Australian opinion about Americans? Esp. American migrants...

What do you all think of Americans?
*Do you* think of Americans?

More specifically, what do you think of this American migrating over to your side of the globe?
Do I have your blessing?

It's a path of sorrows, I'm sure, and great
financial expense but I think it may be worth
it in the long run. From what I've read Australian cities are much cleaner and safer than stateside cities of the same size. plus, what the hell, we only live once and i want to travel and really set roots down somewhere besides the North American continent.

Any advice?

Also, seeing as how I love reading, does anyone know of any good books you can recommend...to give me an idea of what modern life is like in 'Oz'?

Any good comedians?
I always find them to be a good indication...

Thanks!

 

How long is a piece of string? Generally speaking, Aussies have no problems with Americans (i.e. "Yanks").

For some unknown reason, Aussie chicks love the American dick (I have been told it is the accent).

America and Australia have a lot in common. Australian culture is saturated with American culture (i.e. music, films, television etc.) so even you come across an Aussie who is yelling all kinds of bullcrap like "Fuck George Bush and America", those same people would generally walk home in their Nikes listening to Eminem on their iPod and download the latest episode of Lost.

Weed laws are not as harsh as they are in America, in some places (Western Australia, A.C.T and N.T plus some others I am sure) weed is decriminalised and all other states, as long as the amount is small, they will give you up to 2 official warnings before anything happens.

I personally think it is safer. I recently backpacked through Japan and ran into a fellow from Seattle. We backpacked together for a few days and we were walking back to the hostel from the bar one night (1-2am) and we walked past many women doing the same. The American said he would never see females walking home alone at that hour and I said "really? in Sydney girls do that all the time. I have no problem with my sister or mother walking home at 2am in the morning". That said, alcohol and gangs are a problem in Australia so it is not as safe as it once was".

I am not a huge fan of reading, but how about checkout some Aussie films? The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom, The Castle, Romper Stomper.

Comedians, we have too many to list. Australians love our comedy.

Hope I have answered your question. If you have any more, please reply and I will do my best.

G'luck and best wishes.

 

Yeah. Most Australians tend to be pretty reasonable and dont seem to judge others based on where they came from.

Being an American, you might get a few comments about being a "Loud Yank" or similar, but the very, very vast majority of these comments are simply made tongue in cheek and not meant to offend you. (That said, I know that a lot of Americans really dont like being called "yanks", but, fact is, that word has a different meaning in Australia to what it does in US, and just about everyone uses it, so it's just something to adjust to, I guess.)

On that same note: Ive met quite a few Americans who lived in Australia who said that their only problem they had with fitting in here is our sense of humour. We seem to have a fairly dry sense of humour and apparently, it can be really hard for people not used to it, to know if we're joking, or actually being nasty. As a general rule, just remember that it's probably just a joke, and dont be offended if someone makes a cutting remark to you without smiling.

Safety wise, the statistically, you're pretty unlikely to be murdered or seriously assaulted here. Drunken violence is a bit of a problem at the moment on the weekend, and car theft is up slightly, but serious crimes such as rape, murder and kidnapping are quite low, and compared to most other western nations, still very unlikely to happen.

Work wise, if you're a skilled worker, then you wont have any problems finding work here. Australia needs people in the fields of engineering, medicine, teaching, building etc. If you dont have a skill that is needed here, however, it could be pretty difficult to get a visa (other than just a holiday visa).

If you're looking for a good book, you should consider reading Bill Bryson's book Down Under. I think it's quite a good look at modern Australia. It does well at busting quite a few stereotpes as well.

Comedians, you can have a look on Youtube for the following:

- Adam Hills
- Dave Hughes
- Wil Anderson
- Akmal Saleh (my favourite)
- Carl Barron
- Julia Zemiro
- Paul McDermott

Some of the humour is a little hokey, but some of it is pretty funny.

 

GReat!
Thanks for the info guys...
the link between the U.S. and Australia cultures fascinates me. I mean I desperately want to move to 'Oz' but sometimes I'm put off by people's attitudes.

