Prior to moving to Australia, I had to take a survey about my perceptions of Aussie culture. I also had to go through a 1 hr course on cultural awareness. The course was pretty straight forward and basically told me that even though Australia is an ‘English’ speaking nation there would be days where I felt the woes of being a foreigner. To alleviate those woes, I try to make note of the ‘foreign’ words, and get a giggle out of the moments lost in translation.
Here are some potential misconceptions Americans have about Australia:
Just like we don’t ride horses to work in Texas, there aren’t kangaroos, koalas, or crocodiles roaming the city streets of Melbourne. In fact, you have to go out of your way to find any of the said creatures. Unfortunately, culture class did not warn me of the Australian spider ‘situation’ (for further information please refer to the blog about my friend Webster).
Only the bogan Aussie’s and Crocodile Dundee (Texas translation: rednecks) say things like “G’day Mate”
They don’t really ‘throw shrimp on the barbie’ but maybe that’s because five out of the 6 months here, I’ve been in winter, thus not much barbie usage going on. Menus don’t ever have ‘shrimp’, it would say prawns. If you want bell peppers on your sandwich at Subway you have to say ‘capsicum’ – otherwise the 16 year old behind the counter just stares at you blankly while you say bell pepper louder and slower (as if that was going to translate into capsicum eventually).
It’s sunny and everybody surfs. Wrong. Considering that Melbourne has now had a record breaking number of days below 20 degrees (which is 68 F) there isn’t much surfing. Now, 68 isn’t bad on a sunny day, but 6 out of 7 days a week it rains at some point in the day, and is rarely sunny after 10am – which makes for shit weekends. (That’s another thing – shit is a pretty common adjective here, not that I’m shy to cursing, just find it is used much more casually).
Australia and New Zealand are one in the same. Not even close – even more different than Canada and the US. Fortunately, once you’ve been here awhile, it’s pretty easy to distinguish the accents. What’s really starting to surprise me is how quickly I can differentiate British from Irish and Scottish (this all used to sound the same to me). I’ve also learned that Canadians get really offended when you ask if they are American. So to hedge their bet, if an Aussie thinks you are from North America, but not sure which part of the NATO agreement you would have signed under, they ask if you are Canadian – which I think explains why I get asked that, a lot.
One consistent misconception about Americans would be that we all love Obama – no further comment.
This one is a bit specific and weird:
Lady in my pilates class: “Heathah, is it true that you can’t walk at night in Greenville, Mississippi because wild dogs will attack you?” (She was travelling there for work next week.)
Me: “Uh, I think that’s about as likely as being attacked by a drop bear”
And of course, more Aussie vocabulary lessons:
Grown men wear “jumpers” – I think it is a type of shirt – more of a winter type that requires another shirt underneath to stay warm, but different than a sweater.
“Thongs” – go between your toes not your butt cheeks
One buys “petrol” at a “servo” – that would be gas at a gas station. And I must admit, I didn’t have a good response when an Aussie asked me “why would you refer to a liquid as ‘gas’?”
Jugs – I think this is a pitcher of beer. I don’t hear this much, but maybe that will change when I start travelling to Sydney and New Zealand.
So back in States (aka Texas), I was always envious of people with nicknames. And I loved calling people by nicknames, especially ones with a funny story behind it (aka Niddy). Nicknames are huge here. The weird part is that male nicknames get a bit of a feminine touch. Matt is Matty, Nick is Nicko/Niko, so forth and so on. Of course, Heather or Heath-ah is difficult to shorten. I’ve heard ‘Simps’ but that just doesn’t roll of the tongue. Occasionally I get called ‘Texas’ but only long enough for someone to realize I don’t have a Texas accent, and consequently the nickname just doesn’t stick.
People here are ‘keen’ and not easily ‘fussed’ or if they are fussed, they will ‘suss it out’ – still not sure I’m spelling that one correctly or to what degree ‘keen’ should be used. I’m not sure if when I say “I’m keen to do xyz” if that means, “I really have to do this” or “It would be nice, but I’m not going to freak if it doesn’t happen”
Liquor stores are ‘bottle shops’ and shops in general aren’t open as late or on weekends like American stores.
Arse is ass, and bum is butt – who knew body parts could have so many names
ps - Thanks Liz for the blog idea :)
