G'day, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today, guys, today I have a special episode for you where, I get to interview someone who is fresh off the boat, who has just arrived and Down Under. Now, the other day I was chatting to this person, who I will introduce you to shortly, and she had just informed me that after probably, I don't know if it was a year and a half or two years since I've known this person, I'll just say her name, Duaa, since I've known Duaa, she has been getting ready to come to Australia and a week ago she finally set foot on Australian soil.
So, she got her family out from a country called Jordan, in the Middle East, and I was chatting to her about that and I thought maybe I can chat to you, maybe I can interview on the podcast now that you've just arrived here and ask you about, you know, preconceptions and what you were thinking Australia was going to be like before you got here, as well as first impressions, you know, what you thought once you got here and then I thought maybe I can interview you a few times, you know, over the coming months and we can follow this story, we can see how you go we can see Duaa, we can see how your opinions change about Australia or how maybe they they stay the same, who knows?
Anyway, so today I sit down with the lovely Duaa from Jordan and we chat all about her first week in Australia. Take it away, Duaa.
Duaa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
My pleasure.
Do you want to introduce yourself and maybe talk about, I don't know, your adventure getting all the way to Australia and how we met and everything just give us the story.
Ok. My name is Duaa and I am Jordanian. I used to live in Jordan just for the last week. I'm married with two children, I used to work and I am an engineer. I decided to immigrate to Australia in 2016, in December and since then my journey with Aussie English started. I was searching the net, looking for a way to get introduced to the Australian accent, the Australian vocabulary, basically used in Australia, when the first thing that came up to me was was the Aussie English website. I immediately subscribed and signed in and then I met Pete and gradually I started to be a regular listener to the podcast and I wrote down many of the notes and texts and the new vocabulary given by you, Pete. Those were really, very helpful especially the pun jokes you gave, a lot of changing the mood listening to the podcast, and the general information you provided about Australia gave us the the atmosphere of how to be prepared to live abroad.
My visa was granted last Feb.
Yeah, congratulations again. I know how much of a battle of well it was.
Well, it was, it took longer than expected, but being an engineer and applying for a special type of visa that's for the skilled immigrants required a lot of applications, a lot of work, a lot of exams from my side, that's why it took longer than expected.
You persevered, though. You persevered and look where you are, you've been recovering from all of the jet lag.
I'm glad I did it. Starting Feb, I started packing my stuff, preparing my papers to leave, I had to wait for my children to finish their schools, we passed through the holy month of Ramadan and after that the celebration of EID and my children finished their school in mid of June, opposite of what's happening here.
Is that is that a weird situation to be in, where they finish one here and they're halfway through another?
They're going to repeat the second half of the year, they're upset, they are upset.
They were hoping that they could do one year in six months, were they?
They thought they were going to take a vacation for six months, but luckily their vacation is only one month.
Before we get too far into it I should say that for you guys listening I wanted to get Duaa on today and I only thought of this the other night and Duaa was kind enough to agree to it, but I thought when you were telling me you'd come to Australia I thought it would be great to have you on the podcast potentially multiple times to see how you go adapting to life in Australia and maybe learn about what your thoughts were of the country before you sort of got to know it and maybe how that changes over time. So, what, firstly, what made you decide to come to Australia as opposed to Canada, America, New Zealand or anywhere else where they obviously speak English?
Well after having a very long time in my career and looking ahead for the future of my children and basically their education, I wanted to give them another type of education that is given mainly in Europe and Australia. I consulted some agencies back home in Jordan about the best location to immigrate to and they advised it is Australia, not to think about America and Canada and even New Zealand because their papers required more qualifications than I have, especially for the money, they required investors.
Is there more competition as well? Is that part of it, are there more people wanting to go to those countries too, so is there a lot more competition?
Not that type, but it is that those countries want people with a lot of money. They want investors to come, not people with regular amounts of money to work. They want investors, especially America. They want people with half a million in their bank account.
Really?
Yeah. Half million dollars in their bank accounts to come as investors.
They're hoping those people will invest in the country?
Some people can wait for 10 or 15 years. They apply for certain types of visas and they wait. I didn't want to wait, I want the fastest. So, the fastest way was to wait for two and a half years, which is better, and so I applied to Australia. I am the kind of person who had travelled to many locations in the world. I've been to Europe, I've been to many Arab countries. I know what happens outside. I'm good in English and I spent many weeks away from home but never actually worked away, never lived the way people live.