EX.
I asked on a seperate forum if people 'Down Under' got The Simpsons and if so did they get the jokes ...as most of them seem pretty 'topical' and, I assumed, kinda like 'inside' jokes from daily American culture.

A few people seemed openly hostile to the notion that they *wouldn't* be getting the Simpsons.

More than one person typed something like, 'No! we don't get The Simpsons and we don't have electricity and we all live in caves!'

But WTH... 'people on the internet', right?

Take the nicest group of people, put 'em on the net and 60% become raving f*cking lunatics everytime....go figure.

Anyhow:
Here's a sh*tload more questions to whittle away your life with.


What are the major environmental dangers?
Floods? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Drought?
All the above?

Have any of these happened recently?

What has the political climate been like over the last ten years?

Why do some aussies think OZ is a multi-cultural society when 97% of the people there are white?

How close is the bond between Britain and Australia?

Does the government honor the Queen of England?

Any chance of Oz, NZ, Canada, & Great Britain getting back together and invading America?

Okay that was stupid...but this next one!
Well the next one is stupid too but I'll cut and paste it anyways:

Is Christianity a 'national religion' there?

Do you have gay marriage there? Is it even an 'issue'?

Is there a teacher shortage? and, if so, why isn't 'teacher' listed on the Migration Occupations in Demand List? (Even though Hairdresser and Pastery Cook are?... at 60 f'n points no less!)

Do you have anarchists in Aussieland?

Like, lots and lots of 'em?

like in Oregon?

Was there a bunch of hippies there in the 60's like everywhere else in the world?

Would you consider OZ 'anti-intellectual'? ...as it applies to intellectualism for it's own sake. I heard it described this way is the reason I ask.

Do most musicians, actors, authors and artists leave Australia when they become successful?

How many time do you hear the word seppo or septic a day? How many times do you think I'll hear it if I move there?

Okay, I guess that's it for now.
Thanks again you guys!

nice to meet some friendly people from your neck of the world!
Peace.
Be Well!
Ben
"goinghome"

 

Australians are a little funny about talking about our culture sometimes. Ive noticed that a lot of us seem to be convinced that the outside world thinks that we ride around on kangaroos all day while trying to escape man eating crocodiles, and that seems to annoy us. So, although Im sure that no malice was intended with your question about The Simpsons, to those people, they probably thought that you were taking the piss and implying that we didnt have TV or something. Not that we're insecure or anything...............

Anyway, I spent a while typing the world's greatest answer to all your questions last night, and then when I went to post it, my server dropped out and I lost it, and rather than type it out again while I remembered what I said, I went and watched Neighbours instead. So the following answer is a shorter version, and wont be anywhere near as good as the one I did last night, but: Such is life.

- Earthquakes and stuff: Earthquakes dont happen here very often. Australia is one of the most geologically stable countries on the planet (according to my engineering degree lectures) and so they arent a risk. Newcastle is the only city located in an earthquake area. It has had a few nasty quakes in the past, but really, nothing to compare with quakes in LA or SF.

The main environmental risks are bushfires (if you live near the bush) and serious storms which usually hit and do a fair bit of damage in late summer with hail and flooding and the like.

The very vast majority of Australia (even the non-desert areas) is in the grip of drought as well. This includes the main agricultural areas so food prices are going up because of it. A lot of places havent had rain for years now and water shortages are common. For most Australians, living with strict water conservation laws is a part of life.

- Political stuff: At the moment, it seems like Australia is moving back towards the left. We've just seen the end of 11 years of conservative rule by the Liberal Party (like your Republican Party) in the federal parliment, and conservative niche parties like the One Nation Party who used to do quite well in elections did quite badly in the last one. The Green Party also did really well, getting something like 12% of the primary vote, making them almost a third political force in this country.

At the moment, the main political issues in the country are:

- Should we become a republic?
- Water. And the fact that we're about to run out of it.
- The cost of living.
- Workers rights and the unions.
- The economy.
- The skills shortage.

Our relationship with Britain is close, but we're closer to the US in a strategic and trade sense. Really, the only link I can see with Britain at the moment is that they watch our TV soap shows (Neighbours, Home & Away) and we beat them at sports that they invented all the time.

Australians and Britains have reciprocal working visa and pension rights as well.

