Kiwi Culture

Over the past three weeks, plenty has happened. Most of it, however, has been day-to-day nothings, that I won't waste your time talking about. The focus of this blog entry, will be New Zealand culture: that of the people, the schools, the family and whatever else I think up to include. As always, feel free to offer feedback, particularly with this entry. I'm interested to hear what my fellow Americans have to save about my perception of the Kiwi life.

Living Arrangements
If a student is from the Auckland area (within an hour's bus ride), s/he almost always lives at home. In fact, University of Auckland has a policy that non-Aucklanders get first dibs on student accommodations and since spaces are scarce enough as is, I've only met a couple of Aucklanders that live in student housing. At Drake, I think a lot of students who live in the Greater Des Moines Area live on campus or in apartments. In fact, I would even goes as far as to say there's a certain stigma attached to being a commuter. I wonder why so many students back home feel the need to get out of the house as soon as possible. Perhaps it represents independence and adulthood? Or Americans' irresponsible attitude toward money in which students would rather spend money on rent and their own food for the sake of feeling like an adult or convenience rather than beginning to pay off loans. Who knows; just thought it was a point worth mentioning.

Resources
Listen up, Drake University, you're behind the times. I know we only have 4,000 students and we couldn't possibly have anywhere near the 13 libraries Auckland Uni offers to its 40,000 under and postgraduates, but I think there are some things you could learn and truly apply to the libraries.

One would be library tutorials. I believe these do exist at Drake, but they are not particularly encouraged or specialised. Two of my four classes (the other two don't require much research-related work) essentially required library tutorials. Although they did not take attendance (no classes really do. Some do in the tutorial sessions because they require students to attend a certain number of tutorials in order to pass), the lecturers set up the times and advertised the specialised sessions in class and via email. These library tutorials are specific to the class. For example, my 18th century British literature library tutorial helped us understand resources relevant to literature and the time. The librarian gave us subject headings (i.e. '18th century history and women') that would aid us in narrowing down our research. They instructed us on helpful web searching strategies as well as identifying the difference between the catalog and the book searching tool as well as the databases. I even learned something important about j-stor, a database I use in the States, that I did not know before.

Secondly, Auckland Uni has one librarian specific to each course (major). My library tutorial (described above) was instructed by the English librarian and my Pacific Arts tut was instructed by either the Fine Arts or Pacific Studies librarian. Though I think it may be unrealistic to expect Drake to have a librarian per major, they might have one for most journalism classes, one or two for health sciences and pharmacy, one for fine arts, a few for business in which PR and advertising majors should be included and some for the sciences (bio, chem, psych, physics, etc.), one for the school of ed, social sciences (sociology, anthropology, rhetoric, history) and a few others for the rest of the liberal arts classes. Though it is run differently than the rest of Drake University, I know that the Drake Law School has very well trained library experts that are prompt to get back to your requests. I suppose the website has the chat feature, but it can be a bit intimidating not knowing who you are talking to and awkward messaging them. By establishing a contact, a name and a face to whom you can contact with if you're having trouble finding a source or unsure about citing one, I feel students would be less inclined to give up or give into the pressures to plagiarise.

And how about free coursepacks, eh? Two out of the three classes that had coursepacks were free. How amazing would that be? Instead of having to spend over a hundred dollars at copycat, with proof of your ID and your name being on the course list, you could get all the class readings for free.


The Experience" and Drinking Culture

Although the following may be unique to students like me that hold my work ethic, I've found a big difference between the purpose of Uni between here and in America. Much of the content for the Kiwi perspective came from a conversation I had with Matt's mother, Raewyn (I'll explain later).

So in my view, I go to college to get an education so I can have a career in the future, bottom line. Though I'm involved in various student organizations, they are just for fun or to build my professional skills. That doesn't mean I don't care about them; I am quite passionate about ADPi and honors council, but school really does come first. As for partying, you have to be 21 in the States to drink legally so it is somewhat difficult and completely illegal to party for the majority of my time in college. Drinking/partying/staying up late is generally just a distraction from all the work I have to do/should do on the weekends. Perhaps this is a pessimistic view, but it is quite true to some extent. I do balance my activities, schoolwork and having fun pretty well back home. Like any student, I do get stressed (just ask my roommate back home about my breakdowns every semester at midterm), am not always as focused on my schoolwork as much as I shouldbe. Though I sometimes lock myself in the Olmsted student center on Saturday nights and write papers. Grades are extremely important to me and I maintain a perfect GPA.

That's not the way university is seen in the land of the Kiwis. According to Raewyn and my own observations—Please hold off on your judgment or jumping to conclusions here—few Kiwis care that much about grades. It's not that they don't care about what their learning, or that they're lazy, rather its simply not assigned that high of a value. All universities in New Zealand have similar entry qualifications, so it's not much of an issue in high school. In terms of University, students mostly care about passing—getting a C or higher. On the other hand, Kiwis have a pretty good work ethic. Most study for tests far in advance; there's a month given to study for/take exams at the end of the term. Matt likes to put things off until the last minute, but he has absolutely no problem pulling an all nighter, finishing his assignments and then working on a few more. What he turns in isn't crap either, if he doesn't think it's good enough, he'll rewrite it. Even if it is 3:30 in the morning. Moreover, drinking and partying is part of the experience. Uni seems to be equal parts "getting on the piss" as they say here and doing work. Since the drinking age is 18, almost all Uni students can drink legally and it is pretty much expected. Bars don't have a closing time like they do in America, they often stay open until six or seven in the morning. I've been told many times by my Kiwi flatmate that it's great when you throw up while drinking—it means you have room for more alcohol!

Overall there's not as much pressure to get good grades here. It's more about passing. Since arriving, I've had to reevaluate my priorities. Grades are definitely important because when I apply to law schools they will request my Auckland transcript, but at the same time, it won't affect my GPA back home. Wednesday night is the night for students to go out here. There are cheaper drinks and no cover charges. There's been multiple times where I've had a hard time deciding if I should go out or if I should do homework. I am on exchange, but school is also important. This is still currently something I'm trying to resolve (so far, I've made a habit of setting goals for myself and allowing myself to go if I fulfill them).

These are some of the differences I've found within the university sphere of New Zealand life. I should be writing another blog entry very soon (i.e. tomorrow) about my trip to Wellington.