Australia… A Little America?

Having been in America for nearly a month now I have had time to see the cultural differences and similarities between Australia and America; in particular the southern culture of America.

In Short it could be argued that Australia is a smaller version of America. The dependence of private transport is the biggest similarity that I have noticed between the two; there are also some distinct contrasts when it comes to private vehicles. In the south it seems as if nine out of ten cars are big trucks or four wheel drives, whereas in Australia there is a distinct shift to move away from larger four wheel drives and family sedans to small economical and environmentally friendly cars.

The food is vastly different to Australian food; a typical Aussie BBQ consists of snags and steak and an outdoor barbecue.

The picture is from our Australia Day celebrations here @ Clemson, we went to 3 different stores to try find what is a real sausage but could only find hot dogs or Italian sausages. The biggest difference between the two cultures food is how greasy American food is and how many fast food places there are. Australia has fast food everywhere and in lower socio economic areas such as Salisbury they are far more frequent, but still do not equate to how many there are in the US almost every road front shop is a fast food outlet.

Another similar aspect of the two cultures is the love for sports. Growing up as a kid I can’t remember a time on the weekend or after school where I wasn’t with one of my friends or cousins playing some sort of sport. My experiences at Clemson so far have been the same. When it’s a sunny day all the outdoors sporting fields, basketball courts or grass areas have people on them playing sport. When its bad weather you go down to FIKE http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-recreation/facilities/ and all the courts are taken up with line-ups in some cases as much as half an hour; and of course there is the love for the Clemson Tigers.

Hunting in the south is a popular past time, it seems as if everyone down here has been hunting or fired a gun before even if just shooting at targets. I am lucky enough to be taking a lesson called Shotgun Sports where my roommate and I fired my first gun, the picture below is of my roommate in our second class . Even the fashion portrays the love for hunting in this region, numerous people on campus and in the surrounding towns I have been to wear camouflaged jackets and shirts.

Its funny how both Australia and the USA speak English but there are still language barriers between the two that you would associate with another language. There have been numerous times where I don’t understand people here and where they don’t understand me. Sometimes it’s when I use Aussie slang other times people can not understand my accent and visa versa.

This blog made me ask myself is Australia really a little version of America? In answer although there are many similarities with the Southern culture of America, the Australian culture is vastly different to the south. It could be argued that I have not experienced the main towns of the south such as Charlotte and Atlanta, until I do I cant say Australia is a little America.