Customer Reviews

Culture Shock! Australia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Culture Shock! Austtralia an interesting read, a good addition for anyone planning to travel to OZ. The book appears to be written for prospective Asian immigrants, through the eyes of a English born author Ilsa Sharp. I found the first chapters rather negative, pointing out some unfavouable opinions and facts, and I wondered why Ms Sharp wanted to immigrate to this country. Generally a humorous and in the most part a fair assessment of OZ. But, may I indicate some misconceptions and omissions. Everyone knows that the European settlement started from a convict origins, but the vast number of the new comers were immigrants. OZ is not ashamed of its beginnings, and tracing your family has become an ever growing past time for many families - yes the common folk. Alas, I found none of my family in the prison system and lament this lack. It is of special interest and prized to have a nefarious relative and is not an insult to point this out (as many have tried), but rather reflects the ignorance of the person attempting to be insulting. In the past decade, our history is becoming ever present in our daily life, both the good and the bad bits. The book ties to say that no Asian had lived in OZ till recently, it is a pity they missed out of the Chinese folk who came here around the Gold Rush days - yes almost as long as the Europeans. A town called Broome in Western Australia has had close connections to the Malays and Indonesians prior to the First Fleet. Ms Sharp missed the contibution of the ANZACs in World War One - the Western Front - France and Belgium- they died in their thousands, along side those of other Commonwealth nations and US troops. It is said at least one out of every family were killed in this war. They were called 'diggers' as they dug the trenches, where they died. Lest we forget. The thoughts of independence started from here, to stand on our own two feet as a nation in her own right. I was further surprised that under 'survival sense' that heat stroke/exhaustion and sun burn were not mentioned - a real danger, as a German couple found out recently. Respect for mother nature. A surprising misconception is the lack of formality in business. Ms Sharp has sited several situations, number 3, really bothered me. The option that is correct is A, we are a parochial people and hold store in good manners, we don't always thumb our noses at every situation. If a worker did choose option B they would be out of a job or out of business. I did not find the conclusions expressed to be funny - I found it insulting. I did not look at all closely at some sections, politics and economics { as they change everyother day) and anything printed can only be historical in context. Still this book can make for some interesting readings.

I find this book very useful and funny at times. I have been to Australia many times and I am surprised not to know many of the customs and etiquette that make an Australian unique until I read this book. This book is especially very helpful to new permanent residents like me with the intention to live in Perth like the author. Highly recommended to people who is thinking of migrating to Australia.

An American friend, five years in Australia, lent me her 1999 version of this book. I've been here two years, from England, so I found it interesting. I agree that it has been inconsistently updated, and the Australia of 1991 seems to have been different in many ways to the Australia of 2004. Also, life in Perth must be different to that in Brisbane, where I live, 2,700 miles away. For a start, they play Australian football (and soccer) whereas Rugby League is the main game here.

It would be highly surprising if the author's views/perceptions and mine tallied 100%, but in fact they do quite a lot. I was interested, for example, in her correct perception of sport being a good conversation topic, not least at dinner parties. Coming from a somewhat bourgeois part of the south of England, I found that a most refreshing change.

One problem the book has is that it sets out to be amusing (successfully) and serious: on tax for example. For the serious side, some of the drier books on living and working in Australia, or emigrating here, are better.

Finally, I found myself liking the author and her style. She comes across as pleasant and with a light touch.

This book gave a feel for life in Australia. It is fascinating. "Customs and Etiquette" are more informative than facts and figures when understanding people from another place. Too bad our history and geography books aren't more like this book. Australia is a BIG place, so understanding the people is like understanding ALL Americans. Not so easy. I loved it.

Full-disclosure comment: I myself have not been to Australia. I review the book from the perspective of one who has known many Australians, though, and called a number of them friends.

That said, this book rings true with what I've seen of the Australian people--an exceptionally diverse group who are, as Sharp shows, a more complex people than some give them credit for being. Those cultural facts that are particular to Australians are well detailed. Topics that are hot button issues inspiring strong difference of opinion in Australia seem to be detailed in a fair manner. Americans in particular may find the comparison of the Australian frontier/outback ruggedness ethic to our own cheerful Western cowboy self-reliance (so to speak) of great interest. They differ, but with similarities. Both have worked their way well into our respective national psyches.

Someday when I hopefully visit Australia, I believe I'll feel better informed about the various dos and don'ts of Australian life thanks to this book. Recommend for anyone going to Australia, or who has a close Australian friend and wishes to better understand him or her.

"Culture Shock! Australia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette" by Ilsa Sharp is a guidebook to living in Australia. This book is not a travel guide, but rather a guide to the people and culture of the country. The main audience for this would be someone who intends to spend a lot of time in Australia, but it can also help business travelers, and even tourists.

I know someone who just moved to Australia from Asia, and from what I have been able to determine, this guide appears to be fairly accurate. I am looking forward to my visit there, which should also give me a better idea on just how accurate it is. Be sure to get the latest edition, as it was updated in 2005 and it is clear from my reading that there were substantial updates.

The author, Ilsa Sharp, migrated to Western Australia, and that personal experience clearly was a big asset to her in putting this book together. I did sense a bit of a bias towards Western Australia in her examples. To be fair, I was more interested in Eastern Australia, and so the bias may have been in my reading as well. In either case, she certainly does try to cover most of the country, and if I were to pick the one area where there was the least amount of information it would be Tasmania.

