sarahburns

hello everyone,
for my australian studies unit i have to compare a certain aspect of life in australia to my home country... i have been sitting infront of my library computer for days now and just cant come up with a good topic. the essay is supposed to be about 2000 words long and incl. academic literature.

anyone who can think of any topics, THANK YOU!!!

Howard Jenings

Soccer!

comet555

-cost of living
-work culture
-government/politics

Swerv-o

Government/Politics is a good one. You could compare and contrast the workings of the two different federal systems, and perhaps have a look at how coalition governments have been shown to be effective in both countries, despite a pseudo proportional representation voting system giving a voice to minority and single issue parties.


S

sarahburns

thanks for the suggestions so far.

i know i sound terribly ignorant and stupid by saying this, but i dont think i am interested enough in the govt thing to write 2000 words about it.

cost of living would be an interesting one and i just searched some of our databases and just cant find much. obviously, i could write from my own perspective but academic literature will add a lot more value to the essay...

keep em coming

maybe i should add that i am coming from an anthropological sort of background, so would be most interested with something concering different lifestyles or other cultural aspects..

comet555

-what people do with their leisure time
-marriage, children, career (what age do people marry & have kids, working parents vs stay at home parent, etc).

-influence of sports on culture
-gambling, drugs, drinking, etc..

scrubbedexpat020

Language learning.

Germans make nice cars, play good football and speak fluent English (the ones I met on business).

Australians do not ....German. You could replace Australians with Brits.

Seriously, compare language learning in both countries and impact on trade/culture.

Start by comparing overall education levels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program...ent_Assessment see PISA and TIMMS) to show kids from Germany and Aus are as smart as each other then go on to show why (antecedents) Aussies don't learn languages/Germans learn English. Then show output vis-a-vis trade/culture or whatever.

Ian

comet555

I'd be interested in knowing how many schools teach German in Australia. My daughters state school does as do many of the others in our area.

Evelin

Healthcare incl PBS vs Krankenversicherung
or
Age pension/superannuation vs Rente

From a lifestyle/cultural perspective I would look at the importance of education (Germany very high), compare the school system which are very different in each country, eg cost of education. It is also interesting to look at what it means to live in a country were the majority of people live in a large house vs flats or small terrace houses, more renting than owning a property. Just because of this you are quite limited what you can do in your own home/garden. Eg, you are not allowed to make noise between 1+2pm, no lawn mowing or any noise on Sundays. The neighbours have quite a big influence in eah others life. Why are cars more important in Germany and houses in Australia.

contact me if you need to know more about Germany

fish.01

Perhaps you could write about how aussie culture/environs shaped the many german immigrants to south australia, and how they shaped the local aussie culture in return...