Thank you, Pia. Yes, my participants report similar expectations and experiences to those of Grace’s! What’s interesting to me is how race and privilege come into play in these experiences. Research on South Korean and Japanese working holidaymakers has shown that, often, these sojourners feel discriminated against due to their ‘Asianness’ and that they report difficulties accessing ‘real’ Australians. Interestingly, it seems that young Germans also have difficulties accessing imagined ‘real’ Australians, with exception of the workplace. Yet, they face similar issues around exploitation and abuse in the workplace. I look forward to reading what your research finds in the employment context.

Thank you for your comment, Eleonora. It truly was a fantastic conference. The prospect of meeting academics from across the world (many whose work I have admired for a long time) was daunting at first, but everyone was extremely approachable, and genuinely interested in the ‘next generation’s’ research. ISB is held every two years – I hope to meet you there some day.

I’m very interested in your study, especially the part about German backpackers looking to the workplace for the hopeful realization of their language learning expectations. I recall a similar report from Chang (2015) who talked about Taiwanese students in Australia unis complaining that there were “too many Chinese” where they were hoping to encounter more L1 speakers of English. In both your study and Chang’s, English-fluent locals are perceived to be preferred conversation partners, who may be found in more formal social domains like employment. I think this affirms the relevance of the workplace as locale for linguistic research, especially where migrants (backpackers or stayers) are involved.