Indian salesmen

For the second time in as many days a handsome young Indian man has rung my doorbell trying to persuade me to change my service provider for electricity and then telephone. They were very polite but spoke imperfect English and were walking from door to door looking for customers. I did not engage with them, telling them I wasn't interested, but I wondered if they were recently transplanted from a call centre in Bangalore.

Do Telstra and AGL really think this marketing strategy is going to work!! These poor young men have been inflicted on Australian households probably because we're all now entered on the Do Not Call Register. I cannot see how this is going to win customers for these companies. When I don't want to receive phone calls, I turn off my phone - but now they're ringing my doorbell on a Saturday afternoon (when I'm having a nap)! I'll be ringing these companies on Monday morning to advise them that this new strategy is hardly likely to endear them to the public. Makes you wonder who came up with this stupid idea!!

Interviewing Alla

On Saturday I had a wonderful oral history experience participating in the interview of a Russian woman, Alla, who is my friend Lena's mother. Our friend Rlene recorded the interview on video, which lasted more than six hours. Alla's life story was spoken in Russian and translated by Lena. At first Alla was a little nervous about the process and insisted her story was unremarkable and not worth all this fuss. But as the story unfolded, she became more relaxed and comfortable with the experience. Rlene and I both enjoyed listening to the story of her life in Russia during World War II, her trip to America during the War, schooling in London, love in Paris, Stalin's impact, work as an immunologist, studying the effects of radiation, the space program and her wisdom, based on her life experiences. A remarkable woman!

This interview reinforced for me the value of oral history and the value of oral historians, as we are genuinely interested in hearing these stories and want to ensure their preservation. Rlene is one of the most passionate oral historians I have met. She listens carefully to her interviewees and probes beneath a superficial level to reveal who they really are.

I learned a lot from witnessing how Rlene conducts her interviews both from the interviewing and the technical process she uses. She has a video recorder with a MP3 player (for transcription) and has a tie-clip microphone attached by cord to the video recorder. The MP3 player is attached by cord to the video.

I very much valued this experience - meeting Alla and learning about her life, spending time with Lena, and watching Rlene conduct this wonderful interview.

Blogging experimenting

I had a great time learning all about blogging yesterday.  It's opened up a whole new world.  Will anyone else ever read my scribbles??  Who knows but I can have fun doing it.

With my oral history today I'm working on transcribing a wonderful interview I did with a 99 year old lady a couple of weeks ago.  The photo on previous posting is not really her - that was just part of the training - showing you  how to find a photo on Google.

I'm also doing the sound editing for another interview for a sporting and life coach.  No photos today.

Oral History Interviews

This is my training course pretend blog.

My latest interview was with a 99 year old woman who was one of the first policewomen in Queensland.

More information about oral history.