England or Australia??

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Australia has a drinking culture, but I'm pretty sure there are countries that drink more. We tend to binge drink more here. The problem here is that alcohol is expensive compared with Europe also.

Oooh yes, it is. In the average bar I pay >$10 for one of my favourite whiskies which in my favourite pub in Scotland is £3.

Where/what are you studying?

ANU, Psychology with a couple of modules in Politics and IR.

Yeh you see spiders around (I had lost of funnel webs living outside my room), but you don't worry too much. I don't like snakes, but I don't tend to see many of them.

For the OP: the Funnel Webs tend to stay in their holes though, only when it's humid enough the males leave their holes in search for females and occasionally stray into homes. Just don't stick your fingers under trash/piles of logs in gardens etc.

Reply 21

butterfly1305

I have never been to Oz and cannot comment on their education system...

I am from the UK and currently in my final year of university in Manchester.The education system here is good and the qualification is often well recognised around the world. If you can get into Oxford, Cambridge or a Russell group university even better- teaching facilities to rival many.

The student life here is great...if you're into studying hard and partying just as hard the UK is for you!The weather can be a bit ****ty and cold though:/

If you`re worried about race, please don't be! Britain is quite a multi-cultural society and to most uni`s have ACS- Afro-Caribbean Societies you can join to help you settle in.

Reply 22

member841230

Original post by Pessimisterious

Australia is vastly richer and is more pleasant to live just because of the good weather.

I think Australia is much more overtly racist than the UK. Much more. I saw more than one car with 'f*** off, we're full' written on bumper stickers, and one time when I finished work, a guy started singing 'spot the Aussie', because most of the employees were immigrants. In 25 years I've never seen a thing like that in the UK.

On the whole though I'd say the average Australian is more laid back and generally friendlier than a British person.

Australia lacks depth of culture. It's all just beer, barbecues, cars, shopping and new developments. I guess that's fine, but it all feels very 'consumer' after a while. The UK has far more history and wayyyy better architecture.

Aside from my previous 'racism' comment, the mix of nationalities in Australia is actually amazing. It was one of my favourite aspects.

I personally would choose to study in Australia, but that's because I'm from the UK and I'd love to get out of this place. Sometimes I think I'll try to get over to Oz permanently after I graduate.

That's my input.

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Australia has its problems (I agree with you on the relative lack of culture and inferior architecture) but racism is not one of them. It's totally unfair to judge a country as a whole on a couple of isolated incidents. Frankly it sounds like you've been spending too much time in mining towns or rural Queensland/WA. These places and people are not representative of broader society. Political parties that thrive in the UK (UKIP and the BNP to a lesser extent) would never achieve the same success in Australia. Similarly Australia has no equivalent of Britain's ethnic ghettos, or its quietly racist press (Sun, Daily Mail, etc).

Just noticed you said 'overtly' racist. Maybe this is the key. Those few Australians who are racist don't hide it. Rest assured though, they don't reflect mainstream public opinion.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 23

member841230

Ugh, so many stereotypes here. According to the World Health Organisation people in the UK drink more than Australians (13.4 litres of pure alcohol per year vs 10 litres). You can check out the reports here: http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/profiles/aus.pdf; and
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/profiles/gbr.pdf.

I hate to be nitpicky, but alcohol consumption seems to be one of the OP's main concerns.

Reply 24

Sir Fox

Original post by member841230

These statistics don't really need to bother the OP. She is most likely concerned with the drinking behaviour of her future fellow students and her age group, not middle aged lumberjacks or whoever else. And from my experience, British people and Ozzies are in for a draw, except for that the British prefer their beer and Ozzies, due to the high prices for beer and spirits, mostly resort to Goon.

Reply 25

Silkysam

Original post by Sir Fox

Wahahaaait a second :biggrin:

I'm a German (country with high alcohol consumption), usually living in Scotland, now living in Australia, and I can tell you: Australians drink. A lot.

Well the statistics say otherwise. Also I have a few German friends at uni and they drink nothing compared to the UK students.

Reply 26

magnetite

Original post by Silkysam

Well the statistics say otherwise. Also I have a few German friends at uni and they drink nothing compared to the UK students.

Im not sure if its even worth discussing this point? You can drink a lot or a little at australian unis (im sure its the same in the UK). It depends on the crowd you are with...

Reply 27

Silkysam

Original post by magnetite

Im not sure if its even worth discussing this point? You can drink a lot or a little at australian unis (im sure its the same in the UK). It depends on the crowd you are with...

I wasn't discussing, I was just pointing out the OP's misconception. It could therefore be inferred that the OP should do a bit more research instead of just going on random things she may have heard.

Reply 28

Sir Fox

Original post by Silkysam

Well the statistics say otherwise.

