Advice from other international students
- Go op-shopping (shopping in second-hand stores). This is a fun and cheap way of shopping.
- Give someone a chocolate fish (marshmallow covered in chocolate) as a token of your appreciation.
- Sniffing is impolite, but it’s okay to blow your nose into a handkerchief or tissue.
- Don’t bother using an umbrella in Wellington—you’ll spend 80 percent of your time trying to unflip it.
- When crossing the road, look right, then left, then right again.
- Most banks have free accounts for tertiary students.
- Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’; Western culture is a verbal culture so Kiwis find it hard to read body languages prevalent in non-western cultures.
- Weather and sports are safe topics to discuss if you don’t know a person.
- Drinking alcohol is common in New Zealand, but don’t feel pressured to join in.