20 Things that culturally define Australia

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Courtesy of a heads-up by Paull Young on Facebook comes 20 Things that culturally define Australia.

Whilst the author has obviously catered to his North American audience (as witnessed by the use of ‘cookies’ and ‘ass’ and US-centric spelling, for example), the site still has a number of fantastic videos which go a long way to explaining what we Australians are all about.

Larrikinism
Larrikinism is something that has shaped our culture over the years, and it is something that Americans seem to have a little difficulty understanding. Because of our laid back attitude, we seem to find amusement in some misbehavior from time to time. Think humorous smart ass remarks, pranks, and typical “naughty boy” behavior. Because of this, some Americans find the Aussie sense of humor a little “too much” - but it’s part of our humor, and exemplified by many of our national heroes and celebrities.

ANZAC Day
Speaking of wartime, Australians have a very different view of military than Americans do. In America, great national and patriotic pride is placed in their troops; in a very visual sense. American flags, slogans of “support our troops“, and so on. Australians also have this great pride in our troops, but it is less visual, and more of a sobering reflection. This culminates in a national holiday called ANZAC Day, a veterans day that gets its name from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. Made up of soldiers nicknamed Diggers, the ANZACs fought in World War I; and were on the front of Gallipoli; a battle during the war that had a profound effect on the shaping of our culture. It was a brutal and bloody campaign, with many major losses of young men on both sides. Yes, we have pride in our troops; but it remains within the range of reflection upon those who lost their lives in battle - and with great respect to those who survived and came home. As written in 1914 by Laurence Binyon in his poem FOR THE FALLEN:

A fantastic collection of videos, still images and textual content that gives you a small insight into us.

If you’d like to know more, please forward your Business Class airfare tickets for myself and Mrs BetterComms to:

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Tagged as: clippings, humour