After eight months on the road, we both let out a subtle sigh of relief upon landing in our first English speaking country. How nice, we thought, to have conversations more complex than the requisite Where are you from? Where are you going? What am I eating? exchange. We’d be able to read street signs and advertisements. Ask for directions when lost without having to engage in complicated hand rituals. Read labels on items at the grocery store.
For the first few days, our excitement was transformed into delight as our ears were suddenly immersed in the familiar. We could pick up bits of interesting conversation at the coffee shop, listen to the radio news reports and easily navigate our way around.
But then slowly, words that seemed familiar but not quite comprehendible began creeping up around us.
GFC?
Cracker?
Esky?
While Australia sounds like an English speaking country, and technically it is an English speaking country, to our American ears, it’s not quite the English that we were used to. Australians abbreviate EVERYTHING. I’m not sure how they evolved to be the most linguistically lazy people on the planet, but it seems that nothing and no one in Australia is called by its/their full name. The GFC that we kept hearing about on television ads against the newly proposed mining tax? That would be the Global Financial Crisis, Australians’ catch phrase for the worldwide economic recession. A tour guide named Shazza? Her birth certificate says Sharon but no one has ever called her by her given name. Not even her mother.
So here for your amusement (or in case you ever find yourself struggling to understand what an Aussie is saying to you) are a few of our favorite Australian words and phrases, translated for your American English ears:
- How ya’ going? = How are you?
- Love/Mate = Mr./Mrs.
- Bikkie = biscuit = cookie
- Iced Coffee = ice cream coffee float
- Reckon = I guess
- GFC = Global Financial Crisis
- Capsicum = bell pepper
- Beautiful (adjective applied to food) = delicious or good
- Footie = Australian Rules Football
- Cracker = great, wonderful, fantastic
- Esky = cooler
- Joey = baby kangaroo
- Rego = car registration
- Ute = utility truck. Sort of like a 1970s low rider pick up.
- Zebra Crossing = pedestrian crossing
- Mozzie = mosquito
What are your favorite Australianisms (or other isms from the many English speaking countries around the world)? Share in the comments below.
Amy and Lewis
In case you did not see it on Facebook, we are back in the States. While in Australia, we received the news that my stepfather, Lewis, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Two weeks later we were on a 27-hour plane ride from Sydney to New York and the next day we caught a flight visit Lewis in Charlotte, North Carolina. For now, we’re bouncing between family and friends while we figure out our next move. We still have stories to tell from our three weeks in Australia, so stayed tuned for tales of catching our first waves, wining and dining our way through the Hunter Valley and cheering on Australia’s Union rugby team.
This post is part of a series on our experiences while traveling independently in China. Click here to read Part One: Language and here to read Part Two: Food
The people are pushy and rude. And you can forget about personal space.
Sorry, folks, but after nearly a month in China I can tell you that there is no way around this one. You will be pushed. You will be cut off. And that cute old grandma over there? She’ll throw you an elbow in a heartbeat if you come between her and that bus.
You will also have your Western sense of personal space violated in any and every crowded public space. We experienced this for hours on end during our two days standing in line at the World Expo in Shanghai. If there is an inch of space between you and person behind you, the line is too drawn out. Instead of withdrawing from contact, it seems to be sought after.
And it wasn’t just us. While eating lunch outside the Terra Cotta Warriors museum in Xi’an, we witnessed what to us was the most bizarre scene. A young Chinese woman is sitting on bench eating her lunch. Other empty, equally shaded, equally scenic benches surround her. Along come three elderly Chinese women, who all decide that it is time for a rest. The three of them squeeze onto the bench where the young woman is eating her lunch. The young woman packs up her lunch and moves the 3 meters to the next bench to eat her lunch in peace. Thirty seconds later, the elderly women leave.
So how do you deal with the constant chaos and touchy strangers? We decided that rather than get upset about what is really nothing more than different cultural norms, to take the approach of cultural anthropologists and make stuff up about why the Chinese do what they do. Rubbing up against us? Must be that touching a Westerner is good luck. Cars that plow into crowded crosswalks? Perhaps they are just doing their part for population control. Rushing the gate at the airport as soon as it looks like they might begin boarding? Everyone is so excited to be flying for the first time they cannot wait another minute.
Adjusting you perspective is the key to enjoying your time in China. You are not going to instill Western norms of personal space in the 1.3 billion Chinese. So instead of having them wonder why that white person (you) is so upset standing on the crowded subway, stand back (in the arms of a stranger) and enjoy the ride.
After eight months on the road, we both let out a subtle sigh of relief upon landing in our first English speaking country. How nice, we thought, to have conversations more complex than the requisite Where are you from? Where are you going? What am I eating? exchange. We’d be able to read street signs and advertisements. Ask for directions when lost without having to engage in complicated hand rituals. Read labels on items at the grocery store.