So, what are your expectations with regards to work and living outside of Jordan? And can you tell us what you thought before you got to Australia, I guess? Because your opinions and views may have changed in the last week since you got here, but what were your thoughts before you set foot in Australia as to what it was like to work here and live here?
Well, I thought finding work was going to be difficult, but when I arrived here people told me that it's not that difficult. I can apply, I can find work, I can find any work, not particular to my certificate, I can find any work that I can make a living out of. I thought that things were going to be tough, but things are easy. People here are too friendly to be afraid of, especially in the airport. I thought I was going to be shocked by the Australian accent once I arrived, but everybody in the airport spoke slowly. They spoke slowly. Too slowly for me even.
But they were too friendly, too understanding to our situation that we were too tired and we were looking for the slightest help, they were too helpful, thank God and things ran easier than than expected. Another thing is that I wished that it was not too cold, but obviously we arrived in the middle of winter.
How was it back in Jordan?
It is middle of summer, July is the middle summer, it's up in 30s. We went out, when we went out of the airport of Melbourne we were like oh, it's really cold! We wanted to have something different, but this is nature we're going to have to adapt.
Wait until summer. It'll probably be as hot as Jordan in summer.
We're going to be we're going to be celebrating Christmas for the first time in summer this year.
That's right, because that's so normal for me, but...
It's something weird for us because Christmas is always white, it's always cold, but this year's going to be different.
I know, crazy. And, so what was it like finding somewhere to live? Did you have that all organised before you came to Australia?
Yeah, that was part of the preparation steps I had to take care of. I looked online for a first furnished houses and furnished units. Luckily, I found there are many applications on your mobile that you can use and with one click you can find whatever you want. Luckily, I found a place, I communicated with the agent, she was very helpful, she advised where exactly I am, where the location is near the bus stop, near the schools I was looking for and here I am in Thomastown, enjoying the scenes all around.
Far out! So, that was all done before you even got off the plane. You had it all organised.
Yeah, yeah. It should be, it should be done because you cannot find the thing when you are here, you find it when you are away and book ahead, you have to book ahead. I think two months ahead.
And did you guys all come at once? There wasn't one family who came out first organised.
No, we came all at once. We're not that large family, I have my husband and two children and luckily they're not young.
Still, that's pretty organized. You're pretty organized, obviously.
Yeah, yeah it's one of us has its own task, has its own way of thinking, so we needed to cooperate with each other.
And, so what have you done in terms of jobs? So, you've obviously organized somewhere to live and had that organized. Did either of you have jobs organized before you got here or did you have enough money saved up to get a house and now you worry about the jobs?
Well, my husband took care of this point. I had to quit because I worked with the private sector, they do not allow any, what do you call it? Not paid vacations, we need to quit, so I had to quit and I'm going to have to plan for a living now for myself. As for my husband, he worked with a different kind of organization where he agreed with them that he can work abroad and they have given him a chance to do so. So, we still have some kind of source of living. It's not that big, but it can be helpful in the couple of three months ahead of time.
So, what would have happened if he hadn't had that opportunity? Would you have still been able to move out here and then expected to just wait a few months until you found work or was it because of his job being able to do that that led you to be able to come out here and get set up?
It was going to be a bit difficult. We were going to have to depend on our savings because once you arrive you find out that you need money to spend on your food on your commuting here and there. We don't have a car, we sold our car because we drive on the left, while in Australia, this is another challenge, people drive on the right. When I arrived here, I told my husband I wish I had taken my car with me here, but I can't, they drive on the right.
He probably could have imported it, but it would have cost you an arm and a leg to pay to have that shipped over here.
Yeah, of course, but with no use because it's on the left.
I think you can, you can, there are people who have those cars, put they're collector cars, so I think you can only use them... You have to have a sign as well that says this car's steering wheel's on the wrong side.
People, take care, I'm different!
Yeah, exactly. So, what's the plan to get used to driving here? Are you going to get lessons or are you just going to wing it?
We need to get lessons, maybe we're going to call somebody to help, maybe a friend who has a car to take to drive here and there. We have started taking care of the different signs here, the different ways of driving, it is completely the opposite.
As in just the side of the road or the rules as well?
The signs and the rules, of course. Now, when you are driving and you want to turn left, when we drive on the left, we turn to the right side of the road, while you drive you'll take care of the left side of the road. When we want to get into the circle, we take it from there right, you take it from the left.
