Learning Aussie lingo

Updated 07 March 2013

For starters, there are a couple general rules when attempting to understand the local Australian. 

1. They don’t really pronounce ‘r’ sounds. 

2. They often over pronounce the ‘h’ sound. 

3. There’s something weird [as in neither Ruthie nor I are capable of reproducing it] about how they pronounce their ‘long o’ sounds.

4. They tend to shorten everything. 

4b. After shortening something, they tend to add an ‘o’ or ‘ie’ / ‘y’ sound to the end – even if that means the word is as long as or longer than the original. 

With that said, here’s a list of local diction I’ve had to learn to understand.  Ruthie and I have tried not to pick up too many of their speech patterns, but it’s happening slowly.  Ruthie tries her best to speak like an American claiming their pronunciations are stupid.  I try not to shove that in their faces so much, so maybe it’s no surprise that a couple words have slipped into my vocab.

ambo = ambulance or ambulance driver

arse = ass

arvo = afternoon

barbie = barbeque

bikie = motorcycle rider
bloke = dude [while sheila is the female counter term, I’ve not actually heard it used]

bogan = redneck mixed with a little bit of white trash

brekky = breakfast
chocka/chockers/chockablock = full, with emphasis on the extremely full side – chockablock full, while redundant would imply it’s going to explode

crack the shits[or crack it, if you prefer the less profane option] = get angry/have a tantrum, as in if you “crack it at Joe” you’re likely telling them off, or if simply “crack the shits” you’re throwing a hissy fit

degustation = while a real word, I’d never heard it until coming here

devo = devastated

feral = again, a legitimate word, but used more to describe someone who’s a bit crazy, and more commonly used to describe children who aren’t being angels.  Ruthie and I are particularly fond of this adjective for ankle biters. 

dickhead = idiot

from = at or starting, but only in the sense of “I’ll be back at my desk from 9a” or, “the show starts at 6p” would be shortened to “on from 6p”

look = a very common phrase starter – most recently I heard an interview where the person started every sentence with “Look” instead of things like “Um” or “Uh” or “Well” or  “Y’know” – but I’ve found it often has just a slightly less offensive implication than “Hey! What I’m about to say is important”

ordinary = instead of being used to describe “normal” there is a negative connotation; for example: in used to describe a day that was chilly, rainy, and not all that pleasant “The weather’s a bit ordinary today, isn’t it?”

lollies = generic term for candy, as opposed to multiple lollipops

Maccas = McDonald’s restaurant

mate = dude [or dudette, but primarily dude]

Pom/pommy = prisoner of her majesty, Brits living here

ranga = red head

rego = vehicle registration

rock up = to arrive, to show up

root = intercourse, along the lines of the slang meaning of “screw”

sandbo = sandwich

serve, a = used as a noun, piece of your mind, as in “He got on my last nerve, so I gave him a serve”

squiz = look at, as in “Let me have a squiz at my calendar.”

suss = suspect, as in “That’s a bit suss” = “That seems a bit suspect”

thongs = flip flops

totes = totally

trackies = literally track suit, but to Americans, it would be more of sweats – or anything with an elastic waistband

trackie dacks = track/sweat pants

tradie = tradesman or construction worker

unco = uncoordinated

whinge = complain, whine

_____ as = [i.e. “sweet as” “hot as”] basically, it’s the shortening of likening something to something else [“today is as hot as standing in a fire”]. 

So while I might’ve managed to pick up a term or two, Ruthie’s informed me that the most noticeable difference is my speech pattern’s changed a bit.  The locals have a tendency to end their sentences with a slight upswing in tone, and apparently that’s what I’ve adopted lately. 

It’s probably worth it to note, that at this point, the one word I haven’t been able to actually pick up is “mate”.  It just sounds so weird coming out of my mouth that even I don’t like it.  Conversely, “dickhead” is my current favourite slur.

-EP

Update 13 Jan 13:

So we were gifted with an Aussie lingo dictionary for Christmas.  Which is great!  Upon reading a few entries, we learned that even some of the Aussies that gave us the book hadn’t heard these terms.  So I’m guessing some are really quite obscure.  I might pick a few to post up at some point, but for now, we’re enjoying the fact that we’ve got some reference material when necessary.

