Cultural Identity and Intercultural Communication (MAS)

Cultural Identity and Intercultural Communication

Some of my friends here: half of us are Americans and the others are from Australia.  It gives each of us the opportunity to learn about different parts of the world.

In my time here thus far, I have had "heaps" of chances to compare Australia to America.  My friend group consists of half Aussies and half Seppos, what the Australians call Americans.  The term "Seppo" is widely used, at least across campus at James Cook, though it isn't necessarily a term of endearment.  But Australians are much harder to offend than Americans so their filter is much less present.  On the whole, Australians are very blunt and don't really care about hurting people's feelings.  This is much different than the "politically correct" speech from home, but it doesn't bother me because I am visiting their country and their culture.

I have found that a lot of Aussies learn about America via movies and television shows.  I haven't watched TV here often, but I have been able to find a few of the same channels with classic American shows.  I find it pretty funny that two people from different sides of the planet can quote the same programs.  By watching these shows, my Aussie mates have learned just how large our food portions are, some of the major cities, and how certain words are pronounced.  Though they may know where major cities like Los Angeles and New York City are located, they don't know much else about American geography, aside from the fact that Australia is basically just as big if you overlay the two countries.  Don't worry, my fellow Seppos and I have been able to teach them a great deal about the States and the falsities (and truths) of our stereotypes.

One of my Aussie mates printed out a map of the United States and labelled all the Seppo's houses so she could learn some of our geography.

With information from the TV, the Aussie mates I have talked to think most Americans are typically loud, obnoxious, and egotistical.  While that may be true of some, most Americans studying abroad here are not that way.  They also think we eat Macca's (McDonald's) and shoot guns all too frequently.  I would say this isn't totally true but when FaceTiming my brother at home, my mates and I interrupted him cleaning his guns after some target practice.  They couldn't believe that was a normal thing to be doing and they weren't afraid to tell me so.  Aside from that incident, I haven't displayed the "typical" American behavior.  Sometimes it is a bit embarrassing to admit where I'm from because Australia's news channels also cover some American news.  This means that in one way or another on multiple occasions, Donald Trump is mentioned and mocked.  So the Aussies know our presidential candidates, but they could not tell you their most recent prime ministers.

The hardest thing to adapt to thus far has been the difference in language.  I am not particularly "keen" on all of their vocabulary choices but to each their own.  I have become used to it, but do not actively participate in all of the name calling.  Though I must say it is nice to not be worried about offending anyone which allows my mates and I to be very open with one other about each of our own personal backgrounds.  It has also been great fun to adapt their abbreviated language.  Words like arvo (afternoon), breaky (breakfast), prac (practical), tut (tutorial), and Tuey (Tuesday) are all second nature to me now.  As far as everyday activities go, you can hardly tell I'm a Seppo (aside from my accent)!