Confusing cultural conundrums

Fifthelement

Tone wrote:

So, you've been all over... Cowtown to "down east" and now Pomgolia... good times. I bet you are experiences some cultural differences, those poms are a strange bunch, lol

Yep, especially up in the NE - took quite a while to interpret what the hell they were saying. They use "are you right" here a lot That took me a while to get. It's been fantastic though. I've met some amazing people

Fifthelement

Jeanie wrote:

Thanks fifth. That's my plan, I'm just nervous is all. I have to bring some complicated medications with me that require all kinds of fancy paperwork and I figure they'll be going over me and my luggage with a fine tooth comb at LAX because of that, so I just don't wanna piss anybody off is all, you know by "needing" to bring Vegemite and tim tams.

I wish you could just give em a list before you leave and they say yay or nay. But yeah, I guess I'll just try my luck and see how I go and hopefully I won't end up in a little room somewhere having to be subjected to all kinds of cavity searches! :eek:

Be cool to meet up. Are you on the west coast? I'm having trouble remembering where everybody is.

Ahhh, Tim Tams. I brought some of those back for my chiropractor when I went to Oz. He went to school in Melbourne and missed those. I'm in Victoria, but depending on when you'll be in Canada I could be elsewhere. What days are you planning on being in Vancouver? If I'm home at that time I could come over . . . or you could take the ferry from Seattle, come to Victoria for a day or so and then go to Van. Not sure what your exact plans are . . . let me know and I'm sure I could work something out.

Cheers

pearljamjen

I don't agree with some of the things on here, maybe because it can be a regional thing too?

But one thing that stands out: I had two Aussie flatmates. And I was telling one of them about something I did earlier that week. And she shouted out "YOU DID TOO!" It totally threw me off guard. :eek: Over here, if you tell someone "you did too!" It comes off as argumentative. But the way they (and other Aussies I've talked too) it seems to mean "Oh yeah, that's right, you did!" It was kind of funny.

Jeanie

Fifthelement wrote:

Ahhh, Tim Tams. I brought some of those back for my chiropractor when I went to Oz. He went to school in Melbourne and missed those. I'm in Victoria, but depending on when you'll be in Canada I could be elsewhere. What days are you planning on being in Vancouver? If I'm home at that time I could come over . . . or you could take the ferry from Seattle, come to Victoria for a day or so and then go to Van. Not sure what your exact plans are . . . let me know and I'm sure I could work something out.

Cheers

Yeah, Tim Tams rule!! Especially the new flavours.

I'll let you know what the plans are, just as soon as I confirm I'm not sleeping on a park bench for a few nights.

mert

I have personally received Tim Tams in the mail, and regular mail... And at any Loblaws chain here in Canada you can get Tim Tams too! So exciting, they are delicious! I love the Tim Tam Slam/Explosion!

And the "How's it going?" debate... It must have been how you said it or your accent, because people here say it all the time. Although it's used differently in the US. Whenever I've been to the States it's more of a way of saying hello, and here you would expect to answer it and ask how they are doing. Got some funny looks in the US when I responded!

Random American: How's it going?
Mert: Good, how are you?
Random American: *gives funny look*

Funniest comment ever from a person in a mosh pit was from a drunk American frat boy type: "Goddamned Canadians are so polite! I bump into you and you say sorry?!??"

Tone

pearljamjen wrote:

But one thing that stands out: I had two Aussie flatmates. And I was telling one of them about something I did earlier that week. And she shouted out "YOU DID TOO!" It totally threw me off guard. :eek: Over here, if you tell someone "you did too!" It comes off as argumentative. But the way they (and other Aussies I've talked too) it seems to mean "Oh yeah, that's right, you did!" It was kind of funny.

