Culture Shock - 7

My name is Payal Patel. I arrived in Australia last year from India. Melbourne is a beautiful city. During my first few days I saw more car than the peoples on the street. I get shocked when I saw boys and girls kissing each other in public. I saw girls wearing skirts that were too short. In addition to that girls and boys are having more than one relationship. In my culture is conservative and does not allow kissing in public. Also the girls and boys in India look for one relationship.

In my culture the teenagers live with their parents or familys even after marriage whereas in Australia young people leave their parents homes and live separately with their partners or spouses. In my culture there are lots of traditions that are based on religion or professions. In Australia people really don’t care about these issues.
Drinking and smoking are quite common in the Australian culture. In my culture drinking and smoking are prohibited but the people who follow the Western culture mainly do so in the cities. Also the people over there have more religious beliefs compared to the people in Australia. Australians visit churches may be once a year.
The food in my country is topped up with lots of different spices while here the local food does not contain many spices. Most Indians are vegetarians but in Australia many people eat meat.

Text by student Payal Patel