My name is Harry, Chinese name is Hanno.
My hometown is Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. I emigrated when I was about 17 years old. I landed in Australia on March 27, 2007. In 2011, I was naturalized to Australia, but I still return to China every year and return to my hometown.
Young immigrants, so far decades, but the memory of my hometown is still deep in my mind. I return to my hometown every year during the Chinese New year. In February, the weather is usually-20 to 30 degrees, and it is very cold. The climate is quite the opposite of Australia.
Hometown: Qiqiha
Memory of home food is coveted, often back home, I have a big appetite. I am a homesick northeast person, like to get together with the family. All my relatives are in the northeast, only my mother will come to Australia occasionally for a few months with me.
Although I have been naturalized to Australia, I am still very concerned about everything in my hometown.
1. Apply for immigration in order to accompany the students
When I was 17 years old, I was sent by my mother to study in Australia, and then I applied to emigrate to stay in Australia. A lot of people think that I grew up in Australia as a second generation, but in fact, I should be really a new generation.
In fact, I did not mean to study abroad and emigrated at first, just because I did not study hard enough at home, my family hoped to create a better learning environment for me, decided to send me to school abroad. I was a single-parent family, my mother has always loved me twice, for me she can make a lot of unplanned choices.
At first, I just went abroad for a change of learning environment, but when I really came to Australia to study, my mother`s friend who settled in Australia suggested that we should apply for immigration. Emigration, this is a choice we didn`t plan on before.
Combined with that, if we emigrated to Australia, I would have been free from high school and no tuition at college. So considering the cost change, we decided to deal with immigration!
There were many options for immigrants back then, and my mother had always been in business, which was more suitable for Australian investment immigrants. So we chose to invest in immigration this way. I was a child under the age of 18, so my mother came with me.
At that time, the immigrants did not pass through the intermediary, nor through any media. At that time, we were looking for students from Qiqihar University`s English Department as an interpreter. According to the requirements of the Australian Immigration Service website, we filled out the form ourselves, downloaded the form, and then submitted the information.
At first it was submitted with a try-and-try attitude. However, it was not expected that three months later, the Immigration Service would send us a message that our trial was nearing the end of the trial, allowing us to provide additional materials and check-ups. So, we added all the information, and then we emigrated to the approval.
Hometown: Qiqiha
2. My motivation to leave my hometown with reluctance was to study for me at first.
My mother`s idea is that if she can accompany me here, if she doesn`t, she can stay in Australia, and she can still go home to do business as usual. Australia`s policy is that as long as I enter the country at the same time, my mother`s return will not affect my identity.
When we were waiting for visas at home, we did not have the idea of certain approvals, and we did not look forward to the stars and the moon like our fellow countrymen, but to an optional attitude. Fortunately, Australia`s immigration policy in 2006 and 2007 was very loose and visa approvals went well.
We received a visa in November 2006, which is valid for 6 months and requires us to land within 6 months. So we dragged on to the last day of the six months before landing. The day of landing was March 27, 2007, and I still remember 11 years later.
My mother was worried that I couldn`t take good care of myself, so she decided to send me over and go to high school with me for two years. First 2 years, my mother has been here with me, give up the domestic business.
Until I was on the right track, my mother returned home, so my mother has not been PR, nationality, every year free time to visit me, help me. Because I have other business, more busy, my mother can help me take care of the business, take care of some things.
Hometown: Qiqiha
3. Sydney in 2007 was a loss.
Over the years, Australia and China have been more in line, in China can think of things, now Sydney has.
But Sydney in those years was not. At first came to Australia, Sino-Australian regional cultural differences made me very difficult to adapt.
I have not been to Australia before, before see Australia is very beautiful on television. But when I arrived, I found that there was no such third-tier city as Qiqihar!
Sydney has a wide range of geographical locations, with high-rise buildings in the heart of Sydney, and scale-to-scale ratios. Outside the city centre, however, there are dilapidated little buildings, about a hundred years old. The suburbs of Sydney are like the countryside of the country.
Moreover, many shopping malls in the country were closed late. After about 04:30 in Australia, there was no one on the street.
In 2007, even in the Chinese district, there were not so many Chinese restaurants, there were not as many Chinese restaurants as they are now, and there were very few Chinese restaurants available at that time.
The difference between the city and the original expectations, coupled with the language barrier just out of the country, made me very unfit at first.
Now Sydney.
4. Life in Australia is on track
I came to school, teenage I had English courses in junior high school in the northeast, so almost came to Australia language base is very weak, came to Australia, are stuttering.
At first, I went to the language high school, there were no Chinese teachers, all English, so for about two or three months, I was very unfit.
Fortunately, Australia`s policy changed at that time! Previously Australian policy stipulated that immigrant students can attend public schools, international students must go to international schools, not public schools.
The year I arrived, the policy was changed to allow foreign students to enter local public schools.
As a result, there are a dozen non-immigrant Chinese students in our class. We can have communication opportunities, young age and a language environment, in a short period of two or three months, I have adapted to the new life relatively quickly, the language is basically not too big obstacles, may be written expression ability is general, But basically can hear the expression of the locals!
Some Chinese friends may come to Australia from the beginning because language skills are not good and then head into the Chinese circle, can not get out.
But because of my extroverted personality, when I went to school, I became monitor and representative of grade, so there are a lot of things I will communicate with teachers, schools, including regular meetings every Wednesday, representatives of each grade have to speak, and so on.
Because of this opportunity, my language ability, adaptive ability has greatly improved.
In addition to language barriers, life in Australia is still very different from domestic life, and there are numerous challenges.
But after two or three months of stumbling, I felt like I was growing up, from an ignorant northeast child to a guy living in Australia.
This year has been the 11th thought to enter Australia. In retrospect, I am very grateful to myself who was not scared to return home 10 years ago. I have chosen to take the first step of going abroad. Like many of my immigrant friends, I have chosen not to regret the decision of emigration until I see it.
