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CultureShock Australia ReviewAustralia 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.
Note: this review is based on the 1992 edition. There certainly are revisions and updates provided by author Ilsa Sharp, and the reader is encouraged to browse this newest edition. Sharp could only have improved the book's utility by making it more current, and (hopefully) by judicious editing of opinions.
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