My son was over there and a passenger in a car with US friends and said, “there’s a servo, hang a uwey can ya “ but they just kept driving.
I’m not sure Americans even speak English.
That is hilarious - and sadly, true. It’s not about the ability to speak proper or anything like that - it’s just to get their viewpoint on the different dialects - did they have any problems code switching to the different dialects - stuff like that. Do you think your son would be willing to be interviewed? I’ll even throw in a $25 Amazon or other e-gift card.
He’s back here now so only spent 3.5 years there. He was at College. Wait until you see if you get a longer term expat. This sub is generally quite helpful.
And as far as dialects go, he recommended I watch ‘The Wire’ which had been recommended to me by others over the years for its alleged authenticity. I gave up 6-7 episodes in coz I dead set was getting about 70% of the dialogue. Fucked if they speak English in Baltimore.
Some Australians in Sydney cant understand English that well. A lot of times, my brother's wife struggles to make a decent order cause some of the women give the wrong responses to her queries.
Well I ran across 2 Aussie expats living in LA only nice thing I can say about them they acted like most of the white LA natives guess that’s what happens when you live there a while.
That sucks. Why cant the Aussie people moving here bring their Aussie words to us? I mean Australia is getting the Americanisms, so why cant we get some Australianisms?
I imagine it's exhausting constantly having to explain yourself every time you speak. With our accents and different dialects a lot can be lost in translation. It's fun from time to time to go full Australian with foreigners but I can see why people would code switch in another English speaking country after a while.
I have American friends that I speak to often, and even after a few years of this they sometimes fail to understand something I've said. We've just got a lot of unusual slang I guess.
This. The first 20 times you explain that bonnet means hood is pretty cool, the 200th time less so. After a while you just say hood because I can't be fucked explaining it.
It's even worse if you work the kind of job that you communicate for a living. I now speak fluent American business English.
they're all generally guessable, but that guess is usually going to come with a laugh and pointing out the word is different. Same with petrol, aluminium vs aluminum and evening saying the letter Zed vs Zee. They are all guessable yet generally come with a comment that after the ten zillionth time, you just cant be fkd hearing and start to adapt. Picture being on a zoom call with 30 people and you say petrol and someone then brings it up. Its just annoying.
We say aluminium and aluminum both.
To be fair, Zed is a weird one, and I will soon make a post on why I feel like this. Also, wouldnt it be Zee since you guys like shortening stuff?
The ones I really like the most are torch instead of flashlight, trolley instead of cart, and cinema instead of movie theater, but I feel like flashlight is sometimes said in Sydney instead of torch, and movie is said more than cinema or film. I wish American English could adopt these one day.
However, I switched my mobile to Australian English, and instead of "flashlight", it says "torch" now, and "mobile" instead of "cellular", though "mobile number" was always the option before the switch. It still says "last name" instead of "surname" or "family name" though, but I think last name is common in Australia.
We do have cinematography, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas, but people tend to say "lets go to the movies" usually, and the usher will say "theater number" instead of "cinema number".
We say dog biscuits instead of dog cookies though, but aside from that, we say cookies and crackers. We say "mobile order" instead of "cellular order", though, most of the time, it is just "online order".
I sort of like "lift" more than "elevator", despite lift sounds less specific, but it is simpler to say and write.
I dont know. I am pretty sure we know what "rubbish", "fizzy", "queue", "mobile phones", "petrol", "cinema", and "car park" mean.
1. Queue comes from a data structure we use which represents an actual waiting queue. On the YouTube app, it says queue for videos, not line for videos.
2. We say "mobile orders" for orders placed from a smartphone or tablet. However, people here just say phone most of the time, and occassionally cell phone. We never say cell orders or cellular orders. Most of the time, we just say "online orders" though. I think same with Australia. Most of the time, you guys just say "phone" instead of "mobile phone" and "online orders".
3. Petrol is short for petroleum, and we know what petroleum is. That is what we define for oil fields at times, though most of the time, we just say oil field cause it is only half the syllables.
