Culture and Values in America and Australia
Introduction
America and Australia both nations highly value the individual freedom as a significant price. Due to this concept, Australia had been the allies of the American for years. Both countries appreciate the idea of the democracy that the government should be governed by the people and for the people. But there are certain differences in the culture, in the habit of eating, drinking, different manners of driving the vehicles, different sports ethics, and differences in the values of both nations. In the research paper, we will discuss certain differences in both of the nations’ culture and values.
Discussion
In the United States, people drive the car on the right side of the road, whereas the Australians, on the other hand, drives on the left side of the road. The steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car in both cultures as compared to one another. Due to this difference many persons may get confused when they visit the different country, e.g., when Australian visit America, they may face this problem. Regardless of this, there is a difference in the spelling of these two countries. American use the word ‘z’ instead of the word ‘s,’ while Australian use the word ‘s.’ for example American use organize, while Australian use organizes (Biddle, 215-232). There is a difference in writing the date in both countries as the American write the date as month/day/year, while the Australian write as day/month/year. Moreover, there is the difference in many words speeling like behavior instead of behavior and color instead of color, which make difficulty for many students residing in different countries for study.
Additionally, the cost of living and the exchange rate in Australia is very much high as compared to America. For example in Australia the prices of the gas are very much low. In Australia, they even call the gas as petrol. There is much more difference in the sports that are being played in both the countries. In American people often play the football, basketball, and the baseball, whereas, in Australia, people often play cricket and rugby. In America, the college sports are much important and more popular as they were broadcast live on the television, whereas, in Australia, the college sports are not that much popular as they are not often broadcast live. Moreover, the American call the university as “college,” however the Australian call it university or “uni.” Furthermore, the Americans swear the allegiance to the flag and the country, whereas, the Australian people swear the allegiance to the mateship, which most sacred for them instead of patriotism. In the American business, they view the labor as an economic means of production used for the achieving of the profit. While according to the Australian values they considered the labor as a fellow Australian who has the right to living the decent life instead of their economic bargaining power and contribution.
The cigarettes in the United States are much cheaper as compared to the Austraila, and the smoking is allowed in the bars and clubs. While in he America the smoking is not allowed in the public places like bars, beaches, and bars. Moreover, in America, people use the biscuit as a breakfast item, while Australian uses it as a sweet food. Unlike Americans, Australians culture of eating dinner is different, as one should need to hold the knife and fork in the hand. There is no putting the fork down, no cutting and no putting the fork back in hand, and also Australian often combine their food on the fork instead of eating separately as Americans do. Australian are much relaxed as compared to Americans who want the things to happen immediately (Stratton, 124-158). Rather Australian waits for things, like they wait for the buses without even complaining that it is late. Australian people have values like the things will be fine in the end. Whereas, the Americans people have the hurry for everything and will complain if the buses or even the food is late as they prefer that time is much important.
In America, the voting is considered as optional. It’s up to a person to either cast a vote or not, but in Australia, there is a strict rule for voting. Everyone who has the age of vote should need to cast a vote, otherwise, there will be fine on them. The Australian government wants everyone to get involved the process of selecting their candidates for the government. Moreover, there is a significant difference in the currency of both of the countries. The color of the currency notes in America is same, whereas in Australia every currency is of a different color. For example, 20$ currency have the red color, whereas the 50$ have the yellow color. Moreover, the coins in Australia increases in size with value, while in American, the size of coins are confusing as some smaller value coins have high size than the large value coins. In the American culture, there is no metric system, as they used the Fahrenheit instead of the Celsius, feet, and inches instead of the meters. Moreover, they use gallons instead of the liter and miles instead of kilometers. Additionally, in America, there are no electrical switches, whereas Australian have an electric switch in their houses.
Australian have a friendly and casual attitude as there one can find even call their professors by their name. In Australia, everyone is treated equally, and everyone is respected instead of their gender, sex, background, and occupation. Whereas Americans often treat persons differently, and they have certain discrimination towards different races of the society, as they considered themselves as superior and more civilized than others. In the Australian culture, the shopping hours are much limited as compared to the United States. In Australia, the shops open at 9 in the morning and get closed at 5 pm, however on Thursday and Friday nights shops remained open up to 9 pm.
While in the United States, the shops and malls remain opened even at nights as well. Moreover, the minimum wages in America is low as compared to the Australia, due to which it is customary to always tip in the American culture. Their people often tip the waiters and hairdressers. While in Australia the minimum wages are high due to which most of the people don’t give aa tip to the waiters and even to others like hairdressers. Moreover, there is a diiference in the tax system of both of the countries. As in Australia, the tax is being included in the price of an item due to which it become easier for determining the cost of that thing. Whereas, in America the price of the item doesnot include the tax on it, which makes it very confusing for determining the exact cost of any item.
Conclusion
Americans and Australian possess different cultures due to difference in their regional setting and in their historic background, which results in the alteration of their norms and values. There living style, there driving habbit, eating habbit, separate political prospective, elction procedure, variations in the Bussiness values and in the attitude, all are different due to their background and their regional setting.
Work Cited
Stratton, Jon, and Ien Ang. “Multicultural imagined communities: Cultural difference and national identity in Australia and the USA.” Continuum 8.2 (1994): 124-158.
Biddle, Nicholas, and Hannah Swee. “The relationship between wellbeing and Indigenous land, language and culture in Australia.” Australian Geographer 43.3 (2012): 215-232.
