Cissy – Torbay
“I sent my last message this morning to my friend, Gina.
We’re meeting for a coffee, so I sent a message to her about the time and the location. Gina’s Korean and I am Chinese, so we are both Asian. We met last year, because we’re both new parents and our boys were in the same class at school. Schools in New Zealand are quite new for us, because of the different culture. I have two boys; one is in Year 1 and another is in Year 2. So, I have a little more experience about school than Gina has.
I came to New Zealand in 2009 and in the first two years, because of the language barrier, I had a tough time, but I find people here are quite nice. I got a lot of help from the community; I went to the church language group, and I talked to my neighbours and later on I took some courses. In the classes I talked to different people, I learned more and improved my language.
The culture’s different here, and years ago I thought I’m quite different from the New Zealanders, but nowadays I think we mix more, and we are multi-cultural. I think especially in Auckland the culture has changed a lot, and more and more people went to Chinese restaurants. They enjoy Asian food, and for me I tried more and more Western food – Western culture things.
I think I feel safe, but maybe I’m quite lucky. I always meet the nice neighbours, and many people in the community and at school. I really enjoy living here, but I know someone who said that in some areas it’s dangerous. I think the biggest problem in Auckland nowadays is that more and more people are coming here and the traffic’s getting worse.
I think if everyone does a little bit more for the community it will be better. More people are from Asia, like me, and we are not very familiar with the Western culture. We are learning new things and getting to know the whole environment, so if people were more accepting of each other and patient it would be better, especially in Auckland – the great Auckland.”