Yeah, the roundabout, right? Yeah, that's it, that would confuse the hell out of me as well.
I know, it is it confusing and it makes me feel like we'll have an accident and I keep shutting my eyes.
Yeah. You just have to get on the bus and ride that around a bit and get you to sit at the front, so that you've got a view out the front of the bus and you can be like ok I'm getting used to it.
I have a friend who lives here and she took me in a drive once or twice since I arrived. And she wanted to take care of what she's doing, to notice everything? I tried, but it's difficult, it is difficult. I need to try it myself.
Crazy, and so what have you done in terms of the kids and schooling? You were saying that they finished the year six months through the year and obviously in Australia we finish in December, so obviously you said they are repeating, but what did you do to find schools and organize that? Did you research that before you came to Australia?
Yeah, yeah. I searched for the schools the same time I searched for the house in parallel because I wanted to have schools of higher rate. I consulted some friends who lived here and they told me exactly what to do. I even contacted the schools.
Oh, brilliant.
The issue is that in Jordan and in Middle East in general we start schools in August and we finish in June or early May. Here it's different. You start in feb and you finish in December. So, we're now in the winter break, right? We're in winter break now. My children are done with the years they were in, they're done with the exam, they're done with the final results. I contacted the schools and I told them what year my children were born, what year they finished they said no problem, just when we start school that's in on July 15th or 16th pass by, bring your passports, we'll deal it out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brilliant. So, do you think they'll probably have an edge, right? They'll have an advantage. If they've already done an extra six months effectively and they have to start again at the end of this year for that, then they'll probably do a lot better than the other students, right?,
Now you have two sides of this thing. The good side is that they have around four or five months of getting used to the system, getting used to the new situation. They are put in finding new friends, adapting to the new school, the ways to and from home, but the bad side is that they only had one month Summer vacation, which is actually last summer because again in winter, so they did not rest, they did not get the free time they were dreaming of.
Because the holidays there would have gone for another month, right? Until August, and now they have to go straight back.
From June to late August, even. Sometimes they decide to start at the beginning of September.
So, can you tell me the ages of your children and their levels of English? For listeners who have children as well and are thinking of coming to Australia, how old are your kids and what are their levels in English and what's the plan to go ahead now getting them into school?
My older son is around 16, the younger is nine. Sixteen makes him in a secondary school, while the one of nine he is going to be introduced into the fourth grade. They are both very good in English because back home they were in the international system, IGCSE , they are fluent in English, actually.
Oh, ok. So, it's not going to be a big jump for them at all, they'll slide right in.
It's not going to be a big jump, except for the accent, the new vocabulary they have to learn, maybe some new wording here or there. And of course it's the cultural move from a place where they were used to the type of materials, type of way of studying. I'm sure it is different here because one of the things is that back home they used to have to take their books to school. Here they don't carry books they carry iPads or maybe laptops.
Oh really? Moved on since I was a kid.
It's different, yeah.
I still had books, I'm not that young.
It's paperless here, its paperless here, but there it's full of papers. It's going to be a move for me because I'm used to receiving papers from school, signing, taking care of things, having assignments for them, checking their homework. Now, everything's going to be done digitally, which is different for me.
That's crazy. So, who do you think, out of everyone in your family, who do you think's going to have the steepest learning curve or the most troubled adapting to life in Australia?
Well, I think the fastest going to be my younger children and younger child because he's young.
He's going to have an Australian accent. One year, I'll give you one year and he'll have an Australian Accent.
Even less, even less, Pete. The other day I was challenging him for some words I asked him about the meaning of brolly. He said I'm not sure, what does that mean? I told him it was an umbrella, he said how do you know? I told him that I listen to you. He found another way and he found an application on the mobile phone, now he has his own mobile phone application where he can find the meanings and now he challenges me. It's going to be faster.
So, now he's quicker than you.
I think my husband and me we're going to be slower in adapting because we're relatively old and we lived a lot of time in a certain type of life, now we're going to have to adapt to another one.
So, what are you thinking of doing in terms of languages in the house as well? If you guys are all already fluent in English, but also obviously is it Jordanian that you're fluent in your...?
Arabic.
Arabic, sorry. Are you going to be speaking out at home? Are you going to be trying to speak English at home? A mix of both? Have you made any thoughts or plans about that?
Back home we spoke... Were bilingual, both at home and outside. Most Jordanian people understand it and speak English fluently. We didn't find any issue speaking English to anybody, but basically Arabic is their main language of communication everywhere. In our home we speak Arabic fluently, we talk about all issues in Arabic, but sometimes we deviate to English, it depends on what comes to our minds first.
