how long before a person is classed as qualified to make a judgment about australia

[Guest kazmatt]

hi just wondering what peoples thoughts are on when a person becomes valid to qualify to make a judgement about australia, is it o.k. after say 1 week, or maybe 1 year, if its a year then i dont qualify myself as i am six weeks short of it, maybe 2 years or maybe more than 5 years, just wondering what peoples feelings are on this????

[Guest kazmatt]

the idea is say a person arrives here and hates it after a couple of weeks, and says it is a horrible country, do they still qualify to make this statement or is there an amount of time a person becomes valid???????????

[Guest 0405delboy]

hi just wondering what peoples thoughts are on when a person becomes valid to qualify to make a judgement about australia, is it o.k. after say 1 week, or maybe 1 year, if its a year then i dont qualify myself as i am six weeks short of it, maybe 2 years or maybe more than 5 years, just wondering what peoples feelings are on this????

 

Hard to say but I remember being 9 years old and standing in the playground of my primary school, one lunchtime and thinking "Who are these people? What the f**k am I doing here?" and that was after a total of 2 years. :unsure:

 

If youve worked here, rented a house, socialised and / or had kids in school then youve lived here and are qualified to say................

[Guest proud2beaussie]

That's a big question,matt,I don't think one week would be fair really but a lot is going to depend on how much of the country the person sees in the time frame,if a tourist stays six months and sees four or five states and lots of towns,meets lots of people then I would say that they would have a pretty good idea of whether they like the place or not and I'd be ok with that,however in some respects,not all,if someone only stayed in one state and one town and didn't meet many people then I think that even after one year I'd be hesitant to accept what they say as gospel,obviously I think that anyone is entitled to make a judgement based on what they have seen but I think the more of a country you have experienced the more you are likely to have a balanced view of what you have done.

Overall I think I would say a year is fair,but in some cases it could be as little as 6 months,maybe even three months if you saw a lot of the country in a short period of time.

[PommyPaul]

I think everyone has their own opinion and experiences, the longer you've been here the more educated your opinion is.

 

But when it comes down to it, its the individuals "opinion" based on "their" experiences no matter how long they've been here people need to understand things will most likely not be the same as mr or misses x experience.

[Petals]

I don't think you can put a time limit on it but I do think that people who arrive and find such difference and then think, goodness what have I/we done then need to have a reason to leave and return so they hit out at Australia and all that belongs to it. Really all they need to do is think, made a mistake, loved my life in UK, miss my friends and family and go back. Even though I/us think people are talking about what we do they are not as they are too busy with their own lives to worry about me/us.

 

Cannot answer the poll could be one day.:laugh:

[Guest proud2beaussie]

BTW My post shouldn't be taken as me saying that I don't think someone who has only been here three weeks isn't entitled to an opinion,I don't mean that at all,I just think that the longer someone has been here and the more they have seen the better when it comes to talking about their experiences,

[Guest The Pom Queen]

This is a very tough question and I believe that for some people they can make their own decision as soon as they arrive. We cannot force these people to think any differently and they are entitled to have this opinion. Personally, I have been here 5 years and still do not feel qualified to make a judgement on behalf of others. I have soooo much still to learn about my new country and I learn something new everday. Although, I feel people should try and give it a year before trying to judge a country fully.

[Quoll]

That's a really hard question. There is, too, an inclination to double standard especially when folk post on this board. How often have you seen posts where someone who has driven in from the airport and declared the place to be Utopia being feted and praised for such a wonderfully positive post and yet someone else who may have been here a couple of weeks deciding it is one step up from Purgatory being slammed for not having had enough exposure to make such a judgement. We arent consistent in our responses to peoples' postings and do tend to afford different weights to the message being conveyed.

 

Personally I dont give two hoots - I do think that over time your perception can change as you see more and gather more information but equally I do believe in love at first sight (and the converse) and have been pretty spot on about some instant gut decisions I have made.

 

So, I dunno!

[Guest Deb62]

IMO its not how much you've travelled round Australia and how much you've seen, but whether you have stayed in one place long enough for it to be real life rather than a holiday and made friends with some Australians so you have begun to understand what it is to be Australian. We had a very different view of the coutry to my parents, for example. We emigrated with 2 young kids and were broke. We settled in 1 place and had very little opportunity to travel. My parents came over for 6 months a year, travelled all over and had some great experiences - as tourists. They did not identify as Australian, as I did, although their experience was much wider. I think the right to judge comes with commitment,

Deb

[Bod]

Coming from me who has critasised Australia some times very wrong and somtimes spot on.

I beleive. What we have all done or are about to do is a massive adjustment to our lifes. We will all go through a very emotional time and some of us will become very negative due to so many reason's. And when thinking with a negative mind I think it is very hard to pass judgment on a new life in a new country.

