You got to be politically correct.

You've got to be polite. You can't be

direct like Serbs are. You can't be

blunt. They're going to get offended.

>> Meet Angelia. Born in Bosnia, [music]

she lived in Croatia before moving to

Serbia in the '90s from where she and

her family immigrated to Australia.

After finishing school there, she spent

2 years in the UK. More than 10 years

ago, she decided to return to Serbia,

where she now [music] runs a small

beauty salon. She shared what's wrong

with dating in Australia, what shocked

her about Australian homes, and [music]

why she feels more free in Serbia than

in Western countries. Enjoy.

>> What did you miss most from Serbia being

in Australia?

>> It's amazing how structured everything

is. There's no spontaneity and no common

sense. I swear to God, everything is

boxed up. You live like a machine.

Everything is programmed. Like your

whole day, I'll give you an example. So,

you get up. Let's say you go to work. At

work, everything is structured. I

actually their work ethics is really

good, by the way. Then you go home.

There's no going out until it's the

weekend. Then on the weekend, you go to

your shopping on Saturday and you clean

your house. Then on Sunday night, you go

out and Sunday you chill out. Oh yeah.

And the government structures is really

good. Customer service is really good.

Anything institution that you need to

go, it's simple. In one place, you get

things done because it's it's done to

such perfection.

And even in the shops, they'll serve you

and they'll like try and get you the

perfect everything and you get like

whatever you want and they take that

perfection into their personal life and

that's where it goes wrong. You have to

call up your friend. Oh, I'm going to

have a coffee in 3 weeks. But the best

thing is the internet dating. I couldn't

believe it. This went crazy in in like

two here 2000. So I was looking around

going, let's see, this is not normal. So

on your profile you can click what you

want literally body type then height

then hair color eye color level of

education income level you just tick

boxes and then on top of all that it's

like well you need to like my dog oh you

need to like going for a walk this one

guy said sorry ladies you need to know

how to spell and I thought to myself but

these are human beings it's not a custom

kitchen

>> that a guy is going to come in well I

want five drawers and five cupboards.

Like human beings don't come in like

this madeup perfection how you want it.

That's the problem. And the thing that

people just don't communicate like

they're just kind of like robots. And

that's what I missed. I found that very

strange that it's just like this was in

the '9s. People were so isolated. Like

we're getting isolated here. They were

doing that back in the '90s because

everything's so perfectly structured.

That's perfect structure or whatever

they consider a social norm gets gets

structured in a in a private life and

that's just doesn't work.

>> What shocked you the most in Australia

when you lived there? My first day when

we were when I was going to my aunties,

you know how here in Serbia and in

Croatia, most houses are like double

stories and brick over there we went and

the older houses are all made out of

wood and they're all one level and

they're all really small and there's no

fences here. Like everybody has a fence

and I thought to myself like everything

is manicured perfectly. All the um

walkways are perfect like they're all

cut on an edge. Everything's green.

There's no like wild grass growing

anywhere. I found that strange. And the

like roads were wide. That was my first

impression. We were more mature in

Croatia at the age of 13 than these

Aussie kids were. They were like still

playing with like stupid games like

chucking a ball against the wall and we

thinking, "What the hell?" So yeah, and

I found the schooling school system to

be like, "Oh my god, what are these kids

learning? We learned this like 3 years

ago." They don't have a lot of general

knowledge. That's not the point for

them. The point is to be practical.

>> Oh yeah.

>> And actually when you think about Aussie

education as I got educated through like

high education, it's actually a lot

better than what we do here. You don't

have as as much theory to learn, but you

got to put it into practice. We would

hear like regurgitate or what's the

definition of this? So you like remember

it and you write it down. In Australia,

they don't do that. They ask you a

problem solving question. Unless you

know the theory, you can't answer answer

the question and that makes you prepared

more to actually work. Another thing

that they really do well in that in

their schools, they have group

assignments and we get an assignment.

This was in b in business studies for

instance, make a marketing plan for this

product and there's five of us that have

to do it and then hand it in like four

weeks later. That's a really good thing

to learn because it teaches you people

skills and to work in a team.

