My New Zealand Jobs

10 Differences Between the United States and New Zealand

My friend, Brent Sweitzer, who is also on the Work New Zealand program, had posted an article titled, Top 10 Cultural Differences between Kiwis and Americans, awhile back. What follows are some additional differences between New Zealand and the US.

1. Coffee - Tea may king of the home, but coffee is king of the cafe. We’re not talking about the average American coffee either. In the US, brewed coffee can be found everywhere, at nearly every restaurant, cafe, and service station. Brewed coffee is the exception here. In fact, of the 50+ coffee houses in downtown Wellington, Starbucks is one of the few that serves brewed coffee (yep, all five of them). In Wellington, coffee is espresso coffee: cappacino, mochacino, latte, etc. Now, though I try to avoid Starbucks in the US and visit the local coffee shops instead, Starbucks is a good indicator of coffee size. Small is referred to as Tall, medium as Grande, and Large as Venti. Like I said, espresso coffee is everywhere, and the standard size is smaller than Tall. Frankly, as an American, that size coffee just doesn’t last long enough.

2. Bathroom Toilets - As Brent mentioned, most bathrooms have separate hot and cold faucets. What gets me is nearly every toilet has two flush buttons. After a couple weeks, I had to ask someone about it. All I can say, though, is one flushes with a lot more water. I will label them the half-flush and the full-flush. Nuff said about that. However, as a guy, I also need to comment on the urinals guys use. The majority of the urinals here are wide open and have a platform one has to stand on. It’s less private, and really freaks me out. Though there is room for two guys on it, I have yet to see this phenomenon.

3. Drying Clothes - Whenever I see a clothesline on television, I think of them as a thing of the past. Because of the price of power over hear, and perhaps the price of clothes dryers, the majority of people hang their clothes on an outside line or an inside drying rack. I mean, it’s been such a long time since I’d dried anything this way, I ceased to think of it as an option. I admit, though, I have finally got used to it. What I learned is what I already knew…cotton takes forvever to dry.

4. Pharmacies - I wear contacts. When I need to buy contact solution in the US, I go to the local grocery store (which is now Walmart more times than not). I had trouble finding contact solution at the local New World grocery store, so I asked where I could locate it. Turns out, grocery stores do not carry it. It is only available at pharmacies! Let me tell you, pharamcies are scary places…for a guy. I tried to walk into multiple pharmacies, and most have them have such a feminine design, I just simply couldn’t walk through the door. I’m sure some of you guys understand what I’m talking about. I did finally get my $25 contact solution though.

5. Spelling - I’m not surprised their are spelling differences on some words. For instance, color and flavor are spelled colour and flavour. I’ve used those variations before, so I am cool with that. However, what is up with al-oo-min-ee-um. That’s how they pronounce aluminum, not just here, but in the UK as well. Wierd, huh? They certainly think so. If you look closely, you’ll realize they add an extra “i” into aluminum, thus aluminium.

6. Power Outlets - Light switches are strange enough, being down for on and up for off. However, I have yet to find a power outlet that does not have an off switch next to it. It’s not a bad idea, just a foreign concept, since I don’t recall ever seeing this in the US. You can turn off each individual outlet, so you can leave items plugged in, and simply turn them on (pushing down of course) for power to flow. Can’t get used to the idea, though I’ve grown to like it.

7. Phones - Phones, in most respects, are the same as the US. The most noticable difference is that here that say or write, “Call me on 555 5555″. You will notice that they don’t hyphenate their phone numbers, and they say “on” rather than “at”. A subtle difference, but wierd when you’re use to saying “at”. While we have dozens of area codes in the US, there aren’t too many here, with Auckland 09, Wellington 04, and the entire South Island as 03, to give a few examples. Cell phones are way different though. Like most of the world, they use a GSM signal exclusively. In the US, most cell phone plans alot a given number of weekday minutes, and a significant amount of night/weekend minutes. The plans here don’t offer much, so many people just use prepay (myself included), and even that is fairly expensive. Thus, I find myself text-messaging for the first time in my life, cause it’s cheaper, and many people do the same. There is an advantage to New Zealand pricing though, as cell phone users are not charged for incoming calls! However, the land line phone companies, which are separate, discourage use of cell phones by charging NZ$.70 per minute to call a cell phone from a land line! It cost me, on my current plan, NZ$1.39 per minute during the day and NZ$.49 per minute on evenings/weekends to call, get this, to call most places in the world! That sounds pretty good, if you want to call from the New Zealand wilderness. To call home, though, you pick up a phone card that allows you to call the US from NZ for NZ$.05 per minute! I can call someone on the other side of the world for about US$.03 a minute…mindboggling.

8. Dairy - New Zealand is a land of sheep, and quite a few cows as well. They have Tip Top Ice Cream, which is purely wonderful. Cheese and milk are another matter. In the US, it is simply Whole, 2%, 1%, and Skim. Not so in New Zealand. They have different types of the various percentages, and even a 1.5%. Cheese is even stranger. In the US, we have Mild Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar, Extra Sharp Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, Monzarella, and many other types. In New Zealand, it’s simply Mild, Tasty, Colby, and Edam. That’s all the non-specialty cheese types I have found. In truth, I miss Muenster. Even more strangely, with all the sheep and cattle here, meat is more expensive than in the US (and that is taking into account currency and metric differences).

9. Money - Money is different here, though not greatly. Paper money is more colourful, and is transparent in a few places, which makes it quite nice to look at. They measure currency in dollars, like we do. At the moment, 1 NZ dollar is worth about .68 cents. So, if you come to NZ from the US, your money is worth more. Now that I am making NZ dollars, my money has less buying power in the US. They have both currency in both paper and coin. I have seen $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills. What is annoying is that they have $1 and $2 coins, and NO DOLLAR BILLS! What a travesty! Dollar bills are nice and quiet, whereas coins clank in your pockets. NZ somewhat makes up for this by the elimination of pennies. The other coins are .50, .20, .10, and .5, but no .1 pieces! Stores still charge prices like $19.99, but the register rounds the final price, usually down, so you might end up paying 19.95, or 20.00. So, there is balance to it all.

10. Accents - Don’t confuse a Kiwi with an Aussie or a Brit. And guess what, not every Aussie talks like Paul Hogan or Steve Irwan. Whatever you do, don’t label a person as one of the above and get it wrong. Tried that…it’s not appreciated. City Aussies and North Island & City New Zealanders sound fairly similar, but they are distinctively different to a discerning ear (meaning, not to the average American). Kiwis have a fairly soft-toned accent, and talk to talk a bit faster than Americans. It’s hard to explain the difference, but you can here it. The farther south you go in NZ, you more you notice the Scottish heritage of many of the people there, as their accent is a little stronger and they roll their R’s. Not to be forgotten are the Maori inhabitants, who’s tone is a little more relaxed. Cool, ‘eh bro?

For those outside the US, there are at least three distinct American accents. In the Northeast, we have the Boston accent (where R becomes AU) and the New York/Jersey accents. Boston is really strong and gutteral. New York is similar, but pronunciation is more standard. Jersey is more nasal-sounding, but rough like the others. The Southern accent is perhaps the best known, which is often higher-pitched, slower-paced, where words melt into one another (you all = yall). Though there are regional differences, most of the North and West speak a fairly flat-sounding general American accent. There are a few other variations, such as Spanish-influenced English, which is primarily along the Mexican border, but that gives you a general idea. Cheers!