Living abroad truly does broaden your horizons. Sometimes almost literally.

Since moving to Sydney over a year ago now I’ve been able to begin to understand how people from this part of the world interact with the world at large. Back home in Vancouver most news stories focus on issues affecting Pacific Northwest and we get very used to stories about Seattle, Portland, and even Alaska. They’re all there…all connected. And when your nearest neighbour is the most powerful nation on Earth you just get kind of used to it being there.

Australia, on the other hand, borders no one; however, I quickly learned about an entire new region of the world where politics, science, and weather is a world away from what I grew up understanding. I always considered myself fairly open-minded, well-educated, and fairly aware of events in the world. But when I got here and watched the news I felt very out of the loop.

For instance, how many Canadians would immediately understand what a news anchor is referring to when s/he uses the term ‘PNG’? Based on the context of the story it clearly is just an abbreviation for Papua New Guinea but I had NEVER heard it shortened like that. Papua New Guinea just isn’t in the news enough in Vancouver to warrant abbreviating.

And it wasn’t until somewhat recently that I learned I had been pronouncing Tonga incorrectly. I always pronounced it with a hard ‘G’…kind of like a Tonka truck…but with a ‘G’. But apparently it’s pronouced like tongs (replace the ‘S’ with ‘A’). When do you ever hear about Tonga in Vancouver? Like almost never.

I guess I thought living abroad would always be about the big differences between the culture of your home and the culture of your adopted home. But I find that these little, pretty much insignificant, observations are what seem to make up the bulk of my acculturation. So while I may never truly understand the world the way an Australian does, I do think collecting all the little pieces, the pieces most Australians wouldn’t even notice, and putting them together will allow me to understand this new world.