Blog A

A)    What is it to be a New Zealander? (200-250 words)

I discussed with my host brother Max and asked him to tell me what he thought were the main principles of a being New Zealander. First of all he revised the question into a proper English format (“What does it mean to be a New Zealander”) and we went from there. He defined the main characteristics as Loyalty, friendship (Having mates) and loving rugby. The standard New Zealander is always active and outside. Instead of staying inside and gaming, they love to go outside and kick a ball around. There were hardly many moments when I wasn´t doing something active or not being harassed by Max for being a typical lazy Chilean. If you don´t have mates in New Zealand, you are a loser. That´s why everyone in New Zealand is cool because they are all friends and show great camaraderie. An interesting thing I noticed was that they all love Rugby. I swear I watched rugby most nights of the week and if a live game wasn´t on, highlights definitely would be. To conclude I feel that being a New Zealander can basically be defined as being a “good mate” and just treating others as you would want to be treated.