>> Yeah.

>> Cuz not everywhere you're going to get a

job where you work by yourself. Here in

Serbia, we have a huge problem of people

saying, "But I'm right. You like you're

wrong. It's going to be how I want it."

And they start arguing because that was

never actually taught at school.

Ah

community.

for

western oriental gentlemen. It's a a

derogatory term where they put you down.

>> So So you're a walk, go home.

foreign.

Uhhuh.

only 25 over the hill.

foreign.

Uhhuh.

Maximum.

Oh,

naked.

Like, what are you

>> [laughter]

>> Okay.

I'm a terrorist.

Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

Fore

social

for

Australia. Fore

complex.

Uhhuh.

Australians

uncorrupted. So you can't bribe a

doctor. You can't bribe anybody.

>> Uhhuh.

>> It's just not legal. Anyhow, so I had a

shorter leg, my right leg, and I had it

extended. So this was like a huge

surgery. My doctor was really good. So

at Cuddler Christmas, I give him like a

really really expensive bottle of

bourbon or something and he's like,

"Huh? Huh? Why are you giving me this?

But you already paid me." I'm like,

"Okay, take it as a Christmas present."

At the same time, I have a um Russian um

general practitioner. His name was

Vladimir Brozki. He was the best GP. So

I said to him for our Christmases on the

7th of January, I said, "Doctor, here I

deliberately didn't buy you vodka. I I I

got you bourbon just for you know happy

Christmas and all the things you like

like you help me with. Oh, okay. I drink

to your health. [laughter] There was no

Why did you buy this product? Yeah, I

drink to your health. He was so good. I

love Dr. Broski.

>> Why did you move to Serbia?

>> Well, I didn't plan to move. [laughter]

What happened? My sister's been living

in the UK since she's 11 years older

than me. Since 1984. So when we moved to

Australia, like every couple of years,

I'd go and visit her in London and then

go here to Serbia to visit my family and

then get a bus and go to Croatia to see

my family. So one in 20 and I liked it

because I did feel like a sense of

belonging because people were just

acting different. They were more

spontaneous like I'll talk to my

neighbor here for half an hour. Aussies

don't do that honestly. Everyone's in

their own houses. And then my uncle from

Croatia came to to our house in in to in

Sydney for 3 months cuz dad wanted to um

treat him, you know, to see Australia

because I was living with my parents at

at the time because rent in Australia is

extremely expensive

and so we have like two rooms. So I gave

him my room. So where the hell am I

going to sleep?

>> Yeah.

>> So I thought to myself, well, I had

enough money saved up. So I thought,

well, I'm going to take three months off

work and off I go to Serbia. And I

really enjoyed it because I was here for

like three months and I was what, 33

then. So I just enjoyed it. Everyone was

easygoing. People were spontaneous. We

like, oh well, let's go out. Let's meet

up. And I thought to myself, why the

hell am I living at my parents house?

The minimum wage per week is $700. In

the part of Sydney where we are from m

weekly rent is $700.

If you want to get cheaper rent, you

have to go in like inside of Sydney, not

on the beaches where it's dangerous and

you've got to seriously have like bars

on your windows and you don't go out

after 9:00 cuz you're going to get

robbed.

>> Wow.

>> And I thought, why am I living here? As

a single person, it's hard to live there

unless you're with a partner to actually

split

>> split the costs.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> And I thought, why am I doing this? And

I thought, I've got a trade that I can

do beauty therapy, just open up a small

business in one of my rooms and just get

clients, do some advertising.

>> How did you decide to start this

business?

>> I decided to start it because I've got

the trade from the from um because I am

a beauty therapist. I knew it would be

hard for me to get a job. for your

diplomas to get recognized, you go

through the um uh Department of

Education. I don't know what they do.

And I figured to myself, well, I've got

a spare room. Why just not do it? Cuz if

I did childcare, then I'd have to be

probably certified to work in this

childare in I'm thinking, I can't open

up my own childare center. You can't

exactly like you need to follow sub

rules. Do you want to laugh at

something? I went to the um council

building and I said, "I want to register

my business." And the guy goes,

"Register?

