How you goin'? No worries mate.

One of the most common Australian phrases we've latched onto is "How you goin", a seemingly innocuous variation of "How's it going".  This phrase is used as a greeting in place of "Hello", "How are you", "Good afternoon", "Nice to meet you", "Good to see you", et cetera.  The most difficult part to get used to is that the correct response is not "Good" or "I'm well, how are you?" (which I always reflexively say) but rather just "How you goin'."

"How you goin'?"  /  "How you goin'?"

"No worries" is another common phrase that seems just a little bit different than you would expect.  Not only is it used nearly exclusively for "You're welcome" (or equivalent to the casual "No problem") but it is also used as an affirmative ("Will do", "That's ok"), as a casual apology, and even a thank you.

But, at least those expressions we can understand.  We haven't encountered too much incomprehensible slang, though there are occasionally accents we cannot understand in the slightest.  Reid has had truck drivers come into the brewery that he cannot understand a word of, and we'll be walking down the street and hear kids calling to each other in what seems to be a foreign language.  ("Is that even English?"  we'll ask each other, though the kids are whiter than us so we assume it is.)

Reid and I have also joked that I need to assume an Australian name.  Americans rarely get the pronunciation of my name right on the first go, but Australians just don't have the "ah" sound in their vocabulary.  I think their mouths are incapable of the sound, just like Westerners often have difficulty with Japanese "r's" (and likewise Japanese people naturally have trouble with the English word "gorilla").  Or maybe I should just start going by my middle name?  Though the transition would be tricky I'm sure.

In other (non-living-in-Australia-related) news, I have been researching foxes for some paintings and have completely fallen in love with the Tibetan sand fox.  Just another reason to go to the high plateaus of Nepal and Tibet.

Why hello there.  How you going?