Hi all, just wanted to see if anyone had ever experienced this...

In a booklet from the South Australian immigration department, they reckon that Aus peeps don't like being asked their age or marital status? Is this true? Do people get funny if you do?

58 pages and working our way through. Bedtime reading...

I think it could be true, I met so many heavily tanned and sunburnt women that looked years older than their years due to the sun and not enough sun block aging them badly in the face.

I think it's the same as in UK - depending on the person & the conversation, you might be able to ask quite quickly. But I wouldn't usually ask that kind of question upon meeting someone, just as I wouldn't in England.
(Wouldn't ask their salary either, or the size of their mortgage!)

Thanks for the reply esperanza and backhomeatlast.

I guess I'm just thinking of the conversations I used to have with random people on trains. I can see the thing with the age, it is a sensitive subject but with the marital status, sometimes in order for a conversation to carry on, it is relevant to ask casually about it.

Do you know what I mean?

I think if it comes up in conversation then it would be ok. It's not a TABOO TOPIC that you absolutely must not talk about for fear of causing mortification! Just you wouldn't say hi what's your name and are you married or what?
I've honestly never considered it to be any different to England. If anything I'd say people here are more open and less likely to get offended. (Unless you criticise something Australian, of course, but you learn very quickly just not to do that!)

I guess I just thought it was a strange thing to put into the booklet, but I suppose it is designed to cater for many.

Or maybe.....

.....I'm just a nosey wench who likes to know everything about people!!!

That is sooo true

It's probably more for people who are used to asking more direct questions than in England. Some cultures would think nothing of asking someone's age in the same way that they ask their name, and then the next question might be how much do you earn and how big is your house?
Or in some places if you get on a bus and there's one other person on it, you go and sit next to them. Not in Blighty! Can you imagine how freaked out you would be if some total random came and sat right next to you and started talking to you asking personal questions right in your face when there were rows and rows of empty seats!? Cultures are funny things.

It is also plain bad manners in the UK to ask someone personal questions if you have just met them. Unless it is relevant of course - although even then it can be a problem, plenty of older folk have been offended when a ticket office worker asks them if they want a senior citizens ticket. Don't think it is an Aussie thing. Maybe other cultures have different traditions and that bit of the leaflet is aimed at them?

Think a lot of these things are aimed at cultures that are totally different to the UK. Read one in Oz (when we accidently ended up in the asylum seekers place!) that said that if a woman showed her body off (low cut tops, short skirts etc) that did not mean she was promiscouos (sp) - pointing out the obvious to us, but not for people who have never lived in a 'western' culture.

Cheers for the responses everyone...guess it depends in which context. Yep, I would be bothered (as it has happened to me before) if someone came up and fired questions, at me. Took it a different way, a more friendly ,chatty way .

About the senior citizens thing...that happened to MIL's friends!!! They were not best pleased.

Why are you reading Immigration booklets in bed

It all depends who is doing the asking! in my nurses uniform I can ask all sorts of personal questions and get an answer too

Just fancied a read about South Australia

Learnt that the emergency number out there is 000....oooooh, can you imagine pressing 999 frantically and nothing happening except..."this number does not exist..."

Asher!

You'll find the majority of South Australians to be really friendly, so don't worry about it. Although I must say I've never felt the need to ask them how old they are or if they are married