 ６月２２日（日）
本当は、毎日日本語と英語の方が良いのだろうけど、ついつい日本語だけになってしまう。
今日は、オーストラリアについてちょっと話そう。英語でも書こう。一言一言一緒ではないかもしれないけど、内容はほぼ一緒なので。
ガイドブックを参考にしてます。
２００３～２００４年の『地球の歩き方』のオーストラリアを持ってる人は、重複しているところが多いかもしれないので、そっちを読みましょう。
ところで、早速も脱線ですが、２００３～２００４年の『地球の歩き方』のオーストラリアの写真を撮っているDice-K Maruさんのスノーボードの写真もいいよ。本当は、スノボ写真撮ってはって、おもろいおっちゃんやでー。機会があったら見てみてネ。
さてさて。
正式には、オーストラリア連邦。
首都はキャンベラ。
昔は、カナダの首都がトロントじゃなくてオタワといったくらいに、オーストラリアの首都はシドニーじゃなくてキャンベラと覚えたものです。
面積は、７６８万２３００K㎡。日本の２１倍らしいです！日本が２１個分ですよ。広い…。
人口は１９７１万人。そのうち４８５万人はビクトリア州で、うち３５２万人はメルボルンに住んでいます。（シドニーには４１６万人）。
元首は、英国の女王エリザベス二世で首相は、ジョン・ハワード氏。政体は議会制民主主義です。
８つの独立国があると口にされる行政区。６つの州と二つの特別区があり、各強い自治権があるとか。まとまって一つの国。
民族構成は、９６％がヨーロッパ系で（うちイギリス系が７７％を占めている）、アジア系は２％、混血も含めて先住民アボリジニは０．９％らしいです。統計の取り方は分かりません。宗教は、７４．４％がキリスト教徒とされていますが、キリスト教自体が複雑な分類のある宗教なので細かいことは分かりません。公用語は英語。Aussie Englishです。アメリカンイングリッシュよりかはイギリスの英語の方に近いと思う。通貨は、オーストラリアドル。為替レートは現在、１ドルは７５～８０円くらいです。
水道水は飲めます。でも私はそうとは知らず、BRITAを買ってしまいましたが、愛用してます。
気候は、これだけ広いので、場所によって全然違います。北部沿岸は熱帯で雨季と乾季に分かれて、中南部沿岸は温帯から冷温帯で四季があるとされています。大陸中央部は砂漠気候です。
I suppose it’s better to write in both Japanese and English
everyday, since this is on a homepage that encourages people to learn English.
So for today at least, I’ll write in both languages. Never mind the subtle
differences between both.
I’m looking
at my guidebook, so if you share the same ‘Australia 2003-2004, Chikyuu no
arukikata’I suggest you take a look at that one.
Just a quick
note. One of the photographers, Dice-K Maru, takes interesting pictures of
snowboard riders and its scenes, so if you’re interested in snowboard, go and
search for some of his snowboard photos. He is located in Whistler when he is
not in Chiba in Japan. A lot of people try to bring in overseas’ snowboard scenes
into Japan; he tries vice versa - to send out some snowboard scenes in Japan
outside.
Anyway, the
full name for Australia is Commonwealth of Australia. The capital city is Canberra. Not
Sydney. I remind you that because I used to keep thinking it was Sydney
instead of Canberra, in the same way that I kept mistaking Toronto to
be the capital of Canada when instead it should really have been Ottawa. So
just to make it crystal clear, it’s Canberra.
The area is an
amazing 7,682,300Km-squared. That equates to 21 worth of Japan’s
area. Work your imagination. You see, a lot of the times when people look at a
map (a map with a totally inaccurate scale), Australia is drawn much smaller than it really should be. I say this
because my grandfather took a ruler and worked out that Australia is pretty small… with a map that had the British Isles
larger than France and Spain together…! Please be careful when you look at maps, folks.
The
population is 19,710,000. If you’ve started to calculate the average area one
person gets by dividing the total area by the population, I do hope you are
aware that not all terrains are totally livable, of course. You wouldn’t find a
huge population in the middle of a dessert, for example. Anyway, since I’m in Melbourne in Victoria, I would
just like to add that 4.85 million are in Victoria and
out of that many people, 3.52 million are in Melbourne. 4.16
million are in Sydney, by the way. No reason. Just felt like adding.
The
head of state is Queen Elizabeth II and John Howard holds the premiership here
for now. The form of government is parliamentary democracy. The country is said
to have eight independent states, made up of six states and two special wards
(is that how you say it?). Each territory has its own rights of self-government
(I do hope I’m making sense…), and together they make up one country.
Approximately 96% are Europeans (of which77% are British descendants), 2% are
Asians and 0.9% are Aborigines (including mixed-blood people). 74.4% are Christians.
I’m taking these numbers from the guidebook, and as to how reliable the
statistics are I can’t be sure. But if you could refer to the numbers to the
extent that you would like to have a grasp of what the country is like, that’ll
probably be the most appropriate. The common language is English. Australia is known for its unique Aussie English. The currency is
Australian dollars. I’m sure you’ve seen either a capital A or AUS in front of ‘$’
mark before. That’s Australian dollar. AUS$1 is about 75 to 80 yen, right
now.
You could
drink tap water. I’ve bought Brita, before I checked that I could drink tap
water, but it’s okay. I use it dearly.
The climate is very
different from place to place, needless to say, with such a huge area. The
northern coast is the Torrid Zone. A tropical place. It has two seasons, the rainy and the dry.
The southern central coast is a temperate zone with four seasons. The central
part of the continent has a desert climate.
とりあえず一般常識としてこれくらいです。
またたまにオーストラリアのことを載せますね。
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