[00:00.00]Lesson 48 The New Australians
[00:-1.00]We interviewed some people who have emigrated to Australia and asked:
[00:-2.00]Is it all kangaroos and surfing?
[00:-3.00]Martin:"I must admit that before I came here,
[00:-4.00]I thought that Australia would be a rather dull place,you know,
[00:-5.00]all beach barbecues and surfing but no real culture.
[00:-6.00]I was surprised when I came to work at Systralia University.
[00:-7.00]There's a really lively cultural scene here.
[00:-8.00]Australia has produced some outstanding painters like Sidney Nolan
[00:-9.00]and world -class writers like Patrick White and Peter Carey.
[00:10.00]The film industry is pretty dynamic,too.
[00:11.00]As well as famous actors like Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman,
[00:12.00]there are some innovative film directors such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford.
[00:13.00]If you're looking for something to do at night in Sydney,
[00:14.00]you'll find a wide choice of opera,classical concerts,Shakespearean drama,
[00:15.00]Aboriginal culture,rock concerts,Broadway musicals,comedy,
[00:16.00]and cabaret-you're spoilt for choice,really,
[00:17.00]Of course,things are more limited if you live in a small town."
[00:18.00]George:"Well,you won't see many kangaroos in Melbourne,
[00:19.00]except maybe on the menu in a restaurant!
[00:20.00]They're great,really tasty,by the way!
[00:21.00]But it's true,most Australians live on the coast.
[00:22.00]We're a beach culture,I suppose,and yes,surfing is popular.
[00:23.00]Almost everybody lives in the big cities on the coast
[00:24.00]because most of the country inland is desert and farmland.
[00:25.00]Farming is mainly sheep farming.
[00:26.00]Somebody once told me there were seven sheep for every Australian-
[00:27.00]that's a lot of sheep!Mining is also big here.
[00:28.00]we're the world's biggest Greece in the 1980s- in fact,
[00:29.00]Melourne has one of the largest Greek communities outside Athens!
[00:30.00]One of the things we found hard t handle at first in Australia
[00:31.00]was the feeling of being isolated.
[00:32.00]Austraia is a long way from Europe!
[00:33.00]Flights take about twenty-four hours and they're not cheap either"
[00:34.00]Julie:"Sure,surfing is part of the beach scene,
[00:35.00]but it's not the main leisure sport.
[00:36.00]Because the weather's so good,we're an outdoor people.
[00:37.00]Bushwalking,fishing,horse riding,tennis,golf and sailing are all popular.
[00:38.00]We take sport very seriously and we've produced great cricket and rugby teams,
[00:39.00]Olympic swimmers and top cyclists.We're proud of our country.
[00:40.00]There are loads of really spectacular placees to see in Australia.
[00:41.00]The Great Barier Reef is the biggest structure on Earth made by living things.
[00:42.00]Then there's the outback.
[00:43.00]That's the desert and semi-desert area in the middle of the country.
[00:44.00]It's a great place for trekking,or what we call bushwalking,
[00:45.00]and you can see some amazing animals-koalas,emus,platypuses,echidnas,
[00:46.00]possums,dingos -and kangaroos,of course!
[00:47.00]One of the mst interesting places to visit is Uluru,
[00:48.00]which we used to call Ayers Rock.
[00:49.00]It's really impressive at sunrise when the red rock changes colour,
[00:50.00]By the way,if you travel in Australia by car,take care on the roads.
[00:51.00]Most of them are in pretty poor condition
[00:52.00]and then there are the road trains-huge trucks with two or three trailers.
[00:53.00]And look out for snakes and spiders-
[00:54.00]Australia has the most poisonous collection in the whole world!"
[00:55.00]Fiona:"There's definitely much more to Australia than kangaroos and surfing!
[00:56.00]When we came to Australia from Scoatland,over ten years ago.
[00:57.00]we soon realised that Australian culture is a marvellous mixture
[00:58.00]of many different cultures.
[00:59.00]Apart from the early Anglo-Irish settlers,
[-1:00.00]since 1945 the population has become more cosmoolitan,
[-1:-1.00]with immigrants from Italy,Greece,Yugoslavia,Turkey,Thailand,Vietnam and Cambodia.
[-1:-2.00]You can see all these influences in modern Australian cooking.
[-1:-3.00]We call it "fusion food"-
[-1:-4.00]a brilliant mixture of delicious Mediterranean flavours,
[-1:-5.00]Southeast Asian spices and native Australia though.
[-1:-6.00]That's the way the native Australians,the Aborigines,have been treated.
[-1:-7.00]They now make up less than 1.% of the population.
[-1:-8.00]The new Australians took all their land and left them with virturally nothing.
[-1:-9.00]Most Aborigines live in deplorable conditions,
[-1:10.00]while the rest of us are quite well-off.And they seem to be invisible.
[-1:11.00]For example,you never see Aborigines in TV adverts.
[-1:12.00]The "typical Australian is always blonde and blue-eyed.
[-1:13.00]I think that's unfair.
[-1:14.00]The goverment is trying to improve things,but it seems a bit late.
