Australia's beaches are truly iconic.
Sunshine, sand, an easygoing coastal lifestyle – what more could you ask for? But for many international students and visitors, the beach can be far more dangerous than it looks.
Research from Monash University has found that six in seven South Korean students misinterpret Australian beach safety signs, with many believing the red-and-yellow flags to signal danger, rather than safety. The study is part of a broader body of work led by Dr. Masaki Shibata, a Monash University lecturer and drowning prevention researcher whose work on how language and culture contribute to drowning risk is aiming to change those statistics.
For Dr. Shibata, the issue is personal. Despite having a PhD in linguistics, he recalls struggling to understand Australian beach safety language when first moving here.
“My work actually comes from my own experience. I know the language, but it was still really difficult for me to understand a couple of things,” he says.
Outside of academia, Dr. Shibata is also a surf lifesaver with Tamarama Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney, where he has been patrolling for about five years. With his expert knowledge, here's what every international student needs to know before getting in the water this summer.
Stay between the flags
One of the biggest misunderstandings Dr. Shibata has uncovered centres on one iconic Australian phrase: swim between the flags.
During his early work in drowning prevention, Dr. Shibata interviewed lifesavers at some of Sydney’s largest tourist beaches. One of their biggest ongoing concerns was that tourists often misinterpreted the message to mean that only confident swimmers were allowed between the flags.
In a later survey at Bondi Beach, 30% of those surveyed believed this interpretation was correct.
Dr. Shibata strongly believes that changing the wording of some of those instructions will help save countless lives.
“I’m always advocating that we have to change the words ‘swim between the flags’ to ‘stay between the flags’,” he says. “It can be translatable.”
His most important message is simple.
“No one dies between the flags,” he says. “That’s the fact. Based on the statistics, there are zero deaths between the flags.”
never go swimming alone
Always swim or spend time at the beach with others. If something goes wrong, having someone nearby who can raise the alarm or seek help can make all the difference.
Rip currents: the danger many students don’t know exists
Rip currents are responsible for 1 in 3 drownings in Australia, yet Dr. Shibata says awareness among international students is extremely low.
“We tested international students on how much they know about rip currents, and basically, it’s a really bad result,” he says. “About 60% of Japanese and over 80% of South Koreans don’t know the Japanese or Korean word for ‘rip current.’ They just don’t know the existence of it.”
Dr. Shibata runs water safety workshops with students all around the country and says that it’s not just international students who are lacking knowledge when it comes to rip safety.
“Even Australians often don’t know,” he says, “50% actually can't really spot the rip currents correctly, even though they said ‘I can’.”
That lack of awareness often leads to panic.
“You are basically being dragged into a deep area, possibly at the speed of Olympic swimmers or faster,” he explains. “We always say the message ‘stay calm,’ but I’m slightly doubtful people can take advantage of that message. It’s almost like being on fire, and someone saying, ‘Stay calm.’”
Instead, he tries to explain what rip currents actually do.
“Rip currents circulate, so eventually it will take you back to the shore,” he says. “Just put your ear in the water, put your belly out, and float. Once you are stable, try to raise your hand and call for help."
Know your swimming ability and stay within your limits
Be honest about your swimming skills and experience in open water. Ocean conditions can change quickly, and even confident swimmers can get into trouble if they push beyond their abilities.
If you'd like some practice before you head into the water, look into swimming lessons. Many educational institutions, organisations and study bodies across Australia offer swimming lessons for adults - some are even free for international students! Just have a look online and see what's available nearby.
Check beach conditions before you go
Look up current beach conditions and warnings on the Surf Life Saving Australia Beachsafe App or via your local council's social media channels. Avoid beaches that have no lifesavers, even if others appear to be swimming; most drowning deaths occur on unpatrolled beaches where there are no lifesavers.
LEARN BEACH safety before you arrive in Australia
Although there’s already plenty of educational material about beach safety available, the problem is often that people just don’t think about it.
“The question is, how do we make people read this message if they are not interested in water safety?"
It was these questions that led Dr. Shibata to develop beach safety resources that can be embedded into the IELTS practice materials already used by migrants and international students.
“Migrants are focused on studying for IELTS so they can get the visa, university or job,” he says. “So we use this opportunity. They are doing the reading exercise, but they are also reading super carefully about rip currents. There is a significant improvement [in people's understanding].”
Ultimately, Dr. Shibata believes prevention starts with acknowledging that many drownings sadly occur because of simple, fixable misunderstandings. By meeting people where they are linguistically, culturally and practically, hopefully we will soon start to see a sharp decline in those numbers.
“Stay between the flags,” he says. “And stay safe.”
To access Dr. Shibata and his team's Water Safety: A Reading Exercise for English Proficiency Tests, head to the link - registration is required, but the exercise is free to download.
