​Immigrants Explain What Shocked Them Most About Australian Culture

Normal is an arbitrary concept. What's considered normal by one group of people might, to others, seem confusing or obscene. Take, for example, spinach leaves. Why do Australians (and only Australians) eat those things in such vast quantities? Or why do our traffic lights make that utterly unique machine gun noise to indicate you may now cross? And why is Molly Meldrum so famous? Is it because he has a hat? Because lots of people have hats.

The questions are endless. And if you're not someone who thinks a lot about the world beyond our borders, it's easy to develop a very narrow-minded idea of what's "normal" and what's not.

To better understand what's unusual about life in Australia to people who haven't been born and raised on our shores, we asked a few friends who emigrated here from various countries around the world about what shocked them most when they first arrived.

Before I arrived everything I knew about Australia was from drunk Aussies in hostels and from documentaries about poisonous animals. Then I got here—madly in love with my Australian boyfriend—and I realised that all the clichés were true.

Everyone looks like they're out of a Rip Curl catalogue. Everyone eats pies and fish'n'chips while wearing thongs and singlets. I got annoyed explaining on a daily basis that I'm not blonde because I'm not from Sweden. I also thought it was weird that most of my mid-20s friends still lived with their parents, so they could save for houses.

I didn't like being made to wear a bike helmet or that I wasn't allowed to drink in public. I hated high heels and the short skirts I had to buy so I wouldn't feel like a complete foreigner when going to a club. But I do love your Vegemite and your colourful fake money. I liked that my friend went to my goodbye party dressed as Hitler and that no one thought he was being racist or insensitive. And I love your open hearts and your curiosity, even though in the end you still always seem to be happy just being Australian.

I arrived in February of 2010 and I was 23 years old. The weirdest thing that I noticed straight away was how removed the Aboriginal people were. Like you'd only see Indigenous people way out in the suburbs. Never really in the city and if you did, there were very few. Like, the ratio to white Australians was insane. Growing up in New Zealand, we're all so immersed in Maori culture that you'd never think twice about the ratio of indigenous people to settlers. I found that weird and I still do.

I arrived in Australia when I was 18. I was originally from central China, and then I moved to Shanghai. My first impression was "there are a lot of obese people." Like really, really big. I didn't really know what was going on. I guess the standards are different, skinny back home means very skinny.

Another thing, here there are a lot more people getting drunk and doing drugs. In China, there aren't that many people going crazy because if you take a lot of drugs or sell drugs the penalty is higher.

My favourite thing about Australia is hipsters with skinny jeans, who love strong lattes—no sugar—and they study philosophy at Melbourne Uni. I love hipsters, I think they are a cultural symbol. They have a lot of good ideas, sometimes very experimental. They are my favourite thing about Australia.

I moved here in 2013, when I was 22 years old. I remember being shocked by the AFL. Do they seriously have to wear such short shorts? They are practically running around in undies. Don't take me wrong, I don't mind a bit of skin but they are so short. Then, on top of that, they all run through a homemade banner while some joyful theme song gets played way too loud. It's like something out of a weird high school musical.

I got here about two and a half years ago in early 2014. I was 32. I was surprised by how similar Australia is to the US. It's big, there's a lot of space, and everyone speaks English. But there are some key differences.

Number one: Australian politicians are basically reasonable. As in, NONE OF THEM ARE DONALD TRUMP. Then there's the bizarre national obsession with sport. Here in New South Wales, all anyone talks about is some kind of rugby, which just seems to be a bunch of huge, sweaty guys grunting and shoving each other around. I just don't get it.

That brings me to another thing: language. Australians seem to like to shorten certain words and make them cute. Football becomes "footy," barbecue becomes "barbie." A big fuck-off party in the middle of nowhere becomes a "bush doof," and very frightening dudes who ride motorcycles around are "bikies." And what the hell does "fair dinkum" mean, anyway?

I was 26 when I first arrived in Melbourne. On my way here I'd stopped in Sri Lanka and met an Australian girl there who told me about the magpies, and how they will attack you. When I arrived in Australia, I was amazed by how many types of birds there were because we don't really have that many in Germany. But I was kind of obsessed because I didn't know which one a magpie was. I remember going for a run and being terrified of all these beautiful birds. I thought they were going to be really bloodthirsty.

Everybody is very relaxed and nice in Australia, very friendly compared to European cities. All the fears and worries that are going on in Europe right now—refugees, terror, things like that—it's a very weird mood or feeling. People are aware of all that here but it's not really real. It's very far away. When I first got here it felt like this western paradise, it's sunny all the time, it's this paradise so far away from everything.

But there is one thing. Honestly, I really love coffee but I just can't take the obsession here seriously… people take it way too serious. It's not that serious.

I arrived in Australia in July 2005 when I was 13 years old. I was born in Japan but had moved to the UK as a kid. My first memory is probably looking out of the plane and feeling disappointed with the rain and lack of sun—it looked just like England! Pronunciations of things were weird though—doona vs duvet, capsicum vs pepper, yogurt vs yo-gurt. Oh and Vegemite, I only started loving Vegemite three years ago, on a drunken night out.

Generally, it felt like everyone was a lot more outgoing and easygoing here. I guess people are slightly more reserved in Japan. I'm not sure, I wouldn't say less polite necessarily, I think there's just such a big difference in cultures. It's hard to compare. For example, in Japan you always take your shoes off when entering a house. Some friends came round after school one day and just started walking around inside with their shoes on… It wouldn't be a big deal now but I honestly remember feeling so shocked.