Do they?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

My point stands.

Reply 29

Silkysam

Original post by Sir Fox

Do they?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

My point stands.

Yes the UK is clearly higher than both Germany and Australia in that table.

Reply 30

Sir Fox

Original post by Silkysam

Yes the UK is clearly higher than both Germany and Australia in that table.

I don't think you inspected the table close enough. Total consumption in the UK is 13.37l of pure alcohol per person per year, 12.81l in Germany. That's a tiny difference. In Australia it's 10.02, lower, but still in the same class.

And again: this statistic does not mean much to the OP. The US have 'only' 9.44l, but everyone knows what happens in college. In Western countries overall alcohol consumption does not necessarily say anything about the student population.

From my experience, UK undergrads and Oz undergrads have very similar drinking behaviours.

Reply 31

Silkysam

Original post by Sir Fox

If you look at my earlier post I explained why I stated what I did. I didn't make any judgement, I was just implying the OP should maybe look into it more.

Reply 32

Origami Bullets

Original post by cyndie143

This question has probably been asked allot and people might be tired of answering it but I need help. I'm a 19 year old BLACK female student from SOUTH AFRICA. I've been weighing my options and looking at different places to that are best to study civil engineering. And so far England and Australia have captured my attention but between the two I don't know which one I should go to. I've heard that most people in england are cold and unfriendly and the weather is rather unpleasant (I don't mind the weather though). And Australia nothing bad besides that people drink too much and that there are different species of spiders that are there (I personally hate spiders). But besides that I'm a friendly person and I like interacting with people. I'm talkative and I'd like some advice from people that have had some personal experiences whether being isolated to meeting friendly people in both countries. Ahmm yeah any comment would really help allot oh and thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this :smile:

I live and study in the UK, and I spent 6 months travelling and working in Australia, so, on the issues you've mentioned

- race: Australians like to think of themselves as multicultural, but when you get down to attitudes towards Aboriginals things start to get a bit less nice, to put it mildly. They're widely discriminated against in many areas, are stereotyped (often as drunkards) and are generally marginalised. Though there are some differences in appearance, don't be surprised if some people mistake you for an Aboriginal. I'm not going to say that the UK is some kind of non-racist haven, but I think that it is better for black people. For the most part, Muslims are the focus of ire for our resident racists, and so black people aren't on the receiving end of overt racism to quite the same extent. But I don't think that race is as big an issue in either country as it is in SA, given the legacy of apartheid.

- people in England are cold and unfriendly: it's a bit of an unfair stereotype. We're pretty nice when you get to know us, but there is less of a tradition of hospitality towards strangers as there is in some European and Asian countries. You'll make friends though - you've just got to make an effort to talk to British students, accept social invitations and generally join in. Plus, given the large British population in Australia, I don't think the culture with regards to strangers is noticeably different. But as you say you're friendly and enjoy interacting, I don't think you'll have a problem.

- weather: Australia wins hands down, though you do get used to the weather in the UK eventually (though I did feel sorry for the newly arrived international students in September who complained of the cold, when it was only going to get worse!)

- spiders: TBH I very rarely saw spiders in Australia. If you're in a big city, you won't run into problems with them (but cockroaches are more of a problem). The UK has spiders too, but they're pretty small and harmless. In fact, we have very little by way of wildlife that can harm you in the UK (deer and foxes are about as ferocious as it gets, and there's only one poisonous snake species, the Adder).

Reply 33

Origami Bullets

One thing I forgot to mention - cost. Australia is wayyy more expensive than the UK to live in. When I was backpacking, it was costing me about $300pw for the basics. In the UK, living as a student (so a bit different, I know) I'm spending more like £120-150pw all in (i.e. not just the basics) for a better standard of living. That said, you should avoid London like the plague if cost is an issue.

However, Australia has much higher wages. If you are working as a waitress in Australia, you'll be on $17-20ph, whereas in the UK you'll be on £6.31ph.

Original post by magnetite

The main positive thing I find about Australia is that it's easy to have a good life. Unlike the UK which is still entrenched in a class system, Australia is much more free and the wealth distribution is spread a fair bit more across different classes (although that poses its own problems such as high costs of labour etc)

The stats say they're the same (look at the Gini score) http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/dec/05/oecd-ineqaulity-report-uk-us

Reply 34

Pessimisterious

Original post by Sir Fox

Do they?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

My point stands.

Original post by Silkysam

Yes the UK is clearly higher than both Germany and Australia in that table.

Original post by Sir Fox

The UK presumably has a slightly greater amount of binge drinking.

Australia has more of a casual drinking culture, similar to Germany. They may drink (a bit) less, but they do it on a more regular, 'everyday' basis.

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