If you think of Australia, you're bound to imagine a few stereotypes of what life here is like: sun and sand might feature, and you will perhaps imagine we're a laidback nation of permanently relaxed people. Over the last year, the topic of what people think about Australia has come up with quite a few guests so I decided to compile an episode about these ideas.

I chat first with Michael Jensen who spent half a year here on student exchange in the 1980s, and recently returned for another months-long stint: what had changed? Quite a lot, as you can imagine, and we had an interesting chat.

Alex Zeringer, a German student now based in Ireland, came to Australia on a much more recent student program just last year, and I asked him about his impressions of my home town of Perth.

Our reputation often precedes us, and Julia Kaplan told me her ideas about Australia and its people although she hasn't yet been here - but she's met enough Aussies abroad on her travels to get a good idea.

Finally, I speak with Jules Park, who moved here from South Korea, and tells me some of her initial cultural shocks, including the tale of pink hair!

Links:

• Brent and Michael are Going Places - https://www.brentandmichaelaregoingplaces.com/
• Alex Zeringer on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-zeringer-532728130/
• Julie Kaplan - https://www.juliekaplan.com/
• Jules Park - Amazing Sydney Life on Instagram or TikTok - https://www.instagram.com/amazingsydneylife/ or https://www.tiktok.com/@amazingsydneylife
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/325

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meeting new people is one of my favourite parts of travelling, and when these chance encounters turn into long-term friendships, that's just perfection! My most recent trip, three weeks in England and Wales, came about because my son and I were invited to attend the wedding of a dear travelling friend, who we originally met in Cambodia and have also travelled with in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand - and now England!

This episode features many such friendships, but the most unique is Daniel Troia's friendship with a family in a tiny, picturesque village in the Swiss Alps. He has spent many summers with these now long-term friends, despite not having a common language when he first met them.

My second guest is Rupert Grey who tells of his very special friendship with Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam, who he first met back in 1992 when travelling briefly in Bangladesh with his family.

Finally, Tracy Collins tells me about several special friends from travelling, and in particular she highlights some of the many and varied ways you can more easily find yourself making friends when you're away from home.

Links:

• Daniel Troia’s doco “We Are All In This Together” - https://www.weareallinthistogethermovie.com/
• Rupert Grey - https://rupertgrey.co.uk/
• Rupert’s movie Romantic Road - https://www.romanticroadmov.com/
• Tracy Collins - UK Travel Planning https://uktravelplanning.com
• and Global Travel Planning at https://globaltravelplanning.com
• Thoughtful Travel trip to Peru notaballerina.com/peru
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/324

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learning other languages can be really hard - especially if you're sitting in your home country trying to learn from a boring textbook. The guests in this episode all decided that they'd learn another language - Thai, French, Polish and Welsh - by travelling and immersing themselves in the language, in varied and interesting ways.

First up, I hear from Paddy Jenkins about his experience of learning Thai - in fact, teaching himself Thai - while he spent six months volunteering in Chiang Mai. Spoiler alert: yes, he would literally take his notebook and dictionary even if he went to the pub or a nightclub! That's dedication.

Next, I speak with Tracy Collins who was told by her French teacher she would never be able to speak French, but proved her wrong when she moved to France to work as an au pair. She also was lucky to be working for a family that helped her out in some perhaps unexpected ways.

Love is often a reason for learning another language and this was what took Thomas Swick to living in Poland. I did laugh when he was explaining the grammatical complexities of Polish, although when you're leaning it you're more likely to cry, I think!

Finally, Pam Petro decided to make the effort to learn the lesser-spoken language of Welsh. She went through some hardcore learning and even took some surprising travels in her pursuit of Welsh fluency.

Links:

• Thai Talk with Paddy https://www.youtube.com/ThaiTalkwithPaddy/
• Tracy Collins - UK Travel Planning https://uktravelplanning.com and Global Travel Planning at https://globaltravelplanning.com - both also podcasts
• Thomas Swick - https://www.thomasswick.com/ - and his new book, Falling Into Place
• Pamela Petro - https://www.pamelapetro.com/
• Pam’s book The Long Field - https://amzn.to/4bt7TGq
• Episode 277 Languages and Connection https://notaballerina.com/277
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/323

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.