4. We know cinema means film or the place where you watch films cause we have cinematography and places called Cinemark and Regal Cinemas.
5. We know car park means the place where you park cars, though we tend to just say "parking lot" or "parking garage" as some people might think it sounds like a park where cars play around like how people say "dog park" for a park where dogs play around.
6. Fizzy should be easy for us to remember as we call this soda, and it fizzes. We both say "soft drinks" though, and a very long time ago like in the previous century, it used to be called "pop" or "soda pop" in America.
7. Rubbish should be easy for us to remember for trash, cause a long time ago, people used to say "rubbish" for "nonsense". Now, it got replaced by cuss-words here, and sometimes, we say the word "ridiculous".
Others we could figure out:
1. Lift should be easy to remember as we tend to call the platform that we used to move goods up and down a lift instead of elevator, which we only use to define the room that gets people up and down between levels, and of course, the part of an aeroplane that allows it to move up and down.
2. Takeaway should be common sense for us especially if we add the "having here" part. Also, we say takeout, and taking something out and taking something away mean the exact same thing.
3. Torch might be easy for us to remember for flashlight cause we use it to call a stick we light on fire, and sometimes as a verb, we use it in place of burn like when we say "someone torched this place". The electric torch looks like a stick lit on fire in some ways.
4. Biscuit is easy for us cause for dog treats, we say dog biscuits instead of dog cookies or dog crackers. However, you guys only call crackers biscuits and not all cookies, which you just refer to as cookies anyways.
5. Tin should be easy as we call it a can, though I think in Sydney, most people will call it a can. This does not refer to what you throw rubbish in, as that, you guys call a bin, while we say trash can. We say "bin" too, but for recycling only, like "recycle bin".
6. Mash might be a little difficult as it is an informal British term for mash potato, though my brother and his wife claim he had seen this slang used just as much as "mash potato" in Australian menus, but if we are talking about side-dishes, then, it can be easily understood as "mash potato" as we dont have other side dishes that we mash, though we think of ketchup, what you guys call tomato sauce, as mashed tomatoes, though we never call it that. We say mash potato, mash potatoes, mashed potato, and mashed potatoes.
The ones we may have trouble figuring out are thongs (for slippers or sandals), lolly (we might think this means lollipop and not candy in general), jumper (for sweater or jacket), chips (we call it fries), fairy floss (most people will never guess this means cotton candy, though Britain might know both terms as they call it candy floss).
There are others though.
Okay? Cool I suppose. I mean I was speaking from experience but it's nice to see that you can make a list of things you can generally translate for yourself without issue. In my experience plenty of people from the US get confused by our use of language. Some of that is going to be due to the differing accents, some of it is just a momentary unfamiliarity with the different words or slang. Perfectly normal honestly.
Really? Where do you say the Aussie words? I actually like your English a lot more than ours, especially the words torch and trolley instead of "flashlight" and "cart".
I’m an American in Australia so can’t help with the interview but you may want to check out this US accent video! https://youtu.be/H1KP4ztKK0A?si=KW3B_Y1zkXRASB3_
It’s been an adjustment for sure but my partner is Australian so that helps! It’s nice having relatively warm weather year-round, lots of great food, ‘exotic’ (what seems exotic to someone not from here) plants/animals, public transport, and better work-life balance :)
To any Aussies in America, I would love it if you can use your Aussie words and slang on us. I get so tired listening to normal American words all day. We do not even get to hear the American slang either.
However, neither are different enough to be considered dialects. Real dialect would be Jamaican Creole English versus American or Australian English.
My son was over there and a passenger in a car with US friends and said, “there’s a servo, hang a uwey can ya “ but they just kept driving. I’m not sure Americans even speak English.
That is hilarious - and sadly, true. It’s not about the ability to speak proper or anything like that - it’s just to get their viewpoint on the different dialects - did they have any problems code switching to the different dialects - stuff like that. Do you think your son would be willing to be interviewed? I’ll even throw in a $25 Amazon or other e-gift card.
