{"id":106,"date":"2019-06-12T13:43:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/?p=106"},"modified":"2019-08-06T10:40:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T01:10:30","slug":"a-guide-to-communicating-successfully-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/2019\/06\/12\/a-guide-to-communicating-successfully-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"A guide to communicating successfully in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Studying and living in a new country requires personal social and cultural adjustments. Your diverse cultural background might be different from the typical Australian culture. Here are some guidelines to some common Australian practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verbal Communication<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Australians are generally open in their communication. Be confident in interacting with other speakers of English. Here are some tips to communicate with Aussies successfully.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Greeting others<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When greeting others in Australia you say \u2018<em>hello\u2019<\/em>, \u2018<em>hi<\/em>\u2019 or<em> \u2018how\u2019s it going?\u2019<\/em> in a very relaxed and informal way. Australians usually greet people by their first names.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Slang\/abbreviations<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may often find that Australians speak quickly and abbreviate or shorten words. For example, tutorial becomes tute and university becomes uni.<br \/>\nThe Australian accent and Australian slang is sometimes difficult to understand. If you are unsure of what is said, say \u2018<em>pardon<\/em>\u2019 or \u2018<em>sorry, I can\u2019t catch what you said<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yDb_WsAt_Z0\">video<\/a> which sums up Australians need to abbreviate <em>everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a list of <a href=\"http:\/\/nomadsworld.com\/articles\/australia\/aussie-slang\">125 Aussie slang words<\/a> if you\u2019re interested!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Requesting a service<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When requesting service, use polite expressions such as, \u2018<em>I would like to<\/em>\u2019 or \u2018C<em>ould I \/ May I<\/em> ?\u2019 instead of \u2018<em>I want<\/em> \u2019 <em>(\u2018I want\u2019<\/em> is considered rude and demanding).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-verbal communication (body language)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Non-verbal communication is often just as important as the words we say. Non-verbal communication involves body movements, posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, touch, appearance and physical distance. Try to adjust and adapt to some of the non-verbal communication skills in the multicultural Australian community. You can do this by using the SOFTEN technique.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>S<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Smile.<\/strong> Smiling creates a positive social atmosphere of reaching out and bonding.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>O<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Open stance.<\/strong> Maintaining open arms (i.e. not crossed against your chest) indicates openness and acceptance.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>F<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Forward lean.<\/strong> Leaning slightly forward during interactions indicates interest.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>T<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Touch.<\/strong> Touch is a type of communication that based on context. This means that different situations and people alter the meaning of the touch. A pat on the back can suggest encouragement in one scenario and a signal to get attention in another.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>E<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Eye contact.<\/strong> Making eye contact with the speaker in any face-to-face situation is essential.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>N<\/em><\/strong>: <strong>Nod. <\/strong>A nod demonstrates you are actively listening.<\/p>\n<p>Personal space is important. Maintain a reasonable social distance when interacting with others. An arm\u2019s length is reasonable on most occasions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Studying and living in a new country requires personal social and cultural adjustments. Your diverse cultural background might be different from the typical Australian culture. Here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1818,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-students"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}