I am English and my wife is Australian and for some time I have been meaning to write a post about our “intercontinental love – straddling the cross-cultural divide” and such. But much as I would like to offer  telling insights or advice about a dual-national marriage, to be honest it is almost never an issue between us.
For a start, there aren’t many real cultural differences between England and Australia anyway. And here I am not talking about sporting rivalry or barbecues or spending time at the beach and that kind of thing, I am meaning the real, big difference like religion, family traditions, status of women and so on. Its unlikely that marrying an Australian girl means you are going to have to convert to some exotic new religion and start handing over 50% of your salary to her Dad! (and if her Dad says you do then you probably need to keep a close eye on him….) To see just how complicated a dual-nationality marriage CAN get, check out this site.

Granted there are some cultural differences between the English and Australians but I think a lot of them are overstated and promoted through lazy stereotypes like the “whingeing poms and the laid back aussies”. I struggle to think of an example where our different nationalities have any realbearing on our marriage. Granted there is sometimes a UK comedy show that she “doesn’t get” or I might use a saying or expression that she hasn’t heard before (and she mispronounces the word “haddock”) but, apart from that, no real effect.

Or it could be that my wife is just an extraordinarily patient person and puts up with my little foibles

Anyway, for me and my Mrs, shared values are far more important than minor details like whether you wear Billabong or Lonsdale clothes. If you are both on the same page when it comes to the big stuff then the national differences about Toad in the Hole won’t matter so much….

Australian Toad in the Hole

English Toad in the Hole

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