[00:-1.00]We interviewed some people who have emigrated to Australia and asked:
[00:-2.00]Is it all kangaroos and surfing?
[00:-3.00]Martin:"I must admit that before I came here,
[00:-4.00]I thought that Australia would be a rather dull place,you know,
[00:-5.00]all beach barbecues and surfing but no real culture.
[00:-6.00]I was surprised when I came to work at Systralia University.
[00:-7.00]There's a really lively cultural scene here.
[00:-8.00]Australia has produced some outstanding painters like Sidney Nolan
[00:-9.00]and world -class writers like Patrick White and Peter Carey.
[00:10.00]The film industry is pretty dynamic,too.
[00:11.00]As well as famous actors like Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman,
[00:12.00]there are some innovative film directors such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford.
[00:13.00]If you're looking for something to do at night in Sydney,
[00:14.00]you'll find a wide choice of opera,classical concerts,Shakespearean drama,
[00:15.00]Aboriginal culture,rock concerts,Broadway musicals,comedy,
[00:16.00]and cabaret-you're spoilt for choice,really,
[00:17.00]Of course,things are more limited if you live in a small town."
[00:18.00]George:"Well,you won't see many kangaroos in Melbourne,
[00:19.00]except maybe on the menu in a restaurant!
[00:20.00]They're great,really tasty,by the way!
[00:21.00]But it's true,most Australians live on the coast.
[00:22.00]We're a beach culture,I suppose,and yes,surfing is popular.
[00:23.00]Almost everybody lives in the big cities on the coast
[00:24.00]because most of the country inland is desert and farmland.
[00:25.00]Farming is mainly sheep farming.
[00:26.00]Somebody once told me there were seven sheep for every Australian-
[00:27.00]that's a lot of sheep!Mining is also big here.
[00:28.00]we're the world's biggest Greece in the 1980s- in fact,
[00:29.00]Melourne has one of the largest Greek communities outside Athens!
[00:30.00]One of the things we found hard t handle at first in Australia
[00:31.00]was the feeling of being isolated.
[00:32.00]Austraia is a long way from Europe!
[00:33.00]Flights take about twenty-four hours and they're not cheap either"
[00:34.00]Julie:"Sure,surfing is part of the beach scene,
[00:35.00]but it's not the main leisure sport.
[00:36.00]Because the weather's so good,we're an outdoor people.
[00:37.00]Bushwalking,fishing,horse riding,tennis,golf and sailing are all popular.
[00:38.00]We take sport very seriously and we've produced great cricket and rugby teams,
[00:39.00]Olympic swimmers and top cyclists.We're proud of our country.
[00:40.00]There are loads of really spectacular placees to see in Australia.
[00:41.00]The Great Barier Reef is the biggest structure on Earth made by living things.
[00:42.00]Then there's the outback.
[00:43.00]That's the desert and semi-desert area in the middle of the country.
[00:44.00]It's a great place for trekking,or what we call bushwalking,
[00:45.00]and you can see some amazing animals-koalas,emus,platypuses,echidnas,
[00:46.00]possums,dingos -and kangaroos,of course!
[00:47.00]One of the mst interesting places to visit is Uluru,
[00:48.00]which we used to call Ayers Rock.
[00:49.00]It's really impressive at sunrise when the red rock changes colour,
[00:50.00]By the way,if you travel in Australia by car,take care on the roads.
[00:51.00]Most of them are in pretty poor condition
[00:52.00]and then there are the road trains-huge trucks with two or three trailers.
[00:53.00]And look out for snakes and spiders-
[00:54.00]Australia has the most poisonous collection in the whole world!"
[00:55.00]Fiona:"There's definitely much more to Australia than kangaroos and surfing!
[00:56.00]When we came to Australia from Scoatland,over ten years ago.
[00:57.00]we soon realised that Australian culture is a marvellous mixture
[00:58.00]of many different cultures.
[00:59.00]Apart from the early Anglo-Irish settlers,
[-1:00.00]since 1945 the population has become more cosmoolitan,
[-1:-1.00]with immigrants from Italy,Greece,Yugoslavia,Turkey,Thailand,Vietnam and Cambodia.
[-1:-2.00]You can see all these influences in modern Australian cooking.
[-1:-3.00]We call it "fusion food"-
[-1:-4.00]a brilliant mixture of delicious Mediterranean flavours,
[-1:-5.00]Southeast Asian spices and native Australia though.
[-1:-6.00]That's the way the native Australians,the Aborigines,have been treated.
[-1:-7.00]They now make up less than 1.% of the population.
[-1:-8.00]The new Australians took all their land and left them with virturally nothing.
[-1:-9.00]Most Aborigines live in deplorable conditions,
[-1:10.00]while the rest of us are quite well-off.And they seem to be invisible.
[-1:11.00]For example,you never see Aborigines in TV adverts.
[-1:12.00]The "typical Australian is always blonde and blue-eyed.
[-1:13.00]I think that's unfair.
[-1:14.00]The goverment is trying to improve things,but it seems a bit late.