 

Needless to say too a half full 0r half empty Immigrant it's not rocket sience to notice that Aussies are the worst driver's. and that the TV is crap and Aussie rules possbly is the worst sport ever invented played by a bunch of mucho men with shorts up their arse.

 

Each to their own it's honestly down to you as a person if it works out or not. It's you who has to adapt not Australia.

 

John

[Bod]

Saying that when I hear people say you have to give it to years (someone said five years to me) Well thats a load of bollocks. You are the only one who no's if it's right for you or not.

All I would say is try and stick it as long as you can so that in years to come you won't regret not giving it longer due to a short memory.

[Guest boomerangpommie]

If you going through any sort of experience about it - positive or negative, in one day or in fifty years - then I think you are qualified, your experience is your experience and no-one can take that away from you. For eg, if you had a really miserable first month/year in Australia and then you started feeling different about it, does that mean that first bit of time was no longer miserable?

[Guest earlswood]

You can say what you think after being in the Country a day if you want to, who can stop you with free speech in a democratic Country.

[Guest kazmatt]

it is a hard question, i mean we moved here around 10-11 months ago, and for the first four months we loved it, i called this the honey moon period where we were still in the holiday mode, going to all the theme parks, we paid six months rent in advance so did not have to worry about that hassle, and then going out discovering the wildlife and new places to visit, but then reality set in and i could not settle into work, could not make friends, aussie life started grating on us and we found ourselves disliking it, eventually i found a job that i did not mind too much and started enjoying it again, but when we spent an aussie christmas here it started wearing us down again, i lost my job and now we are heading home, we have had ups and downs and was i right to make judgements only at the times we were enjoying it, or is it o.k. to slate it when you are hating it, someone can be here ten years and then start hating it, but it would not be fair to write off all they have stated over the last ten years and only listen to what they are saying now, so really i feel either there no set time or its fair to make the judgment from day 1.

[Guest boomerangpommie]

was i right to make judgements only at the times we were enjoying it, or is it o.k. to slate it when you are hating it, someone can be here ten years and then start hating it, but it would not be fair to write off all they have stated over the last ten years and only listen to what they are saying now, so really i feel either there no set time or its fair to make the judgment from day 1.

 

It's a tough one, isn't it? I was in Oz for 7 months and Christmas kind of put me into a downward spiral and I really started hating EVERYTHING about the place (even the sun, it was too bright) and came back, but to be fair I only felt like this for about 6 weeks out of the whole time there but made some major decisions during those 6 insanish sort of weeks. So once you start feeling a certain way about Australia, can you even make a balanced judgement? It's like when you don't like someone, you just can't see anything good about them.

[Guest donovan]

I knew as soon as I came to Australia on holiday that this was the place I wanted to live, just felt so right and that if one day we were lucky enough to be granted our visa we would be living in this lovely country. We have been here since August 07 and still love it. I also know people that have been to Australia and jumped straight back on a plane back to the UK, landed and said nope not for me, turned their container around and headed straight home.

 

 

Sarah x

[calNgary]

I think you can make a judgement from day one,after all you know what you like and dislike, remember the saying 'first impressions count'', if you have lived in or visited an area of course you can comment on what you found, no-one can stop you giving your point of view on places youve never been,because thats what it is 'a point of view'. Just be prepared for others to disagree as we are all differenT, because someone disagrees it doesn't necessarily mean your wrong, people see things in different ways.

With regards to this forum i think the ones who 'get stick' more are the ones who , arrive in (say)Brisbane, spend a few weeks/months in one suburb maybe visiting the Zoo or Surfers Paradise of a weekend and then when life does start getting tough,start with the all Australians are ,,,? or all of Oz is,,,? i guess im trying to say its not always what is said but more 'how it is said and the generalisations used.

Cal x

[Guest boomerangpommie]

I knew as soon as I came to Australia on holiday that this was the place I wanted to live, just felt so right and that if one day we were lucky enough to be granted our visa we would be living in this lovely country. We have been here since August 07 and still love it. I also know people that have been to Australia and jumped straight back on a plane back to the UK, landed and said nope not for me, turned their container around and headed straight home.

 

 

Sarah x

 

 

I first visited Australia in 2001 and driving to my sisiter-in-law's house from the airport and looking around and the glorious sunshine, I remember saying to my OH that I wanted to live there (I grew up in Southern Africa and what I'd already seen of Sydney struck a chord as it physically resembled the places of my childhood). We spent the next four years uhming and ahing and then after another visit in 2006, finally made the decision to proceed and got our visas in 2007 and moved in August that year. We should really still be there and are still trying to work out what really went wrong but in a way I'm glad we came back as I've had the chance to see that all that I thought I missed about the UK was nothing more than a romanticised memory and my family are all driving me insane again. In fact I have have such new eyes, that when I look at everything here, rightly or wrongly, I just can't find that much good here, it's so dirty and poor-looking (compared to Aus, not India, obviously) and the society here just seems to broken down and on its knees.

