guide to australians (for canadians)
know your Aussie
This is my introduction to Australians for non-Australians such as Canucks. Fans of the movie South Park may recall an American soldier declaring, 'Canadians, Australians, what's the difference'. My mentality, before going there, had been similar. But those fascinating differences are there. Australia was my first country of foreign residence, and I was surprised at just how much the Aussies differed from the folks back home. This article is a bit long-winded and unorganized, beware.
If there a few sentiments that describe Australians, they might be:
It's better to be down on your luck than high on yourself. The Australians hate pretence pationately. Which is refreshing, and admirable (if inconsistent with the Aussie snobbishness about things like coffee and wine).
No worries, mate, she'll be right. Some things have an almost tropical speed, in Australia. You can't count on returned phone calls, you can expect delays and missed schedules in the travel, and even housing construction seems somewhat lacidasical. For instance, a number of Sydneysiders—including some of my co-workers—had extensive housing damage from what struck me as merely average rainstorms. This happened on a fairly regular basis. But everyone expects this, and just says, "No dramas" with a shrug. It's actually something I'd like imported to Canada (in moderation). Whenever something goes off the rails in Canada, there's no end of drama.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy Oy Oy. This Aussie sports slogan—like almost everything else, borrowed from elsewhere (in this case an English 'footie' chant) was the constant refrain during the Olympics. But it extends to more than sports. The Aussie military is a well-equipped, modern, and routinely active force that is well regarded and fervently supported within the country. Australian foreign policy is much less politically correct and less dependent on the American juggernaut than Canada's. It's interesting to watch them tread on toes abroad, unafraid. P.S. See the bottom of the page for the full "Ozzie Ozzie" chant.
cultcha
Even by Canadian standards, Australia is a young country. The culture of Australia therefor borrows a lot from other nations. I've spoken with new arrivals from the UK and Ireland, who say things like "It's just like living back home." Now I've been to both the UK and Ireland, and I seem some distinctions, but they're a lot more similar than Canada is to any of them.
All the same, the Australians adjusted to the local climate in things such as cuisine. You don't find a lot of steak joints serving huge meals, like you do in North America, or the predominance on pubs and fish-and-chips shops like in the British isles. Rather, Asian, Indian and Mediterranean foods abound. The growing populations of Asians and Indians are introducing their cuisines just as the Italians and Greeks did a generation ago.
The Australians have adopted the Italian disdain for filtered coffee, and have espresso instead. They've also adopted the European love of fine wine making, and have even adopted some of the snobbery about wines that seems to come with its production. The average Aussie, by the way, knows way more about wine than the average Canadian, and is really spoiled due to the quality of the local stuff.
In certain ways, the Australians have somehow developed in the same direction as the Americans; with their generousity; can-do attitude (another thing I'd like to see imported to Canada); broad local accents; monolithic cultural attitudes; unapologetic bigotries; and touchy national pride. That pride is one of the strongest themes we found upon arrival. You can't be in Australia for more than a couple of days before someone asks, "So what do you think about Australia?" (Sort of the local variant on a Canadian apologizing about the weather, I suppose)
That said, Australia remains very close to the 'mother country', and seems to look toward England for many of its values. Aussie English is essentially a broad, working class English dialect shot through with bizarre local expressions. The UK's mania for sports is there, and much of the entertainment on stage and 'telly' comes from the UK, as well.
Local arts and artists find strong support locally, however. Aussie musicals and plays feature in Sydney's Opera house, and Aussie art fills the National gallery in Canberra. Australians make excellent movies (such as Two Hands, Risk, and Me, Myself, I, all of which appeared within the year and change that I lived there).
details
Aussies are very active. Wherever I went in Australia, I found that Australians love to get out and do things. Perhaps its the perpetually stunning weather or seemingly endless availability of empty beaches and parks. Perhaps its related to the love of sports.
