Barry Penney

Barry Penney attended Adelaide University reading Education. He spent the early part of his career working as a primary school teacher before leaving education to take up a job in sales and marketing. He eventually rose to general sales manager of Ciba-Geigy, a major pharmaceutical company. He went on to attend the Australian Administrative Staff College in Victoria and serves as an associate fellow at the Australian Institute of Management. Again a change of career: Barry, with his wife, purchased and skipper-chartered a forty-foot yacht in the Greek islands; they then ran their own hotel for five years in Bodrum, Turkey. After the death of his wife, he operated a business in management training in Sydney. Barry studied CELTA (Cambridge English Language Teaching for Adults), taught foreign students in Sydney, and then taught for three years in Vietnam and China, respectively. He is currently seeking a volunteer position teaching English in Cambodia.

Far Away Places

Culture Smart!

Gina Teague

Australia is different—a vast island-continent with distances so great that the capital of Western Australia is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. The landscape embraces magnificent tropical rainforests and deserts the size of several European states; temperate areas that sustain a flourishing wine industry, making Australia the world's fourth largest wine exporter; a sixteen-thousand-mile coastline of breathtaking beaches; and its unique fauna is testament to the country's &“down-underness.&” Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for more than fifty thousand years, yet European settlement is just over two hundred years old. Since the end of the Second World War the country has opened its doors to a hugely diverse immigrant population and slowly shaken off the mantle of British influence, transforming what was perhaps one of the dullest nations into one of the most stimulating. The Australians' old settler mentality—regarding themselves as &“battlers,&” and embarrassed by their lack of sophistication—has given way to a new national confidence. The achievements of Australia's artists, sportspeople, entertainers, scientists, and businesspeople puts them on the global stage. Despite the diversity of ethnicities there is a pervasive homogeneity among Australians: a generosity of spirit and a forthrightness, sometimes disarming for the visitor. A sense of fairness and equality is valued, as is the ability not to take oneself too seriously. Culture Smart! Australia introduces you to a young nation with one of the world's highest standards of living, &“where people work to live&” in order to enjoy a lifestyle that many across the globe covet, and in which Australians take great pride (and don't mind telling you about).

Barry Penney

Books

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