The book is broken down into 10 sections. These include a quick introduction, followed by basic information. Next is a discussion of the people, the society, and moving there. It then gets to some more specific areas such as food, entertainment, slang, and business. It then finishes with an A to Z section covering many basic facts about the country, some key figures both historical and modern, and it even has a short culture quiz.

As someone from the United States, this book is probably not as useful to me as it would be to someone coming from a much different culture. Not to say that Australia is just like the United States, but clearly the two are much closer than people from other countries from Asia and the Middle East. Even so, I think the book was fairly useful in understanding some of the societal differences between the two countries. This is one book that is easy to recommend.

Australia is not England.

It's also not the US or New Zealand.

It's also not Sydney, or Perth, or Tasmania.

Australia is a big, complex country. Author Ilsa Sharp, herself an immigrant to Western Australia, uses this book to introduce the interested reader to the way "Australia" works. She is somewhat successful, because she covers a really wide range of issues, from food, to the Aussie mindset regarding formality (or a lack thereof), to the art scene, to history, and much, much more.

It is a fair attempt at "a guide to customs and etiquette," as the subtitle states.

But the 1992 edition (there are newer editions) often reads like a collection of tidbits and factoids written down on 3 x 5 cards following discovery; then the cards are sorted into themes, and there's the book. Facts are mixed with observation mixed with personal experiences mixed with speculation. Then why 4 stars? Well, Sharp does produce something that, ultimately, I found useful. And that is the bottom line!

Here are a few examples of things that made me want to pull out my hair:

"But take my tip: never get in the queue for a woman immigration or Customs officer's desk. I would like to be more sisterly, but for some reason, they are much nastier than the men" (p. 74). Excuse me?

"I got a burglar alarm and paid a monthly fee to connect it to a monitoring station which would call the police if it went off. I would recommend a dog too of you have the time to maintain one, as well as metal grille-reinforcements to as many windows and doors as possible" (p. 83). There are probably millions of Australians that would beg to disagree.

"The barbie party is the Australian's safe route to nostalgia about life in the bush, brewing tea in a billy over a campfire. The same macho psychology pushes suburban Australians to wear cattle-driver 'cowboy' hats, display huge 'roo bars' on the front of the cars )for fending off kangaroos crossing the roads) or to purchase impressive four-wheel drive ('4WD') vehicles, meant for heavy bush-driving, when in fact they hardly ever go bush" (p. 162).

And Sharp seems to be able to expand her area of expertise as needed:

"Termites, or white ants as they are more commonly called in Australia, are a problem, but so are the chemicals used to spray against them. Spraying once may be necessary, particularly if your home is weatherboard and has wooden floors, as many of the older homes do. But do not listen to the pest-control companies who want to persuade you to treat your home every year - chemicals usually have an effective life of at least three or four years, and could be toxic if they leech into your garden soils, where you might have a vegetable patch (a 'vegie' patch as the Aussies call it), for example" (p. 164).

"There is enormous romance, of course, in a flickering log fire of a cold winter night. But you should consider what you are burning: Australia's native forests... are precious environmental resources, which should not really be allowed to go up in smoke" (p. 170).

As I said, facts are mixed with observation mixed with personal experiences mixed with speculation. This degrades from the "reference quality" of the book. However, there was a lot that I liked, and I was pleased to see that there is an updated version.

In this volume, the chapters are:

1. The Typical Australian
2. Speaking Strine
3. A Sense of Nation
4. Being A Migrant
5. Dreamtime Australia: The Aboriginals
6. The Leisure Ethic
7. Mateship and Machismo
8. You're On Your Own, Mate
9. The Great Australian Dream
10. Tucker
11. Earning A Crust
12. The Earth Mother
13. The Philistine Slander
14. D. I. Y. Australia

There's also a "cultural quiz" and a useful list of references for further reading. Newer editions, obviously, will have the newer references, such as Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country.

So... take many of the commentaries with a grain of salt from the tucker box, but this book does give a person a broader and deeper perspective on the culture of Australia than any travel guide.

This book does contain some interesting information on Australian culture, and on what makes Aussies tick. But I found the writing style to be particularly annoying; even painful. The Australia book available within the "Culture Smart" series, while offering less detail than this book, is far easier on the eyes and mind.

The author begs forgiveness in the beginning of the book for any slight she may cause to Australians as her information is drawn from Perth. I find it telling that the publishers would pay an author money to write a book about Australia when she has only experienced one small part of it.

Much of the "information" in this book was outdated by at least forty to fifty years. I'm so tired of reading that we speak in rhyming slang, as an Aussie the only time I've ever heard or seen it is from books like these or one or two very old movies.

Much of the book is wildly exaggerated, and contains factual errors ie Paul Keating was not a Premier, he was our Prime Minister. I found the book extremely patronising in places, "Australians are a child- like people..."

If you wish to mock Australians get this book, If you want an accurate guide to Australia try "How Australia Compares" by Rodney Tiffen & Ross Gittins.

I'm not done reading this purchase but the table of contents indicates that it will provide interesting coverage of the Australian culture. The parts I have read are informative.