is the orchard and a separate garden where we grow only vegetables. I play in my bedroom or in the living room with the computer and PlayStation, or listen to music while I do my homework both in the kitchen and my bedroom. 3) Describe a typical day of the week for you. I get up at 7 a.m., rarely have breakfast, and get ready for school, where my mom or dad takes me depending on their working schedule. The lessons start at 8 a.m. and finish at 1 p.m. We have a 10-minute break at 10:30 a.m. that allows us to eat something like some fruit, crackers, or a sandwich that we bring from home or buy at school. When the lessons are finished, my dad comes and picks me up to go home. I have lunch with all my family at about 1:30 p.m. and relax until 4 p.m. At that time I usually start doing my homework until 5:30 p.m., when I get ready for my soccer training that begins at 6 p.m. and lasts two hours. Once that is finished, I go back home, have dinner with my family, during which we talk about the events of our day. After dinner I watch television or play on the computer until I go to bed at about 10:30 p.m. My daily responsibilities are studying, doing well in school, keeping my bedroom and things tidy, and helping my brother with his homework if necessary. In my free time I play soccer and video games, listen to music, and see friends. 4) What is your favorite sport? My favorite sport is soccer. I am really good at it. My mom keeps all the local newspaper articles about me, but the most important thing to me is that I love playing. The position I like most is center-half, but I have also played in other positions such as goalkeeper, central defender, winger, and halfback. What motivates me is competition, contending with my teammates and against players from other teams. I always give 100 percent and never spare myself during the matches or training. I think this is also due to the fact that being the co-captain, I must be an example of commitment for my squad. Actually, together with my best friend, who is the other captain, we always try to motivate our team. I really believe that practicing this sport teaches me a lot of useful things for my life—for example, discipline, self-confidence, confidence in my teammates, collaboration to reach the result, and commitment. 5) What is your favorite holiday? Summer holidays are my favorite because school is over and I have a long break from it. I always go on holiday with my family to the seaside for two weeks. That is fun because I can swim, take long walks on the shore, relax in the sun, play bocce (similar to lawn bowling), beach volleyball, and paddleball. I love summer because days are longer and you can do a lot of things outside. I help my dad in the garden, watering and gathering vegetables, go cycling, meet my friends, and go swimming at the swimming pool. The thing I like most is eating outside in our courtyard, under the trees. My mom and dad often invite friends and relatives for dinner and they cook meat and vegetables on the barbeque. Another reason I like summer holidays is that we celebrate my birthday on July 31 with a lot of good food. 6) What is your favorite food? My favorite food is spaghetti with cockles (clams), which is a main course and a very easy recipe. This dish is very simple, and for its preparation you only need five ingredients. It is delicious. It is important to wash the cockles under water and soak them for half an hour in salted water in order to have them release the sand in their shells. Then put the cockles in a pan at a high heat, cover them with a lid, and wait for them to open. Once you remove the clams from their shells, you put in another pan some extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, and finely chopped parsley. Wait a few seconds then add the cockles and let them cook for 10 minutes. In the meantime, you cook the spaghetti in salted water for 10 minutes. It is important not to overcook the spaghetti. Strain and pour it in the pan with the cockles and mix at a moderate heat. Now it is ready to be served. 7) What subjects do you study at school? What do you like/dislike about school? What is your favorite subject? I attend the first year of secondary school with a specialization in information technology (IT). The subjects I study are physics, law and economics, geography, history, Italian, math, instructional technology and programming, chemistry, technical drawing, science, English, religion, and physical education. My favorite subjects at the moment are physics, sciences, and religion, because the first two are very stimulating and help me think logically, especially the laboratory part. The third I like because we discuss many problems and can compare our points of view and opinions freely. What I like about school is learning many new things every day and the good rapport with my classmates and the majority of my professors. What I dislike is having a lot of homework to do and the behavior of some professors (mainly when they contradict themselves and do not admit their mistakes as if they were always right). 8) What do you worry about most? I worry most about misunderstanding and being misunderstood, especially with my friends and people of my age. It is not always easy to communicate with people because what I say can be distorted or misrepresented. This happened once with a friend of mine who reported something I said to him in a completely different way to one of our teachers, resulting in some of my friends getting into trouble. 9) What is most important to you? What is most important to me is soccer. I think I can say it is the reason for my life because it motivates and pushes me to improve and always give more. I started practicing it at the age of six, so at present I have been playing for eight years. I like following television programs about soccer and being informed about players, teams, and everything related to it, often checking things [scores, stats] on the internet. I also watch the matches on television, especially those involving my favorite team, which is Inter, and it is my lifelong dream to go and watch a live match. I hope I can continue practicing this sport for a long time, because I love it. It enhances my self-confidence, and the discipline it teaches me is also useful for school and for my life in general. 10) What do you hope to be or do when you grow up? I hope I will always be a good and honest person and become a mechanical engineer. I know it is hard and requires a lot of studying and commitment, but this is my ambition. The first step is finishing secondary school, which I have just started, getting the diploma, then passing the exam to enter the university. It is a long way, and for that reason I need to think about that step-by-step, as my parents always say to me, because I get bored easily. Interview submitted 2010. (Source: http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_interviews.php#Italy)