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Category: Australia
What were the biggest highlights of Australia’s cultural history?
Ooh. That’s a tough one, and I’m going to want backup on this. The nationalist writers of the 1890s: Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Culturally defining figures. At the same time, the Heidelberg School of painters (back when Heidelberg was on the outskirts of Melbourne, instead of suburbia); just as strongly defining of Australia’s self-perception, […]
Australian Republic Movement Ad
How do you remind Australians on Australia Day that they should really be a republic after all? By getting them to sing the Australian Royal National Anthem in an ad. You know the one. ‘God save the Queen’: Royal anthem gets republican twist in new ad campaign https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RQ_M55Jhaw Good work, Australian Republican Movement. You didn’t […]
In England, we have a curious habit of cheering when someone (especially staff) drops a load of glasses or plates. Is this the norm in other countries?
In Australia, in pubs, we yell “Taxi!” The premise is that the glass or plate was dropped by someone drunk, who therefore will be needing a taxi, as they are in no state to drive themselves home. Answered 2017-04-17 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/In-England-we-have-a-curious-habit-of-cheering-when-someone-especially-staff-drops-a-load-of-glasses-or-plates-Is-this-the-norm-in-other-countries/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Why can’t European Australians speak another language other than English but the Asian and Aboriginal Australians can?
My experience to Duke Skibbington’s is so utterly different, I’m all… “are you sure you’re Greek?” But of course, he’s 3rd generation, and I’m 1.5th generation. (2nd generation, but spent childhood in Greece.) It is of course to do with assimilation, which is to do with the timespan your family has been in Australia, and […]
As an Australian, what makes you think and feel that you’re different from the British?
Benjamin R. Drakenbourg is right: Australians have a lot invested in thinking they are egalitarian and not-British, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t class in Australia. The sneering at bogans that has happened over the last two decades is nothing if not class. So is the abundance of hipsters in the inner suburbs. But Australians […]
What are some tips for living in Melbourne?
The sooner you pronounce the city name the way the locals do, the better. Not MELbin, but MALbin: Salary–celery Merger, a proudly Victorian peculiarity. (Whaddaya mean, New Zuhluhnduhrs do it too?) And never, ever pronounce that <r> in Melbourne. What do you think this is, Melbourne, Florida? Never say anything good about Sydney. It’s against […]
Are there any examples of a successful ethnic cleansing such that the race is extinct?
As others have said, this is a matter of definition. There are many older claims of such mass exterminations, but without the modern day efficiency of a Heydrich, it was hard to be as thorough as people would have liked, especially if you allow for intermarriage. This is a particularly sensitive issue in Australia, as […]
What about Vegemite is so appealing to the Australian palate?
As others have said—many of them not even from God’s Own Country (but certainly honorary Aussies, one and all): Vegemite is ace. I’ll add a couple of observations: There are certainly cultural predilections in what food you end up eating by default: what a culture happens to have come up with in cuisine determines what […]
What are some cultural faux pas in Australia?
Originally Answered: What are some major social faux pas to avoid when visiting Australia? Sitting in the back seat of a cab. I occasionally see Indian cab drivers unaware of the unspoken egalitarian norm here, hurrying to clear their crap from the front seat. But by default, if you sit in the back seat of […]
Why is Australia considered more Anglo-Celtic than the USA, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa?
The use of the term Anglo–Celtic in Australia has to do with the history of ethnic relations and the formation of the dominant identity in that country. For a very long time, the Irish and their descendants, identified through Catholicism, were a separate and somewhat disadvantaged identity in Australia. They had trouble accessing the highest […]