AU Hing Tsz, Berry

Student of City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Exchange to Murdoch University, Australia

When I was planning to go on exchange to Australia, I started to prepare myself by polishing up my English skills. However, during my first week in Australia, I came to know that even though Australians speak English, the pronunciations between Hong Kong people and Australians are quite different. Especially during the orientation week, I needed to listen very hard to what was said in the information sessions. I could not catch some important information like visa requirements, building locations in the university and the opening hours of facilities that I had to check them out on the school’s web site afterwards.

In terms of cultural differences, in Australia, like other western countries, people enjoy drinking and clubbing very much. They hold parties in bars or their own apartments for drinking and dancing to upbeat music. However, I was not used to the drinking culture and noisy environment. Also, it seems that most Asian people are quieter. In a party, western people can play and talk with each other easily even though they do not know each other well. However, most Asian people are less talkative. It may be the cultural difference between Hong Kong and other places. Hong Kong people are not trained to be sociable in social events.

The second cultural difference between Hong Kong and Australia is that Australians are so active and they like sport a lot. Despite students in Australia need to study and work part time, they still spend time on exercising. In Hong Kong, less people exercise regularly even though they have time. They may prefer reading books, doing assignment or going shopping with friends. In comparison, Australian people exercise regularly. They like surfing, footy and Australian football. This might be due to the large amount of land and facilities available for sports in Australia and Australian schools encourage students to exercise.

In order to deal with the language challenges and cultural differences between Hong Kong and Australia, I opened up myself to talk to as many people as I could. I searched for information about Australia’s tourist attractions and talked with local people. I asked them how to go there, what I must do there and why the place is so famous. Therefore, I developed some new opportunities as well as interesting topics to discuss with local people in Australia.

I also joined the mentoring programme organized by my host university, which held regular meetings between mentors and mentees. I had more opportunities to spend time with local Aussie people and talk with them regularly. When I had any difficulties, I could ask them for help. They were also very kind that they spent time to talk to me and show me around the campus.

Besides taking part in the mentoring programme, I joined different workshops every week which were organized by my host university. I took Study Skills Plus which taught me how to avoid plagiarism, as well as Academic Writing Skills, Time Management and English Communication Skills. Through the workshops, I had a better understanding of the academic criteria and requirements of my host university and became more confident to live in Australia by myself.

On the other hand, I went surfing with other exchange students to try out water sports and experience the exercising culture in Australia. I had so much fun and the nice weather in Australia made me more willing to exercise.

In order to explore the footy and Australian football culture, I joined some football classes which were organized by the sports centre of my host university. During the classes, I learnt some basic rules of the sports and had fun in playing football with other students.

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