Week 1

My first week in Australia was filled with a mix of surprises. I was a little bit disappointed when I learnt that my host family was going to be a Chinese family, after all, I am supposed to learn and practice my English here. Fortunately, my host turned out to be rather nice and helpful, even though they do speak rather non-native-like English, or Chinglish to be exact. There are other homestaying students staying in my host family, including a Japanese boy, a Thai boy, a Vietnamese girl and a girl from mainland China. The meals offered, when compared with other host families, are unexpectedly nice, partly because they are Asian food, and partly because my host does cook quite well. When we have dinners, we chat a lot. And because all of us come from different countries, we talk in English. This is an advantage of learning and speaking English, not only can one speak to Americans or British or Australians, we can also talk to people who do not share the same mother tongue with us, as long as they speak English as well.