Hello and G'day!

Welcome to the American-Australian Connection!

This blog is authored by an American and an Australian.  We decided to translate our interest in each other's homelands into a blog where we will explore our own personal interests, but always through the lens of the U.S. and Australia.  Our posts will discuss a current topic and how it relates to the two nations by making comparisons and showing differences.  We aim to address a wide range of topics such as: law, policy, culture, social issues, economics, finance, science, engineering, and more.  We hope our blog will show readers the ways in which these two nations are both very similar and different through discussing the different topic areas. 

Source: heavy.com

  

Growing up as an American, one does not learn much about Australia other than the typical stereotypes, such as: lots of poisonous animals, kangaroos, koalas, Steve Irwin, funny accents, and the Sydney Opera House.  When Australia is profiled on American national news, 99% of the time it is a story involving one of Australia's unique or scary animals. 

Growing up as an Australian, one learns more about America than Americans do about Australia.  America is a common aspect of daily news.  However, Australians are not unsusceptible from developing stereotypes about Americans from the news they receive, such as: dumb, rude, gun-toting, fat, obsessed with freedom, and the home of Hollywood. 

However, there is a lot more to the "land down under" and "the land of the free" than our stereotypes.  Since learning more in depth about each other's nations over the past couple years, we have gained much understanding and insight causing us to often change our points of view.  We foresee this blog sharing what we have learned, continue to learn, and bring to light how these stereotypes are both true and false.  Overall we hope our blog will help readers of all nationalities become more knowledgeable about these two great countries and what they have to offer, both the good and the bad. 

Source: lolsnaps.com

 

We would also like to note that we have chosen to write all of our posts using Australian English and grammar for purposes of maintaining uniformity. The end of each post will indicate which co-author it was written by: "The American" or "The Australian". Enjoy!