Valentines in 'Straya

The past four weeks have been an enlightening experience for me, diving into Australian office culture and speaking to more Aussies every day than I would have a chance to otherwise. It was apparent right from the get-go that there are more differences between Australian English and American English than previously thought. Yes—there are the 'how are you goings' and the 'good on yous' and (of course) the endless abbreviations, but there are other subtleties that are a bit harder to pin down. In my own conversations with customers or listening to my coworkers there have been many times where I have thought a particular phrasing sounds a bit strange, or wondered why what I said naturally sounds so weird.

I was the only non-Australian at the office and from the various customers I spoke with, you would think that is quite the peculiarity. (Nevermind that one in four here were born on another continent.) I had several people remark upon my accent: some only for their own curiosity, several who insisted my American/Canadian accent must mean I was at an overseas/out-sourced call centre (negative connotations of course), and one woman who hung up on me and refused to believe she had not called The Philippines.

I am sure I will never be 'local' and truly shake this peculiar way of speaking. Nor would I exactly want to—there is a bit of pride, somehow, in my American voice. As much as I do enjoy the Aussie lilt, I should also say that speaking with a nice Southern (American) Gentleman in Darwin was the highlight of last week. (Talking to that man made me inexplicably happy. It should not have, but it felt very much like home.)  That said: I have adopted some Australianisms to make myself less obvious. I no longer say “expiration date” (Australians say “expiry.”)  It did not take long to shake the habit and say 'zed' for 'z'. I am also starting to say Australia correctly (it is not quite 'Straya, but close. e'strayya?  Maybe.) And after two years of trying to get the hang of 'double this' and 'triple thats', after repeated exposure I am finally getting the hang of it. (I realize this may seem a bit unclear, so let me explain. For example, my phone number ends in “5-double-4” and if I had to tell you how to spell Uralla I'd tell you “u-r-a-double-l-a”. It used to throw me a bit. When people speak very fast, sometimes it still does. Especially when there are W's involved.)

And speaking of abbr., I recently learned an interesting new one, Office Edition: 'smoko', which was originally coined for cigarette breaks and now means any sort of short break in the day. There is a Smoko Van that drives around Armidale delivering coffee and (presumably) bikkies to the various offices. It was quite confusing for me, on my first day at the office, to see a van drive up into the parking lot, announcing its own arrival with a jaunty tune, and my supervisor to ask “Anyone for a smoko?” (Good thing Reid knew what it meant, when I asked him later, because I was not willing to reveal my ignorance at the time.)

As for Valentine's Day—well, to be quite honest, I have never paid it much mind so I am probably not the best judge of such, but it seems to be almost exactly the same as the observance in the US. Flowers, heart-shaped balloons, and red and pink packages of chocolates abound the supermarkets and couples go out for special dinners together (though considering it was a Sunday this year, I'm sure there were Valentine Brunches galore from Sydney to NYC.) The biggest difference between the two countries would have to be weather-dependent as it is still rather the height of summer. (Despite the autumn colours beginning to show in Armidale and the sun rising much too late for my liking.) There are no tulips to be had and the weather is much too hot for delicate flowers. We are in a bit of a heatwave here, actually, though it's supposed to start cooling down a little starting tomorrow. (Though, I should say, Tasmania is exempt from this, as I saw it snowed in Tassie this morning.)

Words we didn't know we didn't know how to pronounce

Even apart from our American accent, of course, we're always pronouncing words wrong.  We knew to expect advertisement or aluminium, but we weren't expecting adversary or glacier; compost (see previous blog post) or the letter 'z' to be pronounced differently, among a few.  Here are just a couple that make us laugh or shake our heads every time:

Fillet (rhymes with 'skillet' - /ˈfɪlɪt/, AU pronunciation, v. /fɨˈleɪ/, US pronunciation)

Baroque (pronounced 'ba-rock' - /bəˈrɒk/, AU pronunciation, v. /bəˈroʊk/, US pronunciation)

Decal (pronounced 'dekkal' - /ˈdɛkəl/ v. /dɨˈkæl/)

Scone (rhymes with 'on' instead of 'cone' - /skɒn/ v. /skəʊn/)

And our personal favorite, debut.  Pronounced 'dayboo', accent on the 'boo'. (/ˈdɛbjuː/ v. /deɪˈβjuː/)

Words we didn't know we didn't know how to spell.

Perhaps it is most fitting to post this blog entry today, on Australia Day..

I think most people in the US have a good idea that British English utilizes different letters and spellings.  Spelling with ou when we only need an o, turning around their r's and e's, and using an s instead of c.  Colour, favourite, theatre, fibre, practise, civilisation.  Here are some of the words which have come as a surprise to us over the past nine months:

Kerb instead of curb (this was the very first new word to me.  I can't help but wonder if they use the colloquialism "kerb your excitement")

Tyre (pretty sure I had seen this before but it was still a surprise to see giant TYRES signs.)

Verandah (why the h.)

Enrol and enrolment (still looks weird every time I see it.)

Oesophagus, poediatrician (oesophagus really caught us by surprise.)

Artefact (I run into this a lot at the cultural centre)

Aeroplane (this really should not have come as a surprise, but it did.)

I would just like to say:  weed-whackers are called "whipper snippers" down here.

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?