Exchanging Ideas

French Exchange 2019

On Saturday, 14 September, a group of students and teachers from Castlemaine Secondary College embarked on the outbound leg of our biannual French Exchange. Teachers Mark Johansson and Chloe Brownscombe led a mixture of Year 10 and 11 students currently studying French: Shanti Kingston, Anais Kerr, Alex Marney, Alicia Garrigos, Scarlet Boyack, Tayla Courtney, Emerald Kelly, Tristin Parsons, Nellie Wilsher, Grace Coff, Elwyn Carlile and Isabella Clarke. Our first stop was Paris, staying three nights in the colourful area of Montmartre, well known for its artists’ culture, the Moulin Rouge and Sacré Cœur, the basilica and popular landmark on a hill overlooking the city. We took in a number of sights, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Catacombs, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and a trip on a bateau mouche – a beautiful boat ride on the Seine. Next we took a TGV (high-speed train) north to the town of Arras, where we received the usual warm welcome from our host school, Lycée Baudimont. Our students navigated the challenges of homestays and school days that are much longer than at CSC, often finishing at 5 or 6pm! In between, we also had the wonderful opportunity to visit the medieval city of Bruges, in Belgium and the large regional city of Lille, as well as the moving Australian War Memorial and Victoria Museum at Villers- Bretonneux. The trip has provided students with insights into another culture and deepened their understanding of the importance of learning languages.

Mark Johannson

French Exchange 

Your First Car Should be Built Rather than Bought

By John Dixon - VCAL Literacy outcome.

Cars are everywhere. Most people have at least one. Arguably though, your first car is your most important. It’s the one that unlocks the world to you, officially makes you an adult. A lot of people would say a car this important, that you’ll have so many new experiences in, should be a shiny, high-tech, new car. Sure, that can be valid in some situations, but for the most part building your own car and sourcing your own parts is more satisfying. Building your own car is better for the environment, it is a great learning tool, and it is an excellent social experience. 

Overall, a car you’ve built yourself is substantially better for the environment than a boring, bog-standard, brand new car. Although newer cars are better for emissions on the road, this does not take production into account. Production of a brand-new car produces about 15.25 tons of CO2, but a car built from used parts produces absolutely zero. To give some idea of how much that is, an older car would have to be driven every single day for 3.5 years just to match that. Many people claim that newer hybrid and electric cars are better for the environment, when in fact electric cars have their own issues. For example; the batteries used to store the power are lithium based. Lithium mines in Chile use up two thirds of one area’s fresh drinking water. Furthermore, building your own car would allow you to reuse and recycle old parts that would otherwise go to landfill. Scrapped cars made up an astonishing 45,000 tonnes in 2007, nearly 9 times more than plastics!

Through building a car you learn a lot of transferable skills that help you throughout your life. Knowing how to fix your own car will save you a heap of money. You would save all labour costs, which are as much as $60 an hour, and rather than being ripped off by a dodgy mechanic, sourcing your own parts could also save you a lot of money. Instead of buying brand new parts form the manufacturer, like a mechanic would, you can always source cheaper parts from wrecker yards, online, or knowing people who may have spare parts. A lot of time would also be saved if you fixed your car at home instead of taking your car away to a busy mechanic who has lots of jobs before yours.

Most importantly, the social aspects of building a car are very beneficial. Picture this: you walk into a white, bland, clinical office. A man wearing a dress shirt, the biggest smile you’ve ever seen coupled with the deadest eyes you’ve ever seen, approaches you and starts going on about how great the new echo location system is in the newest Mitsubishi Pajero. All you see is a car that makes a high-pitched noise at you whenever you try to get directions to the café you’re meeting your friend. You leave not only without a car, but feeling like you’ve lost part of your soul. You walk out knowing that you never want to go there again. Well you don’t have to. Why? Because you’ve got your best mate by your side and you’re laughing, deciding where to put the echo location module you just got for five bucks online. Even better, he just taught you internal combustion is usually safer than external combustion. This is heaven.

Owning a car that you put together will come with a sense of pride: knowing that there’s no car quite like it on the road, knowing how much work went into it, having the new and stronger friendships that came from it. A bought car teaches you the value of money. A built car teaches you the value of friendship.