The same happened here, the same happened here even when we were shopping. We talked to each other in Arabic, but once we started talking to anybody else, we switch immediately to English. This is our way of life. We switch between the two languages. Now, the funny thing what happened with us when we were trying to pick new mobile phone numbers, we went into one of the shops and the lady was trying to help my son and she asked him to pick between three numbers he turned to me and said: mom what do you think? Which one is the best? He talked in Arabic, I replied in Arabic, she started working and I said hey, wait, wait! She said: it's ok, I'm Arab. I understand Arabic! Oh my God! We all burst in laughter.
I was going to say, that leads me to asking you about cultural shock. Have you had any cultural shocks yet coming to Australia, where there certain things that you thought would be the case that are the case or vice versa? Were there certain races of people or languages around the place that you were very surprised to hear? Or you know, what's the experience been like so far for your first week?
I didn't know much about Melbourne, but I thought it was full of a certain nationality, one nationality maybe or two, but I'm surprised it's a multicultural city and you can find people from almost everywhere from the world. You can tell by the colour of their complexion, the colour of their eyes, even the accent they speak to, like yesterday we went to do something and a lady was helping and she said guys where are you from? We replied we are Jordanians, she said I'm Turkish., but she did not look Turkish. She was a typical Aussie girl, but obviously she was born here, maybe she lived here all your life, but she said she was Turkish. When you go into any shopping centre you hear many languages, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, you even hear Arabic. I heard somebody spoke Arabic and I suddenly turned around, hey, that's Arabic.
So, was that a surprise? Were you expecting that to be the case or you had no idea it was going to be like that?
You had no idea it was that multicultural, but it is, it is, yeah. And it is supportive to you because you adapt easily, you find the person who speaks English better than you and you find the person who doesn't, who barely speaks English and that gives you kind of a trust in your abilities. You don't have to worry about how good you are in English, but you have to keep learning, you have to keep improving the way you communicate because finally you're going to be out, dealing with people, dealing with people who have different type of language that you need to take care of.
And so, how's it been interacting with Australians? Have you had many circumstances yet where you've had to have one on one conversations with Aussies? Had there been any issues?
Yeah, yeah, in the bank.
In the bank?
I fully understand Aussie English, but where they speak too fast, I just lose it. I think the lady in the bank was I was typing on the computer updating my data and I was just staring at the ceiling, looking at things that I don't remember, when she suddenly said something and I went like, huh? I didn't expect her to speak, but she didn't repeat, she rephrased, that was the mistake, I wish she had not rephrased the question I answered her and she said where are you from? I told her I was Jordanian because my passport was not Australian.
You're going to get that question a lot, I think.
Yeah, yeah. And she said to me I'm impressed with your accent and I told her I've been practising with Pete.
I hope you did, I hope you did! You should have giving them my card. I think you definitely come to Australia very, very, very well prepared. I think you're definitely ahead of the the average person who who ends up out here, but it's funny because I think once you'll probably have a good time in the city, but it's going to be good chatting to you the first time you guys go on a holiday or a road trip somewhere away from the city and have to interact with Aussies who are say living in a small town, have rarely met any foreigners, that'll be when you get to really test your skills.
Yeah, yeah. That is the situation I'm looking forward to.
So, where are you wanting to go in Australia? Are there any places that you're really dying to see, that you want to travel to?
Well, maybe Sydney is the first destination I'm looking forward to. I have relatives who live there, maybe I'm going to plan for out for a quick visit next week. I'm not sure if we can do it because soon we're going to start schools. I don't want to wait for the next vacation. Melbourne itself, it's still a mystery for me. I've been in one or two maybe three suburbs so far because I've been here since Tuesday night. That's it, and we haven't been to many places. We need to, we need to, and once we get a car maybe we're going to rent a car if we can afford it we're going to take drives through. The thing is that I'm hesitating to drive and my husband is also. It's not easy, we don't want to get in trouble.
You just need to get a chauffeur. Get a chauffeur and just be like we'll pay you, drive us around or get your son to get his L plates and get in the car and be like here you go.
Get the key and get in. Luckily my children are going to start learning driving in the country rules, not in our rules. They're going to adapt easier.
They hadn't started it back in Jordan?
No, because the younger is too young to start and the older was too busy in his studies that he did not start.
