Ich liebe Deutschland! Certainly, I miss home. However, I am loving this country and seeing a little more of Deutschland over the weekend (specifically the Schwarzwald und München) I love it even more! Getting back to class on Monday was difficult after a really late return from München, although class was really involved and fun. It was funny though, as Anne (unsere deutsche Lehrerin), was explaining something Germanic, and compared it to the Australian way of doing it, she had entered another conversation of the stereotypical Australian. The typisch Australian is seen to be blonde haired with tanned skin and a good body (‘sexy’ being her word). I guess what I may call a stereotypical surfer. As the conversation progressed, I came to think more about the Australian Identity and how it compared to the identity portrayed through European eyes.
We are categorised in a way which I guess I can see how this stereotype has come about, through having excellent beaches (although not everywhere in Australia), really warm summers and ridiculous amounts of dry, red-dirt deserts. However, the blonde part of the stereotype ist sehr ungewöhnlich, aber it seems just like the German stereotype of blonde-hair, blue eyes. Obviously the German majority is not just blonde-haired and blue eyed, however it is the stereotype which many Ausländer hold, and this hold true about this Australian stereotype. Even so, I am not too certain this should be the Australian identity. Thinking about all the Australians who are attending this course, only very few are blonde haired and really tanned, majority are brunette and pale-skinned. Another thing, Australia has apparently reached the top of the list for being the country with the largest obesity rate in the world, so much for the ‘’sexy’’ physic stereotype!
The funny thing is, my assumption of the Australian identity previous to this conversation was the same, despite the fact that I knew it did not fit. But after really thinking it through this stereotype does not fit, just as I have been realising how the deutsch stereotypes are proving very wrong (except for der deutschen Effizienz!)
Haha, it is interesting that Australians are given that stereotype, especially when the obesity rate is so high. We're also perceived as a sporty nation but I think the majority of people in our class said that we don't really play a lot of sports. It is interesting to think about the difference between stereotypes and the actual culture in Germany and Australia, especially when they don't seem to fit.
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