Australians speak english, but sometimes I can't understand my own language! Over the past month of living here, we have discovered quite a few differences. For instance, an Iced Coffee here has ice cream in it and a milkshake doesn't! Tomato Sauce is Ketchup, Marinara Sauce is Seafood Sauce and Napoli Sauce is a Tomato-Marinara. I'm still trying to figure out how to say Lemonade without getting a Sprite. Here are a few stories about the confusion behind some words or phrases:
Rooting for the Correct Team (I'll attempt to tell it like Jillian, because her version is the funniest):
We were sitting in a coffee shop and looking at the photos of local rugby/footie teams on the walls, discussing which team we should be rooting for now that we live in Australia. The more we talked about this, the more we got odd glances and snickers from families sitting around us. Finally, we asked the waiter if he would tell us who to root for. Jillian asked, "I mean should we root for the Maroons or the Wallabies? Or maybe the Broncos?!" He seemed a little disoriented by the question. It wasn't until later that I found out that "to root" in Australia, is a somewhat milder form of saying "to f**k". Which makes it all the funnier that Jillian told the waiter, "Well, I guess we should just root for them all!"
Shouting in Noisy Bars:
Michael told us that the custom here in bars is that typically one person will shout a round for his friends, and then his friends will shout back. So, I'm thinking these bars ought to be pretty noisy for all this yelling back and forth. But Michael explained to us that shouting in an Aussie bar means you are going to pay. I guess if you're going to shout a lot, you better be willing to put your money where your mouth is. Literally.
Laws of Attraction:
Today I asked the guy in 7-11 if they had any magnets. He said, "What you asking for? Magnums?!"
Lost in Translation:
My classmate from Barcelona asked me how to say that you want to skip class. I told her that sometimes people call it "playing hooky". She said, "Well, I want to do some hooking today!" I had to tell her that activity is illegal and not quite what she wanted to say.
But What?!
We've noticed that some Australians like to say but at the end of their sentence. For instance, "We could walk to town, but." or "I reckon he liked her a lot, but." We keep waiting for the next part of the sentence, except that's it!
Scientifical
At a theme park, my classmates were discussing the best place to sit on a roller coaster. Willy from Madrid argued that the front is best, but the back is also good because of "centrific" force. I corrected him and said, "centripetal". He excused himself, "Well, I don't know physical. I'm not good at math." I laughed and said that being physical doesn't require much math, but would probably be the best ride in the park. He didn't get the joke.
Rooting for the Correct Team (I'll attempt to tell it like Jillian, because her version is the funniest):
We were sitting in a coffee shop and looking at the photos of local rugby/footie teams on the walls, discussing which team we should be rooting for now that we live in Australia. The more we talked about this, the more we got odd glances and snickers from families sitting around us. Finally, we asked the waiter if he would tell us who to root for. Jillian asked, "I mean should we root for the Maroons or the Wallabies? Or maybe the Broncos?!" He seemed a little disoriented by the question. It wasn't until later that I found out that "to root" in Australia, is a somewhat milder form of saying "to f**k". Which makes it all the funnier that Jillian told the waiter, "Well, I guess we should just root for them all!"
Shouting in Noisy Bars:
Michael told us that the custom here in bars is that typically one person will shout a round for his friends, and then his friends will shout back. So, I'm thinking these bars ought to be pretty noisy for all this yelling back and forth. But Michael explained to us that shouting in an Aussie bar means you are going to pay. I guess if you're going to shout a lot, you better be willing to put your money where your mouth is. Literally.
Laws of Attraction:
Today I asked the guy in 7-11 if they had any magnets. He said, "What you asking for? Magnums?!"
Lost in Translation:
My classmate from Barcelona asked me how to say that you want to skip class. I told her that sometimes people call it "playing hooky". She said, "Well, I want to do some hooking today!" I had to tell her that activity is illegal and not quite what she wanted to say.
But What?!
We've noticed that some Australians like to say but at the end of their sentence. For instance, "We could walk to town, but." or "I reckon he liked her a lot, but." We keep waiting for the next part of the sentence, except that's it!
Scientifical
At a theme park, my classmates were discussing the best place to sit on a roller coaster. Willy from Madrid argued that the front is best, but the back is also good because of "centrific" force. I corrected him and said, "centripetal". He excused himself, "Well, I don't know physical. I'm not good at math." I laughed and said that being physical doesn't require much math, but would probably be the best ride in the park. He didn't get the joke.
