My friend Lisa lived in Sydney for six months about a year or so ago. She emailed me with some advice for translating from American to Australian. Here's an excerpt from her email:
Tip of the Week: Everything in Aus ends with an 'o' or a 'y/ie'
Instead of Football, it's Footy
Instead of Service station, it's Servo
Instead of afternoon, it's Arvo
Instead of Fitzgerald, it's Fitzy
She's not kidding. The Aussies have a nickname for everything and everyone. They're still trying to figure out how they can make Pam even shorter.
Some of the others that I've noticed:
Breakfast = Brekky
Truck/SUV that a tradesman drives = Tradie
Mobile phone = Moby
And it's not just in casual conversations, it's in print in advertisements and on commercials! It's so funny to me. It's amazing how even though we speak the same language, we really don't speak the same language. My first few days here I literally had no idea what people were saying. "Umm... I'm sorry, what?" It gets pretty interesting in the office as we have people from all over the world - Ireland, England, Scotland, the Philippines, Indonesia, France, Brazil... and of course, me - the American.
Who took that photo of you? They must be a genius photographer... oh wait... it was me. It's pretty Awesome...Also, be prepared for LOTS of day drinking, beer out the wazzoo and also daytime sitcoms like Neigbours and Home & Away. I used to watch them for Kylie Minogue & her hot sister! Bring me back something fancy like a digerydoo or a boomerang! Or maybe even my own Kangaroo! Gray could wrestle it to the ground! We miss you and hope you have lot's & lot's of fun.
ReplyDeleteNick, Lindsay & The Little General xxoxoxoxoxoxo