Teacher Tag: Mr Tiernan
Interviewed by Ruwan Jinadasa, Mily Gu and Shan Balakid
Teacher Tag
With the legend himself, Mr Tiernan
Wondering why the background? Find out later in this article!
I: How did you learn German?
Mr Tiernan: So I'm from Ireland, and I was at a high school in Ireland, and just like every other Uni High student, I just got put into year 7 German and I kinda liked it. Then I went on exchange in year 10 to German, and that really made me fall in love with the language and after that, I really got motivated to learn German for real. Then I went and worked at the car company, Audi, and I worked there for 3 months during my school holidays. Haha I went and worked in the production line, and I was putting on tires and steering wheels. So I learnt loads of German, just on the production line with all of these workers. One thing led to another I guess, I studied German at uni and then I got a job as a German teacher back in Ireland and now I’m in Australia!
I: Do you think the process of learning German in Ireland and Australia and similar?
Mr Tiernan: Haha Yeah! I’m a lot older than you guys so we didn’t have the internet like you guys so we had to just try find books and write down out vocab everyday as best as we could. I remember having this big thick vocabulary book and I would learn my words off by heart, but you guys have quizlet and kahoot nowadays, so you can do that by yourselves! Haha I’m quite envious of students learning a language these days, you’ve just got so much more at your fingertips! But I love the opportunities which are given to students learning languages now, it’s great!
I: What advice would you give to German students?
Mr Tiernan: If you study history, mathematics or architecture you see that the German played big roles in these topics. For example, like all throughout your science books, you see German scientists, German mathematicians and you see a lot of the greatest architecture in the world is located in Germany and Austria. So I think to understand the world and understand history, German has had a big role to play. I’m sure that a lot of you speak more than one language as well, and you know when you go to another country the people really appreciate it when you are able to speak a few or many words from their language, it makes that connection even more valuable. So I would love all of my students one day to perhaps go to Germany, or go to Austria, and be able to use some of the knowledge that you think of at a German class at Uni High.
I: Do you have a favourite German word hehe?
Mr Tiernan: Yeah actually! German is a very literal language so the word for your gums in your mouth which is ‘zahnfleisch’ which means tooth meat (very cool) Haha yeah so it is a very literal language so that’s a good example of how literal it is. That’s my funniest word but my favourite word is ‘atemberaubend’ which is breathtaking. Literally it robs your breath. That’s what the word literally translates as.
I: Haha that’s very fun! Also you obviously have a very cool interest in gardening, How did you develop this interest and what do you love about gardening?
Mr Tiernan: Oh yeah! It’s funny because at your age, I could literally not care about gardening at all. It was until I moved to Australia, about 9 years ago, when I started to see all of the lovely and unique species that you guys have all around you. And maybe you don’t notice it as much because you have grown up here, it’s been around you your whole life, but when I came here, I was just taken back by how amazing everything is and all of these new species of trees and plants. So I just started growing up stuff in Galileo on the rooftop there. And just one thing led to another, and now I do it everyday! hehe
Mr Tiernan introduced us to his lovely garden, here is a picture of it
I: Wow my mum would love that. haha It looks really good! Do you have a favourite plant or like find one the most interesting one?
Mr Tiernan: Yeah I do actually. My favourite plant which is only found in Western Australia, but it’s called Hakea Victoria.
I: Haha I like how even though it is only found in Western Australia, it has Victoria in it
Mr Tiernan: Haha yeah I know, I think the guy who discovered it wanted to name it after Queen Victoria, because it was so beautiful.
Haha it sure does look nice!
I: So do you have any other hobbies other than gardening?
Mr Tiernan: Haha Yes I do. Well I’m a beekeeper up in galileo. And hehe I’m really into bitcoin! Haha I’m obsessed with bitcoin. That’s all I think of all day. Whenever I’m not doing German, I’m thinking of bitcoin. Bitcoin and plants basically! (ahh so wholesome we have to stan)
I: You mentioned the beeswax, and I know that last year and the start of the year, I think the gardening team were selling beeswax, can you tell us a bit about that?
Mr Tiernan: Yeahhh, so with Chiara Rice year 12 and Lucinda O’Brien, they’re awesome!
I: Wow, so it’s from the bees in the loft right? so how did you get it?
Mr Tiernan: So when we got the honey from the bee hives, we just used the wax from the frames as well. Haha the girls are way better than I am at this, so we took all of the wax and turned it into wax wraps.
I: That’s really cool! Do you think after corona, you would still continue with it?
Mr Tiernan: Totally, the bee’s don’t realise that we’re in a pandemic! hahaha
Some questions from our Instagram: ubiqueuhs
I: What was your best experience during your time as a Galileo Teacher?
Mr Tiernan: That’s a really good question. I used to do a bitcoin excursion! What else did I use to do? Oh you know what we used to do that was beautiful, we used to go down to an aged care facility and we used to sing songs with the old people in the facility. Oh god that was so beautiful and we used to have little dances with the old people, it was just beautiful. The purpose of the excursion was to try and encourage more empathy for the old people and to encourage young people to look after their grandparents and stuff when they get older and so yeah I loved that one.
I: What inspired you to donate your hiking shoe to Galileo to concrete into an award?
Mr Tiernan: Oh nah that wasn’t me.
I: What can you tell us about your *elite* european handball career?
Mr Tiernan: So yeah, I think they’re trying to say I played a game called Gaelic Football which is like a hybrid of AFL, basketball and soccer. But yeah I used to play a lot - I played when I was like 20 to 29. I played at the top level, but it wasn’t professional. I had a football career but I was also a teacher, so you’ve got your regular job as well. I finished playing when I was around 30 then I came to Australia when I was 31. Yeah it’s a weird game, weird game.
(Mr Wong has a picture of Mr Tiernan playing Gaelic Football in the latin classroom)
I: If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
Mr Tiernan: That’s a great question, great question. Well I was watching a show on old Italian architecture. So right now, I’m just loving Italy and all those old buildings and all those old churches and all those Roman - like the Colosseum. So if I could go to any place I’d go to Rome and just walk around, look at the Statue of David and the Cathedrals. They were built so long ago I can’t believe humanity did that 2000 years ago. We can barely do it today!
I: What are you doing to keep yourself sane during the second round of iso?
Mr Tiernan: Ah good question. You’re going to laugh at this. I bought pull up bars, do you know those? Yeah, I bought one of them. So I’m trying to do more pull ups, that’s my goal. I bought it at Kmart a month ago in case we had to go into lockdown again.
Mr Tiernan was also kind enough to give us some life advice. This is what he had to say:
I were to give you guys one bit of advice, I would say, start a business. Try and start a business in some shape or form. Whether it’s selling bread, or making puzzles or doing whatever you want. You’ve all got skills and you’ll learn so much. That’s one big regret I have in life. I would love to try and start a business and just see what sells. You’ll learn so much - even if I fail, who cares? You’ll get up and dust yourself off and go again. Cause I think entrepreneurs are the key to prosperity. I mean my job, yeah I enjoy it and everything but I’m paid by the government so it doesn’t matter whether I do a good job or a bad job… it doesn’t really matter - I’ll still get my wages, whereas, in a business sense, if you don’t do a good job you don’t sell any bread or you don’t sell any puzzles so it’s far more real
I: Finally, who do you tag?
Mr Tiernan: Mr Davidson. The new Galileo teacher, Matt
Thank you Mr Tiernan for taking the time to let us interview you! We all had so much fun and make sure to keep us updated with you plants!
If you have an questions that you want us to ask Mr Davidson next, make sure to comment down below!!