| Description | Interview with Lillie Vatcha who has just graduated with a 2:1 honours degree in French and Management Studies, recorded on 5 July 2001, by Jennifer Carter.
Transcript of Interview :
C So, congratulations Lillie, that's super.
V Thank you.
C I don't know where you came from originally, but I would guess you are from somewhere abroad are you?
V Yes, yes, I'm from the Seychelles.
C From the Seychelles? So what on earth brought you to us?
V Well actually I met someone when I was on holiday in India and he was recruiting students for Aberdeen and I immediately sort of fell in love with the idea of studying in Scotland.
C Was that Dr Alistair Smith?
V Yes it was.
C Whom I know well, I was funnily enough talking to him in the street this morning, but not about you. Great, so you were a direct recruit by one of our overseas officers?
V Yes, except that I wasn't really going to do French and Management, I was going to do three modern languages, and I came here and I was told that it was not exactly the right combination for a non-EU citizen to get a job. So I was told to do Management.
C Who told you that, because it seems slightly funny advice?
V It was Alistair Smith and I had just got the general feedback. So that's what I ended up doing and I really, really enjoyed the Management side of it. I really enjoyed the French as well, French was fantastic.
C So I will not go away and blame my friend Alistair Smith for giving you the wrong advice, it's worked out ok.
V Yes, it's worked out really well.
C So from the Seychelles you came to Aberdeen, with any knowledge beyond what you'd read on a piece of paper?
V Not really no.
C A complete jump in the dark?
V Completely, I came here and it was quite grey and I was like: 'Oh dear.' But I think living in Aberdeen and studying here has been absolutely wonderful and I think it has been a fantastic experience.
C I'm so glad it's worked out. And I think you told me that your mum has been with you part of the time?
V Yes she has. She decided after visiting me that she too was quite enamoured of Aberdeen so she came up and she did her Master's in Business and Management.
C Great. So was she with you throughout your time at university?
V No, no, I was in Halls for a year and then she came up, she's been here for the past one and a half years.
C Right. And she's been doing a second degree, a post-grad?
V Her third degree actually.
C Third degree, goodness that's lovely.
V Yes, she's got a law degree and a BA…
C Oh that's super. So you've been living in a family situation in Aberdeen for part of the time.
V For part of the time, yes.
C We'll come back to that later, but first going back to your own degree you said that both sides of it had worked well for you?
V Yes, I particularly enjoyed the French because it wasn't just the language but the aspects of the culture which I think it opened up a lot for me, especially because I did my dissertation on Emblem Studies with Professor Alison Saunders and I found that just a most amazing, a whole sort of view of life, of Renaissance life that I thought was just brilliant and I really got into it.
C I should know the answer to this, Lillie, but I'm afraid I don't. Are the Seychelles at all influenced by French, are they partly French-speaking?
V Yes, they are partly.
C Right, I thought that was so.
V We used to be a French colony, and after Napoleon we were a British colony, and we are a Republic now.
C But the French influence has remained quite strong culturally has it, although the political situation has changed twice?
V Absolutely, there really is quite a strong influence.
C So were you brought up to speak French?
V No, English is my mother tongue, but we have three national languages so French being part of them, French, English and Creole, so I speak Creole as well and obviously I speak French because I was there.
C So were you taught French from school if you didn't speak it at home?
V Yes, I was taught French from school, from so high, from very small rather.
C So when you came here were you able to say I'm in effect a French native speaker?
V Not really, I did my A level in French.
C So does that mean you had to do a period abroad for the French course or not?
V Yes I did I went to Geneva, which was lovely. I went there for six months and I was doing an exchange with the University of Geneva and it was a fantastic experience and I got to do a lot of things, but unfortunately I fell sick towards the end of it.
C Oh dear I'm sorry.
V I got appendicitis. Yes, on the whole it was a great opportunity and I really appreciated it.
C It must be quite hard being dumped into a French-speaking university and being expected to take classes in their language?
V I found the comprehension fine, I totally understood them, but actually speaking and having the courage to speak and making loads of mistakes that's quite hard, but I was working in a group so you're just sort of forced to speak and in the end it worked out alright.
C And where did you live while you were at Geneva, did you live privately or in a university residence or…?
V I lived at the Cité Universitaire just with loads of other students. It was good.
C And how did that compare with Aberdeen in terms of residential accommodation?
V Oh well…
C Better, worse, the same?
