Post C: Interview Sarah Nathan

I conducted an interview with my friend Sarah Nathan, whom I went to boarding school with for 3 years. I had experienced a lot of different people from different cultures/countries over my time living in Sydney but no one quiet as interesting as Sarah. Sarah has grown up and lived in Jakarta her whole life with her mum Elizabeth, Dad John and brother David. “My mum is Chinese and dad is Indonesian”. I asked her what it was like growing up in Indonesia with a Chinese mother and Indonesian father. “It was pretty normal, there are quiet a lot of families in Indonesia with the same situation, I mean yes at times there were some racial comments, but I love my parents so I moved on quickly.” When Sarah was in year 7 she was sent to an International school in Jakarta. “This is where I first started to learn English. English was so hard to learn and I struggled.”

With a bit of wealth behind the family name Sarah and her brother were fortunate enough to be raised with a proper education. After a few years Sarah moved to Sydney Australia where she attended Kambala, Rosebay as a boarder in year 9. “Moving to Sydney was very scary, especially when mum and dad left me. I had travelled to Sydney on numerous occasions as my uncle lived there and it was always such a wonderful and beautiful place to visit, but I had never been there alone. When I first started classes at Kambala I was terrified, I didn’t know anyone, and I struggled with the English language. Luckily for me it usually resulted in the girls laughing at me because of the way I said things, so I’d just laugh with them, and soon enough I had made friends that I will keep forever”. It took Sarah about 2 years to become fluent in English. She was always the life behind any entertainment at school doing stupid and hilariously things that made us all laugh for hours.

Her mum and dad would come and visit a few times a year, and take us out for hot chocolates and sweets. Trying to communicate with them was difficult and Sarah would always talk to her parents in Bahasa. Sarah is now studying at the University of Sydney doing a degree in Commerce. “I consider Indonesia now as my second home and Sydney my first. I go back and visit my family during the holidays sometimes but I have now set up a better lifestyle for myself here were I can earn a proper income and be successful. I love going home and Indonesia will always be my home.”