One thing that I’ve been particularly interested in about New Zealand is its honesty and openness. It's everywhere: road signs, television (commercials), radio, classrooms...etc. When first watching TV. with my flatmates (3 of which are American), we were all shocked to find the bluntness in New Zealand commercials. The commercials that deal with sensitive issues our very honest and open. They seems to be no sugar coating. We were also shocked by the lack of censorship on television. When watching American shows, we instantly noticed scenes that would usually have been cut our or censored at home. After my initial shock, I found myself wondering whether or not this was more effective or not? After being in New Zealand for a couple of months, I've grown to truly appreciate the honesty in which they describe issues. I think that it cuts out all of the nonsense and gets straight to the point. When there are important issues to be discussed, they don't seem to censor it and make everything PG, they simply state what the problem is and how it can be fixed.
One of the things I've really grown to appreciate is the road signs. Rather than just saying slow down or be careful, they have huge blunt billboards. These signs really make you stop and think and are effective attention-getters. I don't know if Kiwis are so accustomed to them that they overlook them, but they definitely get my attention. Every time I am in a car/bus, I look for all the different road signs. Above is an example of one road sign that we passed during our Easter Break. The sign has a speeding ticket on a corpses body. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw a sign like this...I was completely caught off guard. However, now I think why not? What is the purpose of America censoring everything? What's wrong with a little bluntness? It's one of the things that I've found refreshing about New Zealand.
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