V Really much the same I think.
C Pretty basic in other words.
V Very basic it was self-catering so there was a little kitchen at the back but very similar.
C And how well did you find that the two halves of your degree worked together, or was it a problem of having to balance Management against French?
V Well I think they worked really well together. I did an accelerated degree so in my first year I did first and second year together so for the first year it was quite difficult, especially on the Management side because I was put into second year French but it did balance out in the end, it was a challenge but I enjoyed doing it.
C And because you were doing an accelerated degree does that mean that you did not have to do a third subject just French and Management?
V That's right.
C No Economics or…
V No, just the Economics was part of the pre-req. for Management.
C Right. I don't know how common this accelerated degree pattern is now, we only introduced it a few years ago, were you one of the first do you think?
V I don't know. I think there were some other students but I'm not entirely sure.
C Mind you our degree structure is so complicated now I think it would quite difficult to answer that question but I wondered if you were aware when you were going through the course of other people in the same boat as yourself?
V No, no, I wasn't really.
C You may have been one of the unusual ones then?
V I think it was good because I finished a year early and now I can do something else.
C And you're thinking, you were telling me, of going on to do post-grad. work?
V Yes, I'm going to be doing an MSc. in Finance and Investment. I'm not particularly numerate but I think it should work in the end.
C Find out how to manage money and so on?
V Yes. But my dream was actually do to a part-time doctorate in French to do with the emblem studies. But hopefully when I get my feet on the ground that's something I can look into.
C Get yourself into a job. And where do you see your long-term future because it must be interesting hopping continents as you've done? Do you see your future, in the Seychelles back home or do you see yourself as a European?
V I'd love to work in Europe. I really enjoy travelling. Somewhere I could speak French like Geneva would be quite an obvious one.
C So in the immediate future could see yourself as a European citizen rather than a Seychelles one?
V I think so, I think it would be quite hard for me to get a job, that's why I'm getting as qualified as possible. But I'm looking towards working here eventually.
C I suppose this isn't strictly relevant to your student status but I was wondering are there work permit problems for a Seychelloise working in Europe?
V There are quite a few problems and that's why it's quite hard when I think of working in Europe so I think perhaps having a post-graduate degree would help, but it's still going to be a minefield.
C Ah well, you look well equipped to tackle it. But coming back to your Aberdeen student days, so you had no real idea about Aberdeen until you arrived, you arrived on a grey rainy day and you ended up living, in which of the Halls of Residence?
V It was Hillhead Halls, Fyfe Halls.
C One of the catered ones, not self catering. And how did that work out, it must have been a strange experience?
V It was a good experience because I made so many friends and you were all sort of put in together in this place. It's great I made a lot of friends that way and then after a year I think the joys of it wear off and the honeymoon's over. I've got really good friends that I met there.
C From year one.
V People you wouldn't normally meet who are not on your course and that's good.
C So Hall was an important social network, what did you find were your other main social networks, was it classes or societies you joined?
V Well, yes, I did join a few societies, I did the horse-riding society for a while. Yes, I think it was just a mixture of everything really, going out, friends of friends and obviously in class you'd meet people and since in the first year I was doing both first year and second year work I met more people than I would normally meet anyway.
C It must have been quite expensive for you because you were presumably paying overseas students fees, it would have been quite an investment of your own and your family's money?
V Yes, it has. But obviously I have to do the degree…
C So it would be expensive wherever you went you're saying really?
V Yes, I mean it's been less expensive in that I've finished it a year early.
C True, you've saved a whole year, now you're going to spend it instead on a post-grad.
V I think it's completely vital.
C And how have you taken to Aberdeen itself, I mean particularly after you moved out of Hall and you set up home with your mother in Aberdeen?
V I love it, I really enjoy it, I think it's fantastic. I think the Scots are one of the nicest people I've ever met, and it does sound like cliché, but everywhere you go, you think, 'I really miss the Scots.'
C You've been well-received everywhere?
V Yes.
C And have you seen much of the city and the country around, or have you been too busy?
V Yes I have, I've been around and we've done some treks around lochs and stuff and I absolutely adore it.
C So you like the romantic scenery?
V It is, it's really gorgeous, it's quite different to what you get in the Seychelles anyway.
C Not a palm tree or a beach in sight! Well, a beach that is too cold to sit on.
V Yes, quite.