Distinctions of gender, race, and class seem more ingrained in the Aussie mentality than that of the Canadian. To an average "PC" Canadian, Aussie attitudes towards women in the workplace, 'foreign' residents, and the world outside the nation's shores can seem a little out-dated. Yet visible minorities are virtually absent, in Australia (the biggest groups of foreigners living in the country seem to be Kiwis and Brits). But attitudes in general seem to be in a state of transition.
Police are absent and seem unmissed on the streets of the larger cities, especially Sydney. You can live in Sydney for a month and never see a single police car.
keeping it simple
Aussies have a reputation for being easy-going, but I think this is a myth. I think, rather, that they have a subconscious determination to keep things simple that results in a similar effect. I'm a big fan of simplicity myself, but carried over some cultural things I was unaware of that were off-putting to Aussies. Australians are put off, for instance, by any elaboration in communication. For instance, if you're asking for help or (God help you) service, they get bored if you tell them why you want something. This contrasts with the situation in Canada, where locals would be more sympathetic if that context (the "why") were there. Aussies struck me as liking all arrangements to carry the least possible overhead. 'Don't you bother', and 'she'll be right' are the by-words of Aussie interaction.
My 'simplification theory' seems especially true in Sydney, where it's often difficult to tell where you are because streets are not always signed, and it can be difficult to find street numbers which sometimes aren't marked, and which are often desperately out-of-whack on the two sides of the street. Even Queenslanders (folks from Australia's 'Sunshine State') I've spoken with have remarked on Sydney's silent style of doing business.
But there are big similarities between Canada and Australia as well. The Australians seem quite as touchy about things in general as Canadians, and are quick to get their back up about many of the same things. They're also no less aware of irony and humour in the way things often go awry. The state of apparent unreadiness for the Olympics in the months leading up to the event was a common source of wry amusement for Sydneysiders. The spectacular success that the Olympics became stunned everybody.
change
I've been told that many of these things are changing in the face of world competition, and I can see why—most of the people I work with in any management or planning capacity seem to be from the UK (or the Aussie state of Victoria, which was a settled by voluntary migrants, and has a more English culture (e.g. the horse-racing) and a reputation for snobbery, as well as an apparent tradition for turning out business-minded people).
Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy!
Back to the sports. As I say, the Aussies love to be number one. They are quite proud of their award-winning wines, and are fanatic about competing on the world level in sports. Their obsession with sports is matched by outstanding performance on the world sporting scene. It's impossible to escape the news of an Aussie setting a world record in some sport endeavour, and it seems to happen often. To Australians, the 80s era victory in the Americas cup (the top achievement in sailing, from what I can tell) is still a matter of pride (much the way the boomer generation in Canada still prattles on about that Henderson goal in 1972).
Australians will get enthusiastic about any sport. They occasionally host matches between AFL (that's Aussie-rules footie) teams and Celtic soccer teams from Ireland, and the events are MASSIVE. But then, everything's huge in Austrlia when it comes to sport. Half of every news hour (without hyperbole) is given to sports. Anything from "Ice hockey" to Indian and South African cricket is of interest to an Australian. It's really incredible.
Strangely, every state seems to have its own version of 'football', and a foreigner quickly gets used to hearing Aussies from one state or another ridicule another state's choice in game. The distinctions are lost on me, still.
I enjoyed my time in Australia. I was there for 16 months and saw something of all of the states and territories except for Tasmania (which struck me as a bit Canadian, anyway). I met a lot of people, and despite sometimes hanging our with other foreigners (my only attempt at surfing was with an American friend, for instance), I enjoyed the company of The Aussie.
P.S. They have a chant, you know. It's this (and I'm not making this up):
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oy Oy Oy!
Aussie!
Oy!
Aussie!
Oy!
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oy Oy Oy!
This is a 'footie' chant, and I think it's more impressive than mumbled Queen songs in ice rinks. But I suppose when you're competing with the Kiwis (whose Maori-derived screaming and warrior dances are just fncking frightening), you've gotta come up with something!
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