What Austrians think of Australia: Cultural Differences

I wasn’t going to post again before I left on my big European adventure, but so many interesting cultural things happened today that I just couldn’t help myself.

Firstly, I was asked to go to attend a meeting for exchange students going to Australia to talk to them about cultural differences that I have noticed here. Of course I accepted this request and soon discovered that they had grouped the exchange students going to Canada, Australia and New Zealand together. Consequently, there were outgoing exchange students, current exchange students from all 3 countries as well as Austrians who have returned from an exchange in Canada, Australia or New Zealand. With such diverse viewpoints and many varying experiences in the room, it made for an extremely interesting discussion.

When we entered the room we noticed that there were drawings on the wall which matched each country. Basically the students drew things which they associated with each country. It was very interesting to see what the students had chosen to represent Australia. There was the outline of the map of Australia, lots of kangaroos dressed in funny outfits, the Union Jack, a spider taking up most of the room in Western Australia and a very bright orange sun.

As a group we then discussed cultural differences between the four cultures. I was extremely interested to hear what two returned Austrians from Australia had to say. One girl commented that Australians are very friendly and that it’s so easy to meet people there because they will just start talking to you. The example she used was at a bus stop. She said we were very laid back and her example was that no one gets upset or impatient if its half an hour until the next bus comes; they just sit down and relax. She also spoke about how it is so much brighter in Australia because people wear bright t-shirts and board shorts, while here everyone rugs up in big black jackets. Another difference she identified was that you do not have to go to lectures in Australia if you don’t want to and that you can find most of the material on the internet anyway. All in all, pretty good feedback I would say. And I certainly found myself nodding in agreement with the differences she had identified.

One difference which the entire group discussed at length which I had not noticed was cheating. I was very confused as to why we were discussing cheating at all until I was told that Austrians discuss answers in exams. They are not supposed to, but it is quite a common practice. This got the 2 Canadian girls extremely fired up because to them (and me) cheating is completely unacceptable. This is reinforced by both of our universities through extremely harsh penalties and investigations for anyone suspected of cheating. By the stories we told, I am certain that all of the Austrian exchange students will be too scared to cheat now. However, this prompted the two girls who went to Australia to tell the story of how they were accused of cheating in an exam in Perth. Basically they had both finished the exam, so they started to compare answers, an invigilator seen them and they were sent to the vice chancellor. It all worked out in the end, but this was definitely a new part of Austrian culture for me.

Other cultural differences we discussed as a group were clothes and how Australia is less formal than Austria. We also spoke about addressing university staff and how it is okay to use first names in Australia, while it is not here. The Canadians and I agreed that the public transport system is not as useful in our countries, compared to the brilliant system in Vienna. I also learned that this session was not just a one off meeting for the outgoing exchange students, but they had completed an entire course on cultural differences for them to be allowed to go on exchange. This is certainly different to Australia, but I think it’s a good idea.

At the end of the session we were given time to break off and talk to the students relevant to us and ask more in-depth questions. There was one guy going to Adelaide to study at UniSA so I spoke to him. His questions were extremely amusing to me and generated quite an insight into his view of Australia. He asked me about spiders and how to know if they are dangerous and what to do if he got bitten. The latter question I couldn’t even answer because I don’t know anyone who has been bitten by a spider! (Though I think this information was helpful). Even more amusing were my answers, I told him if they had a red or white back, that’s bad and don’t go near them or to run away. (If you see an Austrian screaming down the streets of Adelaide like a girl…you know why!) He also asked me about snakes. I told him they that they shouldn’t be a problem in the city and that if you see one you should stand still because they react to the vibrations in the air and ground. He asked about the sun because he heard that you can get skin cancer very easily. I told him that it shouldn’t be very bad in winter and to wear sunscreen. He also asked me about public transport, where he should live, semester dates, the temperature….etc. I was very surprised that Wikipedia told him that it gets to 4 degrees in Adelaide in Winter, I corrected him and said ‘more like 10’. All in all, it was a very interesting experience!

Today’s cultural experiences do not end there. I also met Roland (my tandem learning partner) for lunch today and I discovered some more interesting facts about Austria. I noticed that the university has smoking rooms which got us talking about smoking. I asked him why everyone still smokes when they know how harmful it is. He said that people don’t care. But I wonder if they don’t care or they just don’t think about it, because I can’t imagine smoking if you know what it is doing to you. This prompted me to ask him about warnings and pictures on cigarette packets here as we know how aggressive and graphic they are in Australia. It was very interesting to learn that here the labels are worded differently. They have the same warnings but they have less of an impact due to their phrasing: ‘Smoking could harm your baby’ ‘Smoking may kill’ It’s lost in translation a little bit, but basically the warnings do not admit that smoking does harm, they merely allude to the fact that there is a minute possibility that it could happen.

Finally, my cultural experience was made complete with some language mistakes. I was talking to Roland about how I couldn’t find ‘Melz’ in the supermarket. It turns out Melz is not a word and what I meant is ‘Mehl’ or flour. This certainly explains why I couldn’t find it! Even more embarrassingly but hilariously, I made the mistake of saying ‘Ich will einen Brief SHINKEN’ instead of ‘SHICKEN’. You can see how it is an easy mistake to make…however, in German this means instead of saying ‘I want to SEND a letter’ I said, ‘I want to HAM a letter’. It was very funny!

Roland and I were walking around the university when I came across a projected image taking up an entire wall of ‘WTF’. This of course stands for a common but rude phrase in English which is mostly used online. Naturally on seeing this I stopped and burst out laughing. The image then changed to ‘We Take it Further’, which is what the WTF stands for in this case. I spoke to Roland about this and told him the second meaning and he explained to me that the company who makes these adds is AISIEC and they have been using the same slogan for years…the question is: should I tell them?!