And, so, can I ask you before we finish up, obviously you're Islamic from from Jordan, what is it like come to a country that is predominantly not Islamic? Are there certain things that you have to worry about or plan for or anything like that when you think about migrating to a country like this? Or has it been an effortless change and you're just like whatever?
As I have told you before, I've been to many places around the world and my hijab, the way I wear the scarf or the way we behave, hasn't been an obstacle for me anywhere. I haven't even met any discrimination anywhere, luckily, in the world, but since we're living here for good, hopefully, we are going to I thought we're going to have some issues with the food because we don't eat just any meat or any chicken, it has to be slaughtered in a certain Islamic way.
It has to be halal, right?
Halal, correct, yeah, but my friend told me that don't worry everything is here. Once you arrive I'm going to take you to the shopping centre and you are going to be surprised by the amount of Islamic food you can find.
It's everywhere.
I found it everywhere. I found it everywhere. There's a stamp, halal, on every, every item you wish to find, and I found out that the immigrants who were here before the Lebanese, the Iraqi, the Syrian people and even the Palestinians have brought their culture here, they brought their products here. I found things that I couldn't find in Jordan.
Really?
Yeah. My family! Look! I found this. Look! Everything is here.
It's amazing, especially around Melbourne. You might have trouble if you move away, but around Melbourne with all those cultures there, there'll be certain hot spots like I think Box Hill for the Vietnamese, Doncaster for the Persians.
So, I even found signs in Arabic, signs in Persian. It is a multicultural city that respects people as long as they obey the law, they do not do anything wrong and I did not find an issue with the food, I'm happy with that. And even I took many walks, yesterday we walked for an hour, the day before we walked for an hour and a half. Everyone in the street were friendly. They smile to me and the number of girls with hijab in Melbourne is relatively high.
Yeah, yeah.
That was unexpected to me, but I find it also comporting to me. Many people are like me here. And it's not going to be a trouble for me.
Brilliant. Do you worry at all about raising your children obviously Islamic in a country that is predominantly not Islamic or do you think obviously living some in a city Melbourne it'll be okay because it's Islam is all over the place, so it's not something you're going to have to worry too much about?
I think this this is going to be the case. We've been here for less than a week. I'm going to have to wait until they are introduced into the schools, once they interact with the materials they take. I'm going to have to watch it at home. They are not too young to be worried about, but still they are not that old to be relaxing about it. I'm going to have to watch it to direct them, to support them whenever needed. Islam is not that difficult, but it has it's some critical rules that they have to take care of in certain locations. For example, we don't drink. We are not allowed to drink alcoholic drinks. I told them once you go out with friends if they give you a beer or something, you just say sorry, I don't drink, go get yourself a soft drink, maybe soda or juice and this is ok, we do that, people drink in Jordan, many Muslims drink all around the world. It's not weird to see a Muslim who drinks, but it depends on you.
I think on the the other side of that to, there'll be a lot of Australians who don't drink too, so, it won't be that strange that most people.
It's not going to be that strange here.
And I think too, if they just say sorry, I'm Islamic. I can't. Most people I'll be like sorry, alright, all good, I'm not going to push it.
I think Islam now is spread worldwide and many people know about the Islamic rules. I remember once when I was in London I went into an ice cream shop and I wanted to buy, I wanted to taste the flavours. The lady who helped she said you can taste this one and this one, but not this one because it has alcohol, she knew I was Islamic because of the way I dress.
So, she did that just from looking at you?
Yeah, so that was helpful. That's it, that's it.
Oh, brilliant! Well, Duaa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm so looking forward to sort of checking in with you to see how things go and how things change, but I have a feeling it's going to be smooth sailing. I think it's going to be pretty easy for you, it doesn't sound like there'll be too many hiccups.
I hope that's, as far as I see it now is going to be easier than expected.
Yeah, definitely. Alright. Well, hopefully we can catch up again in three months or so.
Yeah sure, sure, why not? I'll be waiting.
Alright, guys! Thanks so much for joining me for this first episode, interview episode with Duaa. So, I really appreciate your time, Duaa. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and guys I am hopefully going to get Duaa back on the podcast in the coming months, assuming that she has time, assuming she's not flat out like a lizard drinking with a new job, with family, with everything else that is involved when getting used to life in a new country, and I hope you guys liked this episode and are looking forward to the future one, so definitely let me know what you think in a comment or an email or something if you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us, guys! I really appreciate it and our chat to you soon. See ya!