Queen Elizabeth is very popular here at the moment and it's suspected by a lot of people that she alone is the reason so many Australians dont support a republic (I think the real reason is that we just dont care that much), but the next in line to the throne Prince Chuck isnt popular at all (being an uptight tosswad who was unfaithful to his first wife seems to have that effect) and I wouldnt be surprised to see an even bigger push for a republic when Liz dies or abicates and let's him become king.

- Religion: Australia doesnt have an official religion, but if we did, it would probably be either Catholicism or Anglicanism. We arent a very religious country, compared to the US.

- Multiculturalism: Statistically speaking, taking into account the population size, verus the number of ethnic groups that call Australia home, Australia is one of the most diverse countries on earth. Personally, I think that's great because it always means you can find great Greek or Chinese food in most towns.

Nowadays in Australia, you're far more likely to meet people who's family came out from Europe or Asia after WW2, than you are to find white Anglo-Celt Australians who's families were amongst the first settlers.

- Gay Marriage: In a bid to prevent the sky from falling, our esteemed former Prime Minister John Howard made amendments to the constitution so that it would only recognise marriage as being between a man and a woman. The ACT (Australian Capital Territory. A really boring place) Government then introduced and passed gay marriage bill under their state law. It was, however, stopped by the federal government.

The new government is amending federal laws to give gay couples the exact same rights as straight couples (except for marriage) at the moment, which is a step foward.

According to polling, the majority of Australians support gay marriage. (65-70%)

-Anarchists and Hippies: Anarchists are around the place. The best place to find them is in Newtown in Sydney, Fitzroy in Melbourne or West End in Brisbane. They tend to be quiet until big events like APEC, and then, they end up being arrested on trumped up drugs charges on the train, while on the way to the protest (this happened during APEC).

Hippies were around in the 60's and some are still kicking around today. A decent size population lives on the north-east coast of NSW (about 4-5 drive north of Sydney) in the mountains.

- Teaching: We have a shortage of teachers here. I have no idea why they havent listed teacher as a skilled entry occupation, but, for some reason, it doesnt surprise me that they havent. Your best bet, if you're looking for teaching work would be to contact the Department of Education in the state you'd like to settle in (for example: If you want to go to Sydney, contact the New South Wales Dept. of Education) and ask them what the go is. They should be able to give you more details. We need teachers.

- Seppo/Septic: You wont hear this very often. In Australia, most people say "Yank" as a term of endearment with no offense intended. Seppo is the nasty version, and is only reserved for when an Australian might be upset with an American. The ONLY American I can think of that gets called Seppo over here, is George Bush.

So, you will get called "yank" and if you take offense, people will probably be confused as to why you're offended, since, to people here it's a friendly slang term, but you wont be called Seppo unless you piss somone off, quite badly. On the whole, most Australians will try and avoid offending other people and hold their tongue, even if they're pissed off.

So, anyway, hopefully that's of some help. Ive probably missed out heaps of stuff, but, feel free to ask any more questions if I have.

Best wishes,

Aaron

 

HA! Unfortunately,that happens to me all the time.

Great post though!

Diversity: I guess even though you're an overwhelmingly 'white' populace ...there are different cultures throughout.

'Republicans': Wow, 11 years? crazzy.

_______________________________________________

I'll be sure to come to you with any questions that I come up with.
Thanks again!

 

So, do you think if I immigrate and get caught smoking a little herb....I'll be booted permanently from the island um, I mean continent? Country!
...even though it's a $50 fine in some states, or so I hear.

I mean it's certainly not THE reason I'm moving but it sure would be a shame to be surprised after all the time and money and paperwork.

 

As a general rule here, being caught with just a small amount of pot for personal use just attracts a slap on the wrist or even just a stern warning from the copper.

Dealing and growing the stuff (in commercial amounts) can cause quite a bit of trouble for you, so avoid that side of things.

The problem is, it's a lot harder to say what would happen to you, compared to an Australian citizen, because of the way things work here.

Basically, if an Australian gets busted, they will probably have to front court, and will usually end up with a good behaviour bond or a fine or something small, and will then be able to get on with their lives.

