WRITTEN ON September 2nd, 2009 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland

Tags: culture, expat, new zealand

a couple of months ago*, i was on the bus home and, as usual, had a look at the ads that fill the bus. except that, this time, i couldn’t understand any. the bus was all filled with posters with the same ad and they were all in chinese. i figured out that it was a campaign from the broadcasting standards authority to raise awareness about program ratings and classifications.

don’t get me wrong, i’m an expat here too and i’m all for inclusion. it is exactly in my expat condition that i can’t understand talking about inclusion when i felt excluded because i couldn’t understand the ad. plus, i really fail to see the need to have ads in chinese, excluding all the people in new zealand that can’t speak chinese. because to live in new zealand you are not required to know chinese - but you are required to know english. and you can tell me “oh but there’s always someone that doesn’t understand something.” yes, and that’s why we have national languages. and here in new zealand those languages are english and maori. a person that wants to move to new zealand must know english. so why filling the bus with ads in chinese? and if we do, where is it going to stop? do i have the right to claim ads in portuguese? i don’t think so. should i feel discriminated against because there are no ads in portuguese here? definitely not. i chose to come to new zealand and english is a requirement here.

anyway,  </rant>

*no, i don’t know why i only just remembered this now.