Intercultural Negotiations: Townsville, Austrailia

In many ways, Australian culture is similar to American - same language, very similar music tastes, food is very similar. Through these similarities, myself and other Americans and foreign students I know are able to use what Hybels calls "Nonassertive Assimilation" or the idea of finding similarities across culture in order to effectively connect with another culture as a whole (69). Personally, I have done this the easiest through enjoying similar music to the Australians I've met. Despite this, there are still distinct differences that can be noticed.

Although the language is the same, at times it feels like I speak a completely different language. A lot of time I'll be having a conversation and have to stop for a second to think about the meaning of the slang used before I respond. For example, a paintball event I was talking to one of the older students in my hall and he was telling me about how I needed to purchase a "cricket box" for the game. I was confused and it took us a bit to get on the same page about what it was. As it turns out, a cricket box is a term used for what we call a cup (piece of protective sportswear). argues that "the better the communication, the greater likelihood of success." (56). This is definitely true in the case I just mentioned. If the conversation I was having was in a more important or vital situation, the fact that we had to take so much time trying to understand the lingo of each other's english dialect made the communication effort unsuccessful.

In addition to the language difference, the way the residence halls are set up are completely different from what I'm used to. At JCU we have what they call "colleges" which are the equivalent to residence halls at Allegheny. However, there is a fair amount of pride and competition between the halls, and unlike Allegheny, students stay in the halls they choose for all of their years at JCU. There are sports teams for each college and chants that students say when they are competing against other colleges. When comparing the residence halls at JCU to the residence halls at Allegheny, the colleges at JCU are similar to fraternities in the US because of the pride, competition, and togetherness they form on campus.

Another big difference between the United States culture and the culture of Queensland is the beaches. In order to swim at the beaches in Queensland you need to stay within designated "Jelly nets" to separate the swimmers from the marine stingers. This is really important and when I walk up and down the beaches I see tons of signs saying don't swim outside of the nets and warnings about marine stingers. Also, as shown in the picture below, there are bottles of vinegar all over the beaches incase someone does get stung.

Hybels, Saundra and Richard Weaver II. "Intercultural Communication." Communicating Effectively. 10th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 54-77.