Are you crazy? You don't even know if

you're going to get customers. Why would

you want to register your business in

this country? You have to pay like bills

even if you don't make any profit." I'm

thinking, what if like police comes

and you got the normal police, they go

and check if the business is legal?

>> Yeah. I'm like, what do I do if the

common police have come? Then come to

me. You'll be fine. [laughter]

>> So, I figured I might as well do this.

>> This is a really easy way to do

business. Yeah.

>> Yeah. No, [laughter] no, it is. But

well, well, we do. Serves do that. But

you know what? When we in the west, we

follow the rules.

>> Yeah.

>> And we come here and the rules go out

the window.

>> Do you personally feel local here in

Serbia or still foreigner? I don't feel

foreigner. That's what I love about

people here. Like if I speak in Serbian,

I still speak Yakavisa more because mom

speaks Yakavisa. My dad spoke Yakavis

before he died. And it's just like cuz

that's what I've been born like taught

in Croatia. Then us Serbs all spoke

Yakavit because we were all from Bosnia

or Croatia.

>> Yeah.

>> And no one here says, "Why the hell are

you speaking?" So you've been here for

like 13 years. So you don't feel that

you don't belong. You don't feel this

sense of rejection or why did you come

here from Australia? They'll ask why are

you here from a good country like that?

Like what what got you to come here?

>> And that more out of curio curiosity.

But I don't feel like I'm a foreigner

here. Not at all.

>> I've never did. And that's what I love

about this country.

>> Have you experienced any kind of reverse

cultural shocks when you came back to

Serbia? This is how you deal with moving

to another country. Australia is not

Europe. It's completely different. You

come here with a blank page and you have

no expectations of and you don't compare

Europe to Australia. That's the only way

you're going to acclimate

and accept living there and see it for

what it is rather than, oh, look, cuz a

lot of um Serbs do this. Oh, but in

Europe it's like that. In Europe, it's

like that. But it's this is not Europe.

They've got a different mentality.

You're not going to get Europe into into

Australia. And same here. I knew, you

know, the buildings are old, the roads

are not perfect, the hospital is is like

falling apart. So I I knew to not to

expect what would you expect in the

western world. And so I no, I didn't

have a cold stroke. But then again, I

also came here without expectations

because if I start comparing, I do

compare it still to this day. What

pisses me off is the bureaucracy here.

Oh my god. You go to one place. Oh no,

no, you need this paper and you need you

know you need that paper. You come back.

Then another woman tells you, but you

need this. It's like for the love of

God.

>> Nobody knows.

>> Why can't you just organize yourself

and like that pisses me off and the

hospital, this hospital in this city is

is the worst in the whole country. I

don't know how it is in Belgrade, but

here without €500, a doctor won't uh

operate on you. And because they can't

tell you, well, I want 500 euros. This

is what they do. You go and you are on

the ward lying there for three days

without them operating on you. That's

how they

>> kind of let you know that you have to

give them money.

>> My biggest issue is the healthare system

here.

>> You get just a job because you know

someone and you know someone and there

you go.

>> It's really really really really bad.

>> I would like to ask you regarding your

identity. how you identify yourself now.

>> I identify myself as a total sad. Yeah,

definitely. I can I understand the um

Aussie culture. I can live there. I know

exactly what the rules of living there

are. What's expected of me? I can do

without a problem. I just choose I don't

like it. I don't like the structure. I

don't like everyone's like a computer.

But I can actually live in it as it is.

Like you got to be politically correct.

You've got to be polite. You can't be

direct like Serbs are. You can't be

blunt. They're going to get offended.