 

Pushie

One of the first things we noticed when we got to Melbourne [actually, I feel like we noticed it in Sydney, too] was the number of bicyclists on the streets.  While we were poking around the Melbourne CBD in our first few weeks, the argument could be made that using a bicycle in/around a major city is quite common in the US.  However, the noticeable difference was the number of cyclists that continued even away from the CBD.  I have no kinds of actual data, but it feels like if you put up a radius of 30km around the CBD, you’d still find a pretty high frequency of people using a bicycle as their primary means of transportation.  Don’t get me wrong there are still lots of cars.  And to/from and around the CBD, there is mass transit. 

Realising just how common it was to use a bicycle around Melbourne was the primary reason we bought me one before we’d even found a place to leave.  We’d decided that Ruthie would try and find us a place close to my work and I would do my best to ride the bicycle to work every day [leaving Ruthie the car].  Ruthie did her part and found us a place that’s 4km away from my work.  So I’ve been holding up my end of the bargain and riding to work just about every day.  True, once the motorcycle arrived and the weather was still lovely, I would ride that into work occasionally.  But for my part, I would say that I’ve ridden into work 9/10 days since I’ve started. 

Due to the fact that I am only riding 4km one way every day, I would struggle to call myself a bicyclist.  I certainly didn’t look the part for a long time, as I had a hard time finding my preferred clothing.  I often wore my dress pants or jeans with a leg rolled up in the first couple months.  But then I took a page out of a co-worker’s book and began leaving my dress pants at my desk and changing in and out of athletic clothes every morning/afternoon.  As it’s currently winter, I’ve adopted the style of wearing a set of cold-weather leggings underneath some athletic shorts and whatever shirt I feel like underneath my jacket or parka depending on the weather.  I’d like to claim that’s as close to the fully-clad lyrca appearance that I’ll ever get.  Well … in the summer, it’ll be athletic shorts and probably a quick-dry shirt, but still nothing skin tight.  I prefer leaving plenty to the imagination. 

While I attempt to remain firm on my anti-lycra attire, I have to say I’ve embraced the bicycle lifestyle a bit more than I’d originally expected.  I’ve now gone to see an indoor track race at a velodrome [where I saw bicycle legends such as Sir Chris Hoy and Anna Meares].  I passed on the opportunity to watch my co-worker compete in a cyclo-cross event, though.  But, at the suggestion of the same co-worker, I did participate in the Melburn Roobaix, which is a 40-kilometer “fun event” styled after the Paris-Roubaix.  And, also at the encouragement of the same cyclist co-worker, I’ve been reading The Enlightened Cyclist by BikeSnobNYC.  [Really, without said co-worker, I’d probably be much less … involved? interested? engaged? in cycling.]

Sadly, the part of the bicycle lifestyle I have not been able to escape embracing is the frustration with pedestrians. 

On my massive 4 kilometre commute to work, I ride on the whole range of available surfaces to bicycles: a dedicated bicycle lane separate from the road, a shared bicycle / pedestrian lane, a dedicated bicycle lane that’s on the road, the street, and if I so choose, the sidewalk [that should be pedestrian only].  I start my commute along a stretch of beach that gets a fair bit of pedestrian traffic – and due to it being a port which docks cruise ships, it’s safe to say a chunk of it is likely foreign.  I finish my commute in an industrial section, where there’s no room for me other than on the street – fortunately, it’s pretty a low level of traffic, and it’s often slower moving trucks, and everyone seems to be used to bicycles in that area.

You can probably guess that my gripe primarily focuses on the section of my commute that deals with stretch along the beach.  I get so worked up about people being in the bicycle lane that aren’t bicycles [or at least have wheels – there’s a few inline skaters].  So worked up, in fact, that if I know a cruise ship is in town, I’ll take the route home that requires me to ride on the road the whole way.  When the Queen Mary II came in and docked at our little harbour, it actually drew in spectators.  Spectators who then loitered, meandered, or simply stood in the bicycle lane.  Mind you, this is a bicycle lane that’s separate from the pedestrian sidewalk.  Mind you, this is a bicycle lane that has bicycle symbols painted on it every 100 meters or so.  And side lines.  And a dash line down the middle.   HOW DO YOU NOT REALISE!? 