But the problem for non-citizens is that if you front court, it's reported to the Department of Immigration who have the right to cancel your visa and send you away. So, for example, the judge might just give you nothing more than a stern lecture about "the evils of drugs" and send you off to think about what you did, but then, your case gets reviewed by a bueraucrat in the Dept. Of Immigration, and if they decide to cancel your visa, then that's it: It's cancelled. Even IF the court decided that it was only a minor charge not worth punishing.

You could, of course, try and fight the deportation ruling (and you would probably have a good chance of winning), but that is really expensive and time consuming.

The thing is, however, that if you're only a social user then the chances of being caught arent that great. Most cops are pretty reasonable about it, and if they catch you with a small amount on you (but you arent doing anything else wrong) then often they'll just take it off you and tell you not to get caught with it again. Ive only been caught twice, and that happened to me both times.

Of course, that depends entirely on the mood of the copper. If they're having a bad day, there is nothing to stop them from nicking you in spite.

 

I think clever username answered your questions quite well, but I'd like to add some things. first, the sarcasm and humor. it took me a good 3-4 months to get used to it, and at times I found myself getting genuinely angry because people wouldn't let up. but mostly I just jabbed em right back with sarcasm and I think I was accepted sooner because of it.

as for hippies and ganja, you'll find plenty of both in Byron Bay and Nimbin, in the north of NSW. I'm surprised usename didn't mention them. check out Nimbin on wikipedia, essentially it's a small hippie town (though it had gotten quite shady last time I was there) where marijuana laws aren't enforced.

the cops were generally quite agreeable, they were friendly and would chat if they had time, unlike the cops I've encountered in my own country, so that was very refreshing. I was let off with a surprisingly friendly warning for not wearing a helmet on my bike once.

I'm not American, but people mistake me for one all the time because of the way I speak. I don't think anyone felt any sort of antipathy against me for being from another country. at the same rate, my foreign origin and different accent earned me no extra points with the opposite sex

 

Thanks, as I said, I really don't even smoke that much...maybe once every other month, honestly. It's a solitary, spiritual thing for me and, plus, I like reading too much and I find that my concentration narrows to the point that I can't even get to the end of a sentence without forgetting how it began! Like if I was high I would have to re-read that last sentence a few times.


Anyhow, I've heard they're actually sending people arrested for hard drugs out to Nimbin as part of some sort of set-up to make the city look worse, I have no idea if this is true or just a paranoid account of things.

At any rate, I'm not really inteested in fully immersing myself in the past...or even contributing to a 'dropped-out' alternative society type situation. (well, at least no more dropped out than moving to Australia to begin with!)

I'm just looking for a reasonable, safe, and exciting place to put down roots.

 

My oldest brother is going to work at South Wales(?) University in Sydney. He gets there monday, and I just linked this thread to him so I thought I'd just post my appreciation for the thorough answers here.

 

I understand. there will be plenty of great places to choose from. I recommend looking into Melbourne and Brisbane at least, and this is very much a personal preference, but I would have loved to live in Byron Bay myself. good luck down there anyways, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

 

Nah, I dont think that's the case. Nimbin is pretty famous amongst the cops for being an easy drug bust town. There is always heaps of weed in the area (They hold the Mardigrass Festival there!), so they can be sure of being able to pick up a lot of gear when they do a raid. Also, it's a pretty peaceful place (no gang or weapon troubles) so it means that safety of the raiding officers is never a problem.

So, because of this, whenever the police force needs to be seen as though they're doing something about "the drug problem" in NSW, they raid Nimbin because they always get a lot of "drugs" out of the raid, and dont actually have to do any hard work.

They actually take new police recruits to Nimbin on raids to teach them the process.

In fact, a few years ago, I was in Nimbin covering the Mardigrass Festival and the police raided the same place 5 times in one day. It was comical. They even let me tag along with them on some of the other "raids" they were doing in the area to see what happens, which is strange, because usually, they'd never let a civilian go on a raid with them because it's too dangerous. Even the (heavily armed) cops knew it was a joke.