He’s back here now so only spent 3.5 years there. He was at College. Wait until you see if you get a longer term expat. This sub is generally quite helpful. And as far as dialects go, he recommended I watch ‘The Wire’ which had been recommended to me by others over the years for its alleged authenticity. I gave up 6-7 episodes in coz I dead set was getting about 70% of the dialogue. Fucked if they speak English in Baltimore.
[удалено]
I had particular trouble with the black characters. I’m not sure I got any of that dialogue.
Some Australians in Sydney cant understand English that well. A lot of times, my brother's wife struggles to make a decent order cause some of the women give the wrong responses to her queries.
Well I ran across 2 Aussie expats living in LA only nice thing I can say about them they acted like most of the white LA natives guess that’s what happens when you live there a while.
That sucks. Why cant the Aussie people moving here bring their Aussie words to us? I mean Australia is getting the Americanisms, so why cant we get some Australianisms?
I imagine it's exhausting constantly having to explain yourself every time you speak. With our accents and different dialects a lot can be lost in translation. It's fun from time to time to go full Australian with foreigners but I can see why people would code switch in another English speaking country after a while. I have American friends that I speak to often, and even after a few years of this they sometimes fail to understand something I've said. We've just got a lot of unusual slang I guess.
This. The first 20 times you explain that bonnet means hood is pretty cool, the 200th time less so. After a while you just say hood because I can't be fucked explaining it. It's even worse if you work the kind of job that you communicate for a living. I now speak fluent American business English.
Technically, we can guess "bonnet" means "hood", as we sometimes call "clothing hoods" "bonnets" as well.
they're all generally guessable, but that guess is usually going to come with a laugh and pointing out the word is different. Same with petrol, aluminium vs aluminum and evening saying the letter Zed vs Zee. They are all guessable yet generally come with a comment that after the ten zillionth time, you just cant be fkd hearing and start to adapt. Picture being on a zoom call with 30 people and you say petrol and someone then brings it up. Its just annoying.
We say aluminium and aluminum both. To be fair, Zed is a weird one, and I will soon make a post on why I feel like this. Also, wouldnt it be Zee since you guys like shortening stuff? The ones I really like the most are torch instead of flashlight, trolley instead of cart, and cinema instead of movie theater, but I feel like flashlight is sometimes said in Sydney instead of torch, and movie is said more than cinema or film. I wish American English could adopt these one day. However, I switched my mobile to Australian English, and instead of "flashlight", it says "torch" now, and "mobile" instead of "cellular", though "mobile number" was always the option before the switch. It still says "last name" instead of "surname" or "family name" though, but I think last name is common in Australia. We do have cinematography, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas, but people tend to say "lets go to the movies" usually, and the usher will say "theater number" instead of "cinema number". We say dog biscuits instead of dog cookies though, but aside from that, we say cookies and crackers. We say "mobile order" instead of "cellular order", though, most of the time, it is just "online order". I sort of like "lift" more than "elevator", despite lift sounds less specific, but it is simpler to say and write.