It all came to a head one day [and this is now the reason why I ride on the road when I know there’s a higher chance for people to be around, like when the cruise ship is in] not too long ago.  Two guys in suits were walking along the bicycle lane [on my side], with their backs to me.  I rang my bell once, and while I’ve had to ring my bell multiple times before, this time I didn’t need to because they looked over their shoulders and looked at me.  AND KEPT WALKING.  They didn’t move over, they didn’t yield, nothing.  So, intending to harass them a little, I cut them off.  Except I cut them off a bit too close and shoulder checked the guy closest to me, causing him to drop his umbrella [I stayed upright on my two wheels, thanks for asking.] 

Since then, I’ve tried to do my best to remain calm, and simply go around people.  I still get irritated about joggers who are in the dedicated bicycle lane [there’s plenty of room for them on the pedestrian walk], but I just go around.  For the record, though, I also get annoyed by bicyclists, even the casual ones, who are in the pedestrian walk.  I would much rather pass a slow moving bicyclist than I would a fast runner – in the bicycle lanes. 

To that end, Ruthie’s pointed out that our section tends to be a tough mix.  There are bicycle rentals right out front of our apartment.  And there’s a dedicated off-street bicycle lane that runs the entire length of the beach.  There is also this whole slew of serious/regular bicyclists that also like to ride along the beach.  But the bicycle lane is a bit narrow, and it’s not so easy to ride along side your friend at a leisurely pace without taking up the whole lane [or even both sides].  It’s supposed to be safer to take the bicycle lane than it is the road, but I think it’s just a danger of a different form.  The slow moving bicycle goes unstable, and swerves into your path as you’re passing versus the car that cuts you off on the road; the kid that isn’t watching and runs out into the bicycle lane [and the parents who weren’t paying attention because it’s not a “real road”] versus the dude who throws his car door open into the on-street bicycle lane. 

So this has turned out to be quite a bit longer of a post than I’d expected, but suffice to say that bicycling in Melbourne is an interesting experience.  My goal is to continue cycling [as a form of commuting – not as a hobby] when I get home, despite Bel Air and Edgewood being less acclimated to bicyclists.  Hopefully by then, I’ll have accumulated enough brightly coloured garments and flashy lights that I’ll be easily visible and hard to miss.  Which will a good thing especially for that overly aggressive road rage driver who decides to target me when I ride down 40 one spring afternoon.

-EP

Wipe off 5

Speed kills right?  At least that’s what our departments of motor vehicles [and DARE] tell us. 

Down here, they’ve got VicRoads which is like our DMVs in that it’s state run, but then there’s the Transport Accident Commision (TAC), which … well, I’m not really sure what the TAC does except try and get people to not speed.  There are billboards everywhere posted by TAC with in-your-face messages about how accidents kill.  A lot of the messages I’ve seen have been targeted at motorcycle riders to a. wear safety gear and b. not lane split [which to the best of my knowledge is not illegal here except at red lights]. 

But for a while now, the TAC has been running TV spots encouraging drivers to “Wipe off 5.”  As in slow down 5 kph.  The ads are fairly graphic by American standards [without being gruesome], but they certainly get your attention.  Do they work?  Only TAC knows, I guess.

But what gets me is the general speed limit of the roads here as it is.  The 5-lane high way that goes across the bridge right by our house is often 80kph; then it drops down to 4 lanes and the speed goes up to 100kph [60mph]; then you turn off onto another highway and it goes down to 2 lanes and the speed increases again to 110kph.  All of this is on major highway-type roads, mind you.  But then you head out into the bush, away from the cities, either into the roads through rainforest parks or along the ocean, and it’s a double-lane-kinda-narrow-only-paint-dividing road and the posted speed limit is 100kph, with curve warnings of 30kph.  One, how the hell anyone can get up to 100kph on those roads is beyond me.  Two, why would you want to?  [Well, let’s be real, I know the answer to that one].  But, three, why is the speed limit on this twisty, windy road the same as the flat, straight, divided highway!? 

