Views of Australia

One of the great things about writing articles about intercultural communication for Business Spotlight is that I get to meet some very interesting people. When I cover a topic that I am not a direct specialist on, I interview experts in the field.

This is the case with Australia, which features in the current issue of the magazine. I spoke to Lea Köhler, who wrote a book on working with Australians. Lea's book is published in the useful series on working with different countries edited by the retired Regensburg intercultural guru Professor Alexander Thomas. Business Spotlight Audio offers a different perspective, as I interviewed the Australian video journalist Erin McBean.

Talking to Lea and Erin made me think about where my image of Australia came from.  I remembered that I had nearly emigrated there as a child. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but what happened was that at school we were given a magazine with useful addresses for project work. My brother and I competed to see how many freebies we could get from the companies and organizations listed. One Saturday morning the doorbell rang at our house in London and to our surprise there was a man from the Australian immigration authorities following up my enquiry.

Later in life I remember enjoying lectures on Australian culture at Munich university; the Australian guest professor played with the stereotypes. He had a particularly striking pullover with a map of the country on one side and a kangaroo on the other. I’ll never forget his view that a major factor preventing economic growth on the continent is the fact that once people have reached a certain level of prosperity (a house, car and swimming pool) they stop wanting to get richer and opt for the easy life.

Then I remember spending a summer in graveyards in Devon in southwest England with an Australian friend who was trying to trace her ancestors. We came to the conclusion that they might have been deported to Australia for smuggling. When sightseeing in London, it was fascinating to compare our perspectives: what to her seemed old, was to me relatively new. But as she pointed out, Europe is about cities and Australia about landscapes.

I am also indebted to her for introducing me to Aboriginal dreamtime art, which opened my eyes to a completely new way of seeing the world.

I have still never made it to Australia, but talking to my interview partners certainly whets my appetite.