But, anyway, the point being: Nimbin is a great little propaganda spinner for the NSW Government (who is trying to be seen as being "tough on crime") because it's so easy. I doubt very much that the police would take hard drug dealers from the city and dump them in Nimbin, because even they would know that doing that would be a sure fire way to create a gang and weapons problem in the town, which would make it much, much harder on the police during future raids.

 

Interesting.

I heard there was a huge (22million dollars worth?) marijuana sting operation in the Sydney suburbs.

By the way, I was looking at some rental ads (in Sydney) and saw studios and 1 bedrooms for 350-500 dollars!
Is this for real?... that seems really cheap even with the AU dollar being slightly higher than the stateside version.

 

Yeah. A whole bunch of houses in the same street got busted. I doubt it was actually $22 million worth because the media tends to exagerate values of drug busts, but it was still a hell of a lot. You'd have to be pretty dumb to start growing in the same street as other people though, unless you had formed a cooperative with them.

And that in itself would be seriously dumb and really easy to get caught with.

Just a note on the rents in Sydney: A lot of the places are advertised at an extremely cheap price, because they are (for lack of a better word) shitholes.

But the other thing is that Sydney has a rental shortage at the moment (most of the cities do), so what the estate agents are doing is setting a really low rent to get people interested in the property, and then when the potential tenant turns up for an interview or to inspect the place, they say: "Oh sorry, but we actually had another person come through here yesterday, and they liked the place so much, they actually offered to pay $200 a week, instead of $150 like what we advertised. So, you'll have to offer the landlord something like $250 a week to be able to rent the place now."

Ive been screwed over by rental auctions like that twice now. Both times I thought Id secured the place, only to get a phonecall at the last minute saying: "We just had an offer that was $50 a week better than yours. Unless you can beat it, you wont get the place." It's a pain in the arse to say the least.

The other thing is that in a lot of jobs, the wage hasnt really kept pace with the cost of living. So rent still takes a pretty sizable chunk out of your wage out.

 

My brother is looking for a roommate in the Tenzington(sp?) area of Sydney if anyone is interested, or has advice.

 

I wonder if the rental shortage and C.O.L. will be any better in the next few years? Any plans in the works to fix this.

 

Not really. All the politians are interesting in doing is blaming each other for the shortage. They havent quite gotten to the stage where they've decided to find a good solution for the problems.

The current government is considering opening up crown lands that arent being used for anything at the moment, to allow for further housing developments to begin there. As I see it, there are several problems with this, not the least being that this sort of policy leads to "planned communities" where no one wants to live. Also, even if it does go ahead, and does work, it wont begin to take effect for 15 years or so at the least.

The cost of living is pretty much being caused because of the drought. The current oil price isnt helping matters, but until we get a LOT of rain (not likely) OR find a way of using our water better so that we can grow more crops with less water, food prices are going to cause the COL to keep going up.

Of course, all this sounds pretty gloomy, and the truth is, things arent THAT bad here yet and things for most people are still pretty managable, but more people are beginning to have trouble at the moment.

The other thing is that rentals in Sydney and Melbourne (and perhaps Brisbane) are pretty hard to find, but outside of these areas, it's not a big problem and a lot cheaper. If you were willing to live in the country (even if it was by the coast) it might end up a lot cheaper, and not as hard to find a place, depending on where you went.

 

Unless the 'planned community' is
designed smartly, you're right...
that would only increase the sprawl.

Not to mention using 'public lands' to put up
(possibly) very ugly housing.


I've heard many, many people are moving up the coast from Sydney, as you mentioned.

 

Canberra is a good example of a planned community gone wrong here. Actually, I dont think it was ever right.

Just imagine a huge big park with buildings interspersed around it that you either need a car or bicycle to go from one building to the other. The imagine that said park is inhabited solely by public servants who stay home & do their tax on the weekends.

(Sorry to people who live in Canberra who dont do this!)

A lot of people that can afford it are leaving Sydney now just to live in a smaller place where the family/work balance seems to be better. It's putting a lot of pressure on these smaller towns on the coast. My town has gone from something like 20,000 people up to 65,000 in the space of a little over 10 years. Sprawl everywhere, sadly.

But there are still a lot of nice places that havent been "colonised" as much yet.