It just doesn’t really make sense to me, that’s all.  When the government is trying to encourage drivers to slow down to avoid accidents or at least avoid fatalities when an accident occurs, why would you have major-vein roads that are posted slower than the twisty, blind-corners ones?

-EP

A year in review, part 4

So, if there’s one thing that’s great about living in/just outside of a city is the close proximity to good food.  Given my particularly unrefined palette, I don’t even care about good food that much, and I can tell that there’s good stuff out there.  Plus I have Ruthie and some of the locals to provide more feedback.  Perhaps not surprising is the level to which the local cuisine is Asian oriented.  Of all the places we’ve tried in our neighbourhood, we’ve found a great Thai restaurant that delivers – and that’s usually the weak spot.  If I get home and Ruthie’s been out all day and she’s got nothing to prepare, it often ends up being Thai food delivered [which also means Thai food for lunch the next day, too].  Also on our list of local enjoyments: pho.  I feel like I’ve supposedly tried pho somewhere back in the States, but if I did, it certainly wasn’t like the pho we’ve had here. 

The pizza is different, too.  Everything about it is just a bit different, but mainly the pepperoni – there is no pepperoni here.  All “pepperoni” pizzas here come with a spicy sausage on them that just isn’t the same.  Unfortunately for us, there’s a Pizza Hut that delivers, and I’ve grown to like the pizzas here. 

Also, there is a dearth of Mexican food.  [Again, not surprising.]  There are apparently Mexican restaurants here and there, we’ve just not really had the opportunity to try them.  We did find the Chipotle equivalent though, called Mad Mex.  While the style and the service is very much like Chipotle, the food itself is almost more Mexican in nature.  I can rationalise this as Chipotle is much more Tex-Mex in nature, and that’s definitely a food subgroup that I wouldn’t expect to make it this far out into the world. 

Going back to the Asian influences on local cuisine, this also means there’s plenty of sushi around.  I can’t say I’ve had a whole lot mainly because Ruthie’s not so keen on it, but the sushi I’ve had has been pretty good.  Fortunately, we’ve had the help of some locals in finding good sushi joints.  We’ve also tried the experience that is dim sum / yum cha, where you get little containers of food brought around to you and you get your choice of what you want right then and there.  Often times, dumplings of various types and preparation are featured [or at least this is what we’ve noticed].  It’s definitely a dangerous style of eating because in the couple of times that we’ve done it, Ruthie and I both over ate and made ourselves sick. 

When it comes to food, the one thing that I am particularly excited about is desserts.  I’ve definitely got a sweet tooth.  Fortunately, things like green tea ice cream and bubble tea are readily available [well, within the city itself].  I’ll definitely miss those when we get home.  Other yummy goodness: lamingtons, vanilla slice, Tim Tams, and Anzac cookies. 

Oh!  And we’ve had kangaroo a couple times, too, which was on my list of things to try while down here.  As previously mentioned, we’ve ingratiated ourselves to some great local cooks.  So it’s thanks to them that we’ve had so much good food here.

Okay, so that’s been a pretty lengthy summation [6 pages in the Word document I use to type it all up] of our time here so far.  As it stands now, we’re over our half-way point.  So now it’s just a matter of making the most of our time left.  Fortunately winter, as long as it might be, is on its slow way out.  I can tell that the days are getting longer with the sun rise coming up a little earlier each day [winter solstice was on 21 June].  We haven’t quite shaken the cold on a regular basis, but it feels like maybe we’ve left the worst of the winter behind and soon the weather will be hot again.  Hopefully with the warm weather and sunny skies, we’ll find ourselves in different parts of the city [we’ve still got a lot of the city to explore, too!], state, or even country. 

We’re over half way done with our time in Oz, and my guess is that now that our time is on the decline things will start to feel like they’re moving quickly.  Especially looking ahead knowing that the last little bit will be so busy with getting everything ready for the move back home. 

So here’s to Oz 2012-2013.