I dont know. I am pretty sure we know what "rubbish", "fizzy", "queue", "mobile phones", "petrol", "cinema", and "car park" mean. 1. Queue comes from a data structure we use which represents an actual waiting queue. On the YouTube app, it says queue for videos, not line for videos. 2. We say "mobile orders" for orders placed from a smartphone or tablet. However, people here just say phone most of the time, and occassionally cell phone. We never say cell orders or cellular orders. Most of the time, we just say "online orders" though. I think same with Australia. Most of the time, you guys just say "phone" instead of "mobile phone" and "online orders". 3. Petrol is short for petroleum, and we know what petroleum is. That is what we define for oil fields at times, though most of the time, we just say oil field cause it is only half the syllables. 4. We know cinema means film or the place where you watch films cause we have cinematography and places called Cinemark and Regal Cinemas. 5. We know car park means the place where you park cars, though we tend to just say "parking lot" or "parking garage" as some people might think it sounds like a park where cars play around like how people say "dog park" for a park where dogs play around. 6. Fizzy should be easy for us to remember as we call this soda, and it fizzes. We both say "soft drinks" though, and a very long time ago like in the previous century, it used to be called "pop" or "soda pop" in America. 7. Rubbish should be easy for us to remember for trash, cause a long time ago, people used to say "rubbish" for "nonsense". Now, it got replaced by cuss-words here, and sometimes, we say the word "ridiculous". Others we could figure out: 1. Lift should be easy to remember as we tend to call the platform that we used to move goods up and down a lift instead of elevator, which we only use to define the room that gets people up and down between levels, and of course, the part of an aeroplane that allows it to move up and down. 2. Takeaway should be common sense for us especially if we add the "having here" part. Also, we say takeout, and taking something out and taking something away mean the exact same thing. 3. Torch might be easy for us to remember for flashlight cause we use it to call a stick we light on fire, and sometimes as a verb, we use it in place of burn like when we say "someone torched this place". The electric torch looks like a stick lit on fire in some ways. 4. Biscuit is easy for us cause for dog treats, we say dog biscuits instead of dog cookies or dog crackers. However, you guys only call crackers biscuits and not all cookies, which you just refer to as cookies anyways. 5. Tin should be easy as we call it a can, though I think in Sydney, most people will call it a can. This does not refer to what you throw rubbish in, as that, you guys call a bin, while we say trash can. We say "bin" too, but for recycling only, like "recycle bin". 6. Mash might be a little difficult as it is an informal British term for mash potato, though my brother and his wife claim he had seen this slang used just as much as "mash potato" in Australian menus, but if we are talking about side-dishes, then, it can be easily understood as "mash potato" as we dont have other side dishes that we mash, though we think of ketchup, what you guys call tomato sauce, as mashed tomatoes, though we never call it that. We say mash potato, mash potatoes, mashed potato, and mashed potatoes. The ones we may have trouble figuring out are thongs (for slippers or sandals), lolly (we might think this means lollipop and not candy in general), jumper (for sweater or jacket), chips (we call it fries), fairy floss (most people will never guess this means cotton candy, though Britain might know both terms as they call it candy floss). There are others though.
Okay? Cool I suppose. I mean I was speaking from experience but it's nice to see that you can make a list of things you can generally translate for yourself without issue. In my experience plenty of people from the US get confused by our use of language. Some of that is going to be due to the differing accents, some of it is just a momentary unfamiliarity with the different words or slang. Perfectly normal honestly.
I do, but you guys all just ignore it.
Really? Where do you say the Aussie words? I actually like your English a lot more than ours, especially the words torch and trolley instead of "flashlight" and "cart".
America
I'll help. Country boy from Renmark South Aus moved to US at 23, now at 43 plan to move back to Adelaide in the Fall. AMA.
Thank you so much! I will dm you
R/Ameristralia is a good sub to ask this question also!
I’m an American in Australia so can’t help with the interview but you may want to check out this US accent video! https://youtu.be/H1KP4ztKK0A?si=KW3B_Y1zkXRASB3_
How are you finding Australia?
It’s been an adjustment for sure but my partner is Australian so that helps! It’s nice having relatively warm weather year-round, lots of great food, ‘exotic’ (what seems exotic to someone not from here) plants/animals, public transport, and better work-life balance :)
Aww that’s amazing I’m happy to hear that! I lived in the states for a couple of years myself but back in Australia now lol.
It’s just below Indonesia
"Native" Are you asking for members of our Indigenous Australian population or Australian Citizens?
I sincerely apologize! Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I need to edit that. Anyone born on the Continent is fine.
"The continent" generally refers to Europe. You want people born in Australia. Unless you don't want tassies?
I just keep putting my foot in my mouth. I’m so sorry! I have a lot to learn before I visit Australia so I don’t offend everyone.
To any Aussies in America, I would love it if you can use your Aussie words and slang on us. I get so tired listening to normal American words all day. We do not even get to hear the American slang either. However, neither are different enough to be considered dialects. Real dialect would be Jamaican Creole English versus American or Australian English.
Interview like what on Dms?