C That's interesting. Coming from right outside Aberdeen, does it strike you as being a rather, how shall I put it, a rather enclosed city or have you found that there are people of many nationalities and it is fairly cosmopolitan?
V I think it's fairly cosmopolitan, especially the University area.
C As much so as Geneva or less so?
V Oh, well a lot less than Geneva but I think Aberdeen has its own charms really.
C Thinking over your classmates, the people you've been through these three years together with, I mean what sort of issues did you find you had in common with them. A lot of them I imagine were worrying a lot about money, but other than that, what sorts of meeting points did you have with your contemporary students?
V Oh pretty much everything. I mean I didn't actually find that I was different to them in any way. The same worries, the same troubles.
C The same concerns about work, the same things about one's personal life, the same things about entertainment, music…
V Love life…
C Love life, everything.
V Pretty much the same yes.
C Yes, of course the age group in even the undergraduate population is quite mixed now, you must have had people in your class who were quite a lot older than you?
V Yes. I think there were a couple who were a bit older.
C But they didn't stick out or…?
V I don't think they do really stick out, I think especially in a university environment you're in the class together you find there is so much in common with your fellow classmates that you…
C What about things like methods of teaching and so on, did the style suit you?
V Yes, I thought it was really good. It helped me in a way so I felt I could do things on my own and yet have the support of the teaching staff.
C Was there a contrast between your two main departments, I mean French I would imagine is a lot smaller than Management isn't it?
V Yes, I think there was quite a contrast in the teaching styles but that was to be expected I think because the actual subjects are so different.
C The sort of function of the size of the relative departments?
V Yes.
C Thinking again about your student friends and companions, if you look back to when you came and now when your leaving them ,or some of them, I'm sure some will stay friends for life, but how would you characterise the group to an outsider, you know, sometimes people say that Aberdeen students are very conservative with a small 'c'?
V OK
C And some people say that they're not at all interested in politics or that's what young people are, or that sort of thing?
V I don't know, the friends I have, we always have a good natter about politics. I don't know I think it depends on the group you're going out with really and I've got really really close friends here and I just say that they are really warm people, I wouldn't class them as conservative at all.
C What about this apathy accusation? Aberdeen students don't get involved in student politics, or national politics, or anything it is said.
V Really? Well, I hadn't really noticed. So that's probably apathy on my side as well.
C Did you vote in any of the student elections, for Rector or for SRC or…?
V I think I did, don't ask me who I voted for, but I did vote.
C So you're one of the 15% who voted? Well that's a plus. What about University facilities generally apart from accommodation? Did you have to use or go to any of the many support facilities, student health, chaplain, counsellors.
V Oh student health was wonderful, it was a Godsend, really good. I've had good friends who've done counselling as well and they've been really really happy with that as well. So I think it all works very well, it's a great system.
C Careers service, have you ever used them?
V Yes, I did, I did a course with them through Management and they've been really helpful with CV's and getting that ready.
C And talking of CV's, what about computing support, has that been adequate to your needs?
V Yes, it has, but I've actually got a laptop at home, so it's sort of been a mixture of using what's at University and what's at home.
C Were you IT literate before you came to University?
V Yes, It's a passion with me, I quite enjoy IT. My mum is thinking of setting up a software business here eventually.
C I should keep in touch with her. So you were ahead of most of your contemporaries?
V I don't think so, I think most of the year was good at word processing or whatever, and I think there was a course on computers in first year.
C But you didn't really need that?
V I don't think a lot of people did, I think most people were fine on that.
C No, I remember all the debates about that actually, because there was a kind of transition period, you know before people had been taught enough at school and then I suppose the course will phase out as everybody is taught at school. What about library has that been adequate for you?
V Oh library's been really good, especially when I did my dissertation and I had to get piles and piles of books, yes it's been really great. Linda's been lovely, she's on the ground floor and she's just great.
C She's the library person with whom you've been most connected?
V Yes.
C Oh well, that's a nice tribute, thank you, good. OK Lillie, that's absolutely super. Is there anything we haven't talked about that you would like to record, anything that's especially struck you at university or things I just don't happen to have mentioned?
V Well no, it's just that I really enjoyed this experience and yes I'm looking forward to my next year here and hopefully one day I'll do my doctorate here as well.
C Great well we've obviously got a wonderful bargain in you. And I'm glad you think your side of it's come out well as well. Thank you very much indeed.
V Thank you.
END OF INTERVIEW
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