Biggest Culture Shock?

FLOYD · #1 (**permalink**) 23rd July 2008, 04:40 PM

What was the biggest culture shock you experienced when first adjusting to australia?
The one thing where you said "I didn't expect it to be like this!"

kaz101 · #2 (**permalink**) 23rd July 2008, 08:19 PM

That's quite a tough question for me since I'm not sure whether some of the culture shock is due to moving to Australia or due to moving to a small city. I think a lot of small cities have the culture of it's more important who you know rather than what you know, but because I never lived in a small city (we'd call it a town in the UK) that I never experienced it myself.

I think we had been here so many times on holiday (about 4 times I think) that there weren't any really big surprises but sometimes it's the little things. for example in the UK most people didn't mow their lawn on a Sunday but here it seems to be quite common (partly because a lot of people work 5.5 days a week).

Oh one thing that did surprise me was that the cost of living wasn't as cheap as I thought it would be.

Regards,
Karen

Dolly · #3 (**permalink**) 23rd July 2008, 10:44 PM

Yep, I'd have to say the cost of living too. It's quite a bit more expensive than we'd thought. We came over a couple of years ago for a reccie trip and it was a lot cheaper then!

Can't really think of anything else as it isn't really that much different than the UK...only Australia has nicer weather

Dolly

PS just thought of a biggie....flippin awful internet service. Back in the UK we paid our monthly fee and we had 24/7 access to download what we wanted when we wanted with no caps - it's been a big learning curve for the boys

Tiffani · #4 (**permalink**) 23rd July 2008, 11:29 PM

more expensive, and not everywhere takes Visa!!! Also having to go inside the petrol station to pay LOL

TGM · #5 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 12:02 AM

Hard to answer this one as I came via NZ so didn't experience any culture shock at all here and have loved it from the start.

Relative to salary I find it cheaper here for most things (except cars and phone bills) than it was in NZ and I've been out of the UK too long to know how prices compare with there.

Byo · #6 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 08:15 AM

I agree with the comment about internet. Its really expensive here and you also need to know what you are talking about. I find the salemen at the car sales abit of a culture shock. ooooowww another biggy from me is how much the media likes to praise Aussie, they are best at everything and have the biggest and best of everything.!!! It ok but no where is perfect. I thought Oz would be like Africa, laid back but its not so much for me.

Tiffani · #7 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 08:43 AM

yeah the internet system here is ridiculous. I had no idea how many gigs we used per month to sign up for a connection! And my work email account only gives me 300mb of memory!!! I can get unlimited megs with Gmail!!! That's been a difficult adjustment.

anj1976 · #8 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiffani

yeah the internet system here is ridiculous. I had no idea how many gigs we used per month to sign up for a connection! And my work email account only gives me 300mb of memory!!! I can get unlimited megs with Gmail!!! That's been a difficult adjustment.

and how about internet connection price wise? How much would an unlimited download/upload connection would cost? Someone told me that the limited data transfer ones are way too cheap, much cheaper than the unlimited ones.

sim · #9 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anj1976

and how about internet connection price wise? How much would an unlimited download/upload connection would cost? Someone told me that the limited data transfer ones are way too cheap, much cheaper than the unlimited ones.

Now only are the unlimited ones not cheap, most operators do not give you the option of an unlimited connection to start with

I'm quite annoyed at that considering even the highest quotas are typically in the 50-60GB/month range which is quite insufficient for my usage.

Plus the plans are expensive. For example, a lousy 30GB/month plan sets you back $99 from Optus.

anj1976 · #10 (**permalink**) 24th July 2008, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sim

Now only are the unlimited ones not cheap, most operators do not give you the option of an unlimited connection to start with

I'm quite annoyed at that considering even the highest quotas are typically in the 50-60GB/month range which is quite insufficient for my usage.

Plus the plans are expensive. For example, a lousy 30GB/month plan sets you back $99 from Optus.

AAAAH, thats a lot.

, would you believe how much I pay for the unlimited connection that I have here.. Its 25A$, ok, the speed isnt great, its a 256 kbps connection which doubles up at night but still, I can download anything without worrying too much about the additional cost.