Displaced? Or Are Australians Unfriendly?
I met a potential new friend on Sunday. Her husband is in the same baseball team as mine and she has a son also. We got on really well - she is originally from Cronulla but has been living in the States for years so has an accent. Her husband is Californian.She expressed dissatisfaction with some elements of life in Qld. I had to agree in some respects. She described feeling alienated by some of the locals on the basis of accent and experience and was finding some things hard to adjust to. I have heard exactly the same issues from two other friends - one a New Yorker living in Sydney and the other a Canadian living near me.
When we first moved to Qld I found it hard to get into the local groove - everything seemed to happen far more slowly than in Sydney (not that this is always a bad thing) and people seemed to be less inclined to travel overseas or to other parts of the country.
Australians like to pride themselves on being friendly and outgoing. I have heard many people describe us as other. Maybe this attitude is not as prevalent in bigger cities. Brisbane is after all quite small compared with Sydney and Melbourne and the cultural diversity is a lot less. I have found two interesting things about Qld:
1. There is a greater tendency to villify peopel on the basis of nationality
2. Despite this tendency and a reputation as "redneckish", there is a greater acceptance and integration with the indigenous community and Pacific Islanders.
I also notice a lot more negro persons in Brisbane than I ever saw in Sydney.
In terms of adjustment, I think Qld is lagging behind in its quality of service in shops and restaurants and attitude generally.
McDonalds is not fast food - it's sometime later today food. Waitresses in cafes will happily serve two meals on the one plate, negate to refill glasses, forget orders, over charge and generally take their time about attending to you at all. Employers take weeks and months to respond to job applications and delivery drivers turn up when it suits them. It's like people here are operating on a differnt time zone. Maybe this means less stress in the long run. In the short term though it just cheeses me off.
posted by Fiona McNally @ 10/25/2005 07:25:00 am
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