If you are studying in Adelaide or anywhere in Australia, chances are you are highly about to counter with a broad range of cultures. You will meet and hang out with people from around the world. From South East Asian, Middle East, North Asian to Africa, South America and Europe.

Each person who comes to Australia also brings their own culture tradition. Which creates such a diverse and rich culture here in Australia. Consequently, these reflects greatly in the food cuisines with lots of fusion cuisines. The combination of different cultures such as: Australian and Vietnamese or Classic British pub dishes with a little twist of Indian spiced.

When I first came here, my parents were indeed afraid of me getting bullied or discriminated. Having that in mind, my first week at university was terrible. Then, I was afraid of lots of things and scared to raise my voice in the classroom and hang out with new friends. Thus, I used to be very passive aggressively and almost isolated myself just within the Vietnamese community.

Particularly, there was a lot of scare and at one point. I thought of giving up and that studying here in Australia was not as fun as I expected. However, things turned out quite different to what I expected. When going to different events for international students, I was really overwhelmed by the kindness and openness of Australian university staff. They sat down and spoke to me as if we had known each other for a very long time. In fact, Australian people are very kind and friendly.

Most of them are aware of the differences in culture so they are very open to new things or something different. They treat you with respect. They are really cool and I love hanging out with them until today! Today, I am lots more confident in communication than I was 2 years ago. I have been working at the university since my second year and I have friends from countries around the world.

This is something that I would never take for granted and it all happens by me being open-minded. And embracing the diverse culture here in Australia. Having said this, I strongly believe being who you are with with the attitude of accepting “the unusual things” instead of caring about how others look at you or thinking that you are less than someone else is a great way to make new friends and live and study in Australia.