Opinion Corner: Australian Culture 101

Opinion Corner: Australian Culture 101

Reporter, South Australia Chinese Weekly:Joanne Phan

南澳時報記者潘在恩

 

As a young Australian, one thing is clear about Australia. We are a young and diverse nation and many different Australian all come from different cultures.

Since we are so diverse as an international student I can imagine you won’t ever meet a “typical” Australian but in fact encounter a range of different people with very different social customs, habits and perspectives on life, which could possibly be very different from your own.

Australia has a music scene, which is relatively young and is targeted towards the younger demographic. Most genres include rock, jazz, pop, dance/electronic, country, hip hop, classical and my personal favourite indie, which is very popular.

In Adelaide, you can listen to live mainstream artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga when they come on tour at the newly redeveloped Entertainment Centre. However, Adelaide also has the local music scene such as DJs and live bands in pubs and clubs all around the CBD.

Australia is extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity, with immigrants from a huge range of countries contributing to the cultural life and atmosphere in many different areas.

Australia has a vision of “fair go” for everyone and Australian are tolerant and accepting of people from other cultures.

Immigration been a huge factor for our country, particularly (and it is my favourite) food. In the past, Australian food was heavily influences by British food. The original settlers who came from the UK brought over with them food, which they had grown up with e.g. steaks, roast and still to this day when new immigrants come to Australia they bring their food, which they have grown up with.

In Adelaide almost any kind of food is available, if you know where to find it and as a result as Australians we have become more adventurous in terms of what we eat. We have choices between: Thai, Indian, Italian, French, Greek and Lebanese food, which are all available and extremely popular. I would recommend going on the website: http://www.urbanspoon.com/ and also download the iphone application.

This website and iphone application is a dream. Many times my boyfriend and myself have found ourselves wondering what to eat for dinner.

The conversation usually is along the lines of:

“I want something nearby”

“I want something cheap”

“I want Italian food”

With Urbanspoon, you can click on the particular settings you want and they will find you the most ideal restaurant.

Example:

If I’m looking for a cheap meal in the CBD, I can adjust those settings on Urbanspoon to find a list of restaurants.

Urbanspoon also can find you a restaurant if you have special request e.g. a restaurant which is gluten-free friendly, has free wi-fi, vegetarian friendly, a place with live music or romantic.

The wonders of the internet.

In terms of alcoholic drinks, Australia in a country of beer lovers and overtime people who are also wine lovers as well. Some of the most popular Australian beers include VB (Victoria Bitter), Tooheys and Carlton. Foster’s, while popular overseas, is not nearly as popular in Australia. However, personal I am a Heineken or Corona Beer drinker but yet again, the amazing thing about Australia culture; we can get along of fine imported beers and wines from all over the world.

Beer is heavily incorporated into our pub culture, which will be touched upon in next Wednesday’s edition.

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Reporter, South Australia Chinese Weekly:Joanne Phan

南澳時報記者潘在恩

作為一名年輕的澳洲人，我們看到澳洲有一點特徵非常明確。澳洲是一個年輕、多元化的國家，許多不同的澳洲人來自不同的文化背景。

由於澳洲的多元化，我能夠想像國際留學生可能永遠也無法遇到一個“典型的”澳洲人；實際上，你們會看到各種不同的社會風俗、習慣和對生活的觀點，這些可能與你自己的背景差異很大。

曾經有留學生表示說，很難融入澳洲文化。其實仔細觀察一下，不難發現身邊的種種細節。比如，音樂是許多年輕人都喜歡談論的話題。澳洲擁有豐富的音樂文化，並且這種文化相對年輕，而且主要針對年輕人群。主要的音樂風格包括搖滾、爵士、流行、舞蹈/電子、鄉村、嘻哈、經典等。筆者本人最喜歡的是獨立流行樂，這種音樂風格目前很流行。

年輕的留學生朋友們注意了，在阿德萊德，你可以嘗試一些主流藝人的音樂，如Katy Perry和Lady Gaga，兩人都計劃到新近重新裝修的娛樂中心開巡演。同時，阿德萊德也有一些本土的音樂活動，例如市區CBD的許多酒吧和俱樂部都會有DJ和樂隊表演。

在種族方面，澳洲也體現了一種多元化，從眾多不同的國家來到澳洲的移民們為澳洲的文化生活和許多方面的不同氛圍做出了貢獻。

 澳洲對每一個人都有一種“公平的”態度，這是一個包容性很強的國家，並且能夠接受來自其他文化背景的人群。

移民一直以來就是我們國家的一個重要因素，這一點特別體現在飲食上（當然這也是筆者最愛的一點）。歷史上，澳洲飲食主要受英國飲食習慣的影響。最初來到澳洲定居的移民主要來自英國，他們也帶來了自己已經習慣的飲食，如肉排和烤肉等。這種新移民將自身飲食習慣帶入澳洲的風俗一直沿襲至今，所以來到澳洲的新移民都會帶上自己早已習慣的飲食。

在阿德萊德，你幾乎可以找到任何類型的食物，前提是你知道去哪裡尋找。在飲食方面，澳洲人也變得越來越富有冒險精神了。看看身邊的餐館，我們可以很容易地發現：泰餐、印度餐、意大利餐、法國餐、希臘餐和黎巴嫩餐，這些不同的食物都可以隨時享用。筆者建議讀者​​們可以登錄http://www.urbanspoon.com網站或者也可以使用iphone智能電話獲取信息。

通過這個網站或者是手機瀏覽，你可以輕易解決吃飯的問題，同時也享用了美食。

瀏覽這些網站的美食追求者們往往會要求：

 “我希望可以不要太遠的”

 “我希望可以便宜一點的”

 “我希望可以試試意大利餐”

通過Urbanspoon網站，你可以點擊你所希望的特定設置，網站就能列出最符合你要求的餐館。

舉例說明： 如果我希望在CBD地區可以享用廉價的一餐，我可以調整Urbanspoon網站的要求，從而列出最終符合我要求的餐館。

Urbanspoon還可以根據你所提出的特殊要求列出符合條件的餐館，你可以要求不含麩質的餐館、要求可以上網的餐館、要求提供素餐、或者有樂隊演奏的浪漫的餐館。

如果你鍾意飲酒，澳洲可以成為你的天堂。澳洲是一個充滿啤酒愛好者的過度，隨著時間的推移，越來越多的人也愛上了紅葡萄酒。澳洲最受歡迎的啤酒品牌包括VB（Victoria Bitter）、Tooheys和Carlton。在海外廣受歡迎的Foster品牌似乎在澳洲沒有受到同樣的熱捧。筆者個人比較喜愛Heineken和Corona啤酒，但是在這裡不得不再次提及澳洲多元文化的美妙之處，就是我們仍然可以享用來自世界各地的進口啤酒和紅葡萄酒。

啤酒已經深深融入了澳洲酒吧文化，筆者將為你介紹更多相關的內容。