 

I am doing a course here to sort out my qualification which I had probs with in Aus which contributed to trouble finding work and subsequently the whole dilemma that I went into, so at least I'm doing something which will help, while we slowly save up our money to get us back. I know what the pitfalls are likely going to be next time we go, I also now know not to have fixed ideas about anything, I also realise I have to stick at it and persevere, I'm under no illusions that I won't get homesick and down again, but I know that I'm also likely to feel ok again, I need to go through the peaks and the troughs. And, finally, like the scouts, we need to be prepared - anything could be thrown at us there and we've just got to work through it all to finally achieve success.

[olly]

There have been many cases, over periods of many years since I remember, of Brits coming here and returning to the UK, in time frames between a weekend (one couple stayed the weekend, didn't like the food/vegetables/lettuce (what???) and returned on the first plane. Other people come and stay for a year, two years, five years, or ten years, and then return for whatever reason. I have seen and heard so many stories that I am not surprised with any of them anymore. My brother's wife came here in the 1960's and her family came from a small village, and some of them returned because they were homesick, pure and simple. They didn't dislike Oz, but just wanted home. Some of them returned again, one of them 3 times, in the meantime confusing the heck out of their child who was born here, taken back to the UK, ripped out of school again and brought back to Oz, then ripped away again at 10. She has since then settled in the UK, married and has family or her own, but still is 'partly Australian', but won't come back and do the same to her children as happened to her. I have seen it tear families apart, and not without reason.

 

For others it just seems to 'work' and they just fit it. But no one really knows how they are going to feel down the track - a week or a year into the experience. All people's experiences are valid, and no one should have to explain to anyone but themselves why Oz isn't for them or otherwise.

[Mongrel]

Its the village idiot ( or suburb idiot here0 . I think in my honest unworthy opinion , people come here ( ouselves included) and holiday mode sets in ,everything is new and fresh not alien . After a while you settle into everyday life and the things you perceived ere normal become alien . Food , beer ,way of life.People think because Australians speak English (well a form of) its going to be the UK with sun . It isnt , I complain here about the beer in jest because aussie real ale exists been to a few breweries , not uk beer but aussie real beer. Moan about chinese not ther same as made by john chung . I think Aus SE asian food is a bit more authenyic than uk chinky. Crime a lot of anti social **** is imported from uk and europe ,told by an ex u k copper in the wa force(not now i=unfortunately) . You cannot expect to emigrate umpteen thousand miles and expect a replica of your life in the uk. This post is NOT having a go at people who cannot find work but the lettuce and drivin brigade

 

 

Mally

 

ps I dont know about Lawnmower man world

[Guest]

I've said as soon as they arrive, to me 'judgement' is opinion and everyone is entitled to one. So long as it's qualified.

 

I've been here 4 months and I feel my opinions are valid and my experiences might even help people as will yours.

 

Jules

[Mongrel]

I've said as soon as they arrive, to me 'judgement' is opinion and everyone is entitled to one. So long as it's qualified.

 

I've been here 4 months and I feel my opinions are valid and my experiences might even help people as will yours.

 

Jules

 

So you are qualified to comment on the period (8 months you have not been here) no offence meant but debate , a lot of folk base their emigration on the weather and there dislike of it for want of better word . Until you have done a year long stay you cannot have an opinion (judgment ) of your stay . Personal experience 6 to 12 months you get the doubts , but you know youhave done the tight thing but its familiarity. It all depends on the age and circumstances on the person , some are young with families ,some are older without kids , some come minted others holdin ther own . All these perspectives add themselves to the mix

[olly]

I find it interesting the comments about the beer, we do drink mainly what is called lager in the UK I admit, but as has been pointed out there are other beers on the market, there are many boutique breweries putting out their beers on the market, and there are some damn good ones out there, I hardly drink lager these days at all.

I like the black ales, and if I don't drink them, I can go for plenty of other ones. I never touch Foster's, it is a furphy that Ozzies drink that only. Look in Dan Murphys Liquor, lots of choice.

[ali]

Are people passing judgment on Australia the Country or on their own experience, so many variables will influence your experience and your subsequent feelings ..e.g. being unable to get a job. Some peoples outlooks are such that they can see the faults of the country and still want to live here warts and all, because they are essentially happy. I think if you're talking about your own experience/feelings then they are valid from the outset.