She’ll be right! — How New Zealanders think
It was a few weeks before my 19th birthday, when a strong urge to travel overcame me and made me fly to the Land Down Under, far away on the other side of the world. There I was, completely by myself with my poor school English and only a vague idea about how to get along in this country. Looking back to this particular time today, I am still surprised about how quickly I found a job and moved in with a lovely Australian family, to look after their kids. It followed a whole year of working, traveling, moving around inside OZ, looking for work again, the gloomy day of visa expiry and leaving the country, flying to Vietnam and exploring its beauty, couchsurfing in Asia and engaging with locals… As I said, a strong urge to travel overcame me and hasn’t left me ever since.
It almost seems absurd to me that during all my traveling and living abroad I haven’t made it to New Zealand a single time! And I have to admit that there is no legit excuse for that. During my travels, I have met heaps of kiwis that used to live there and who told me countless facts about their unique and well-loved fatherland. What really struck me was the way they talked to me, with great excitement and fascination, their eyes sparkling like there was nothing more amazing than this gladly overlooked country called New Zealand. So, one thing I can say for sure: New Zealanders are damn proud of their country and are never ashamed of pointing this out to whomever they meet and talk to!
Also, I found, that they are generally extremely easy-going and laidback people. Compared to the widespread German rigor and social inhibition (don’t mind me saying this but that is indeed how Germans are perceived from several other cultures) Kiwis are very friendly, down-to-earth and relaxed fellas who don’t take things too seriously. A very unique specialty they have is also their laconic humour. Kiwis don’t really like to exaggerate or even offend others, that’s why they use simple and understated humour with the purpose to alleviate the situation or defuse conflict. While for example Germans or Dutchmen love to use irony and sarcasm and point out problems directly, New Zealanders prefer the opposite, sometimes, I believe, because they are afraid to hurt or offend their counterpart.
Strongly connected to this is of course their exceptional ‘no-worries-attitude’ that, so far, I could only find in Australia. “She’ll be alright” or “All good” are two phrases that just popped into my mind and that I would probably hear a dozen times a day when I used to chat with our maintenance man from NZ. By the way: I truly believe that this attitude has a very positive effect on human psyche that made me approach many problem-situations differently.
Another cultural characteristic that I noticed was their open-minded and welcoming attitude towards foreigners! I have to say that, coming from a small village in the east of Germany myself, where scepticism and the rejection of people with a foreign accent, look or behaviour (sadly) are very widespread, I was totally blown away by their positive opinion! Maybe, I figured, this is because the majority of New Zealanders or their ancestors were immigrants themselves and have their roots in different countries all over the world. According to Wikipedia the majority of New Zealand’s population is European descent (69%). The rest consists of the Indigenous Maori (14,6%), Asians (9,2%) and non-Maori Pacific Islanders (6,9%). From personal experience, I can only confirm that this land is a multinational and a multiethnic society. Whenever I told someone that I was from Germany, they started to get all excited about it and told me about their Scottish, Irish or even German great-grandfather who moved to New Zealand a long time ago.
The last thing I would like to mention is that Kiwis love traveling!
I’m not sure whether this is a common thing or whether it’s just the people I’ve met, but the best stories I was told by New Zealanders were stories about backpacking, camping or hiking around in their own country, but also in Australia or overseas. I once met this incredible, around 40-year-old couple from beautiful Queenstown on the South Island, who quit their jobs to explore the North-Island where they settled down for a new occupation. Or there was this even older couple from the tip of the South Island who simply went to Australia where they traveled around in their trailer, working for a cleaning company in Townsville, QLD and then managing a Caravan Park in Esperance, WA. When I asked them why they would leave their house, family and job for a low-standard life like that, they just responded saying: “We love New Zealand, it’s a beautiful country and hell ya, we miss it! But we also know that there are heaps more good places out there and we won’t see any of’em if we stay at home. Moving around in our trailer is the best thing to do for us and an awesome way of getting to know other people and other cultures. It’s an adventure and we love it!” I truly believe that independence and freedom means a lot to New Zealanders. And even though their own country offers them plenty of opportunities to fulfil their needs, they do like to look beyond the horizon and explore places that are located outside of New Zealand.
What I expect from this class is that I will learn more than the little things I already know about the country and its people. I’m pumped and excited to hear about the culture and cultural differences, the indigenous Maoris, the language, nature and its most beautiful spots, environment and so much more! So that one day, when I will finally make it to New Zealand, I will have a decent knowledge about the country and the people living there, that I could not find in any tourist information booklet.
