Cross-Cultural Communication and the Experiences of Australian Soldiers During the First World War

For many Australian soldiers travelling overseas during the First World War, the experience of trying to communicate with those who did not speak English would prove difficult. Their letters, diaries, and trench periodicals reveal various aspects of Australian soldiers’ experiences of the First World War: their knowledge of and attitudes towards others, their management of military-civilian encounters, their imagining of ‘friends’ and ‘enemies,’ and their construction of identity around language. This chapter provides an overview of Australians’ experiences of language, from their first trip to Egypt to their time on the Western Front. It outlines some of the key ways in which Australians encountered others through language and how they made sense of these encounters.