So, you need to know how to speak to an

Aussie without

telling them what you think without

going, "Well, I think this." They won't

accept that. I can live like that cuz

I've grew up with it. I don't actually

Maybe we Serbs should be kind of a

little bit more polite, but it doesn't

bother me that we're not. Serbian people

are a lot more nicer and accommodating

to foreigners than to Serbs. It's very

easy to get Serbs to fight against each

other. It's very easy either on a

national basis or like Cro and Serbs or

Serbs now with this like some are for

the students um protest others that

aren't. It's very easy to get us to

fight each other even on Serbian

interests

like like I said to you with Kosola some

of them are so desperate to go in the EU

and if it's the requirement give Kos

away well [ __ ] it like give it away we

just want to be part of the EU others

are like no that's part of our culture

and they're like oh why do you want like

vlan who cares it was 500 years ago but

hello we were under Turkish empire for

500 years we haven't lost our language

and we haven't lost our religion like

why do you not want to honor her? But

it's like why? Why do we live in the

past? And some people would seriously

sell their own mother for €20 if they

can go in the EU.

And that's what

that is absolute truth. That's what

Serbs need to learn. And it's just very

hard for us to be united and I don't

understand why.

>> You have been living in the UK for two

years in London.

>> I really enjoyed it. Even though they

they're Anglo-Saxon, but you can tell

that the English are still in Europe.

They're a lot more friendly. They're

easy going. They joke around. They've

got people there from all sorts of

nations. You don't feel like, "Oh,

you're a Serb while you're here."

>> So, yeah, it's I find them a lot more

friendlier and I love their dry sense of

humor.

>> I just love it.

>> It's similar to Serb.

>> Yeah. Very very similar. Um, and they

and they can like there's a saying in

English, they can take the piss out of

themselves like like when you're

actually laughing at at your own self.

So yeah, I yeah, I loved the UK sense of

humor. People were just I don't know

like just easy goinging and because I

was young. Um, I didn't care if there

was like five of us in one house cuz

you're young. You don't care that you're

sharing a room with another person and

>> all you want to do is work, go out, have

fun and you know you're not going to

live there. So, you know, you're going

to have to go back eventually. So, you

just enjoy yourself while you're there.

>> Would you like to go leave there?

>> Not now. Not Not when you can't say

Charles is not my king and end up in

jail.

>> No, thank you. No, I wouldn't.

>> There are a lot of people who are now in

Serbia trying to move out from Serbia

for a better life to Germany, to

Australia, to the UK.

>> I've got a different attitude. They need

to start listening to some alternative

information rather than living in this

fantasy of how it used to be in the 70s

when used people migrate because the

wages were better, the bills weren't so

expensive. It's completely changed now.

First of all, freedom of speech is gone

in most countries. In the UK is the

worst. My sister was telling me a guy

said out loud, "Charles is not my king."

Off he goes to jail. You literally now

can't say anything against the UK

government. They don't even give excuses

anymore. They literally tell them,

"Well, you're speaking against the

government off you go to jail." EU is

not that bad, but you definitely are

censored. Australia was the worst during

COVID of all the countries. People were

protesting. The police was okay throwing

rubber bullets at them

>> this wide and this thick. And there's

your freedom and your democracy. People

need to realize why the heck do you want

to go in the EU? People don't realize

that it's not the Europe and the

Australia are not the same as they used

to be. In Australia, they were having

phone numbers to report their neighbors

and New Zealand did the same and the UK.

Report your neighbors if you suspect

they're not following um lockdown rules

and people used to call.

>> What's the most valuable thing that you

found in Serbia?

>> People are a lot less judgmental in your

what you think and how you feel about

certain things. If it's political, they

may they may argue because Serbs love

politics. So in that regard, someone may

say, "Well, if he's you right or you're

wrong, well, I don't think I'm right."

But generally speaking, you know, if you

say, "I want my house like this. I don't

care if it looks ugly." They're like,

"Okay." Aussies will be like, "No,

that's like breaking standards. You

know, it has to be green. You can't have

a gray." And also, um, freedom of

thought and speech. You can talk openly,

honestly. You can be blunt. You won't

you don't need to feel that you are

politically correct. that you will

offend someone cuz zoes will pull you up

on it like they say like you can't talk

like that that's rude or whatever and

that's what I actually like the most in

here in Serbia and people will help each

other still you know you still talk to

your neighbors if you need help you say

can you help me and they'll still do it

or you call a friend up

over there it's yeah you're close net

family or a few friends [music] and

that's about