Teenage life during the Mongolian People’s Republic

Teenage life during the Mongolian People’s Republic

I interviewed my mom and it was quite interesting of how our lifestyle has changed so rapidly from the ones of my mom.

• How was your teenage life?

Hm… it was very exciting for me, because I joined the volleyball team of my school when I was in the 5^th grade and since then I had been very busy participating in tournaments nationwide, but as well as internationally. So it was very fun :) We were always the 1^st or the 2^nd place and it was a happy moment for me to get my first golden medal.

• What type of music, clothes etc were you interested in?

I was the type of girl who was very shy and reserved; therefore I was no that into fashion. Students all had to wear same uniforms at school and at home we had to dress very decent, so many teenagers tended to dress ‘appropriately’ during that time. However, college and university students who were sent to study in Russia came back with totally new fashion trend, such as crazy, curly hair or collar t-shirts with unique patterns on it.

Because Mongolia was not that open to any other foreign countries, besides Russia, we only listened to Russian popular songs. But during New Year’s holiday, ABBA or Boney M songs were aired on Russian channels, so we had quite an understanding of world-wide hit songs ;)

I wore PE clothes almost every day, because we all had trainings right after school etc, so no time to care about appearance.

• What was defined as ‘cool’ during your teenage time?

Jeans! Kids who wore jeans were seen as very cool and everyone else wanted to have the same kind of thing. Because gums, sweets were rare during that time, a kid was seen cool as well when he was chewing gum or had pockets filled with sweets.

Students who were listed on the ‘Top 5’ were praised and were seen as role model to others. These types of kids were cool as well, because the society demanded kids that could later on help the country to develop; therefore it was an honor to be on the ‘Top 5’.

Overall, whoever possessed unique and expensive things, and were good at school, was seen as a cool kid.

·How strict were the rules about kids going out and partying hard?

Well, at that time there was no understanding about parties etc, so kids tended to come home no later than 10 pm. Rules were strict, however some kids sneaked out and drank, smoked etc during night time. If they were caught, the parents would have been responsible for their children’s behavior and would take the blame on them. The society was very close to each other, so gossips could spread around very quickly.

· Where there any reasons why you felt depressed when you were young? How did you deal with them?

I didn’t even know whether I was depressed or not, because I was too busy with my school and volleyball games so that I didn’t have free time for myself. I didn’t give myself too much stress on thinking and worrying about certain things. However, there was one thing that I was embarrassed of and it was my height. I was too tall for my age (I was the 2^nd tallest girl in the class) and everyone made fun of me, however it was not such a bid thing that could have led to depression. I gained more self-confidence after I joined the volleyball team at my school.

· The very last question: What did society expect from you? What did you have to do to reach these expectations?

It was expected from young people to study hard and later be a helpful contributor to the development of the country. Even when we were small children, we had to join groups and activities that could help the country in some ways, such as cleaning the streets or planting trees etc. We all had to be respectful to elders and always honor them.

Bandikuu, Bolormaa. Personal Interview. 09 November 2009.