Abstract
Sadly, my sabbatical is drawing to a close and one of the things to think about now is souvenirs. My sabbatical involved visits to Germany, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. My daughter has cousins and friends in each of these countries and so before we left Australia we went souvenir shopping for them. In addition to special presents for cousins and close friends, we bought generic souvenirs for school mates and unrelated children we might meet along the way. As a result, we’ve now schlepped erasers in the shape of a koala and pencils with images of kangaroos out of Australia and distributed them along the way. Both the erasers in the shape of a koala and the pencils with images of kangaroos were made in China but the koalas and kangaroos were obviously supposed to be code for ‘authentic Australian.’ Should I mention that in all my years in Australia I’ve never seen a koala in the wild?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Specialist publication | Language on the move |
| Publisher | Language on the move |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Jan 2012 |
Bibliographical note
© 2018 Language on the Move. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Keywords
- 200401 applied linguistics and educational linguistics
- 200405 language in culture and society (sociolinguistics)