﻿Magda: Hi, there. For our exhibition, we need to find out as much as we can about teenage life 
in the past. 
That’s why we are going to interview Mrs. Ioannou, our English teacher. 
Let’s see what she’s going to tell us about her life when she was our age.

Magda: Mrs. Ioannou what was your life like when you were a teenager? Did you study hard at 
school?

Mrs. Ioannou: Of course we did. We used to have school on Saturdays too! Can you believe it? 
We also wore uniforms. 
A blue dress called ‘ποδιά’. I remember all girls hated it. Boys didn’t use to wear a uniform 
in Highschool. 
What else? We didn’t have all these gadgets that you have nowadays. Mobile phones... or 
computers. 
There was no Internet so when we needed some information for a school project, we looked for 
it in some heavy encyclopaedias we all had at home. 

Magda: What about entertainment? Did you use to go out with your classmates?

Mrs. Ioannou: Well, not so much when I was 13 but when I was 15... 16 Saturday evening was the 
best part of the week. 
I used to spend hours in front of my mirror and my mum got furious. 
There weren’t any cinema complexes, only small, local cinemas, but it was fun, especially in 
the summer. 

Magda: No mobile phones, no computers, no CDs... What did you do when you were at home? 

Mrs. Ioannou: We watched TV but it was black and white. There were only two channels, can you 
imagine? 
But we always found something interesting to watch. The radio was totally different. 
Groups of friends used to set up radio stations and play music all day long. 
You could call them and ask for your favourite song. 7
Some of them became famous radio DJs later, like Yannis Petridis and Michalis 267. 

Magda: So, was your teenage life better, Mrs. Ioannou? What do you think? 

Mrs. Ioannou: It was different. We were busy at school and we had arguments with our parents 
like you. 
Some things were simpler and maybe everyday life wasn’t as stressful as it is today. 
I believe that teenagers nowadays know more things about the world around them. 
And you are all very clever!

Magda: Mrs. Ioannou, thank you for your help. We won’t need the internet to do our project 
this time.