Okay, that's just weird... I don't get that either :S Were they from Queensland? LOL. That's the only thing I can think of, crazy banana-benders

Fifthelement wrote:

Yep, especially up in the NE - took quite a while to interpret what the hell they were saying. They use "are you right" here a lot That took me a while to get. It's been fantastic though. I've met some amazing people

Yeah, the whole "are you right" is a continuation on from what I was saying earlier. They also say: "You alright" as a greeting, similar sort of thing insofar as asking if you're okay/well etc. How much longer are you staying in the UK?


BTW, I have an update on Tim Tams... a friend just flew in from Sydney tonight with 16 packets of Tim Tams! She bought them at Sydney Airport in a fancy plastic zipped-up bag and had no problems. When I first got to Canada they were at Dominion as "Chocolate Biscuits" but then they disappeared... good to know Loblaws has them

Also, over the course of dinner there were lots more "cultural conundrums" she was coming out with that... course, I can't remember them now :S

OR, we could get on to rhyming slang, lol

pearljamjen

Tone wrote:

Okay, that's just weird... I don't get that either :S Were they from Queensland? LOL. That's the only thing I can think of, crazy banana-benders

They are from Melbourne. But someone I know from Sydney said that to me too. :eek:

The whole "arvo" thing throws me off too. How is short for "afternoon"

Jeanie

mert wrote:

I have personally received Tim Tams in the mail, and regular mail... And at any Loblaws chain here in Canada you can get Tim Tams too! So exciting, they are delicious! I love the Tim Tam Slam/Explosion!

And the "How's it going?" debate... It must have been how you said it or your accent, because people here say it all the time. Although it's used differently in the US. Whenever I've been to the States it's more of a way of saying hello, and here you would expect to answer it and ask how they are doing. Got some funny looks in the US when I responded!

Random American: How's it going?
Mert: Good, how are you?
Random American: *gives funny look*

Funniest comment ever from a person in a mosh pit was from a drunk American frat boy type: "Goddamned Canadians are so polite! I bump into you and you say sorry?!??"

ha! That's classic!!

Think I'll have to have another little talk with my postie, maybe it's changed again? I just know at Christmas time I had to remove the food items from all the parcels I was sending to the US and boy was I peeved.

Tim Tam slam means you got Milo too right?

Jeanie

Tone wrote:

...BTW, I have an update on Tim Tams... a friend just flew in from Sydney tonight with 16 packets of Tim Tams! She bought them at Sydney Airport in a fancy plastic zipped-up bag and had no problems. When I first got to Canada they were at Dominion as "Chocolate Biscuits" but then they disappeared... good to know Loblaws has them

Excellent! I might ring Tulla and see if they have the same there, they might have Vegemite too in special zipped bags.

Tone wrote:

OR, we could get on to rhyming slang, lol

Oooh!! Yes!!! LET'S, me old china plate!!!

Tone

pearljamjen wrote:

They are from Melbourne. But someone I know from Sydney said that to me too. :eek:

The whole "arvo" thing throws me off too. How is short for "afternoon"

Ahh Mexicans, they're strange too. I lived in Melbourne and aside from calling a cossie "bathers", pronouncing anything "el" with an "al" sound eg. they pronounce Melbourne "Malbourne" and inexplicably calling cabanossi "cabana" I pretty much understood them Anyway, I'm from Sydney and have no clue what your roommates are on about... could be I'd need to hear it, but reading it, it sounds very odd indeed.

"Arvo" is short cause it's only 2 syllables as opposed to 3... see!? LOL We love shortening things... Aussie, cossie, fishy, sunnies

Tone

Jeanie wrote:

Excellent! I might ring Tulla and see if they have the same there, they might have Vegemite too in special zipped bags.

Oooh!! Yes!!! LET'S, me old china plate!!!

They probably will, us Aussies are just gah-gah for Tim Tams Just bring some vegemite in the tube, that's what a friend of mine did when she came over from Perth

Rhyming slang:
dog and bone
captain cook or butcher's hook (shortened to "butchers")
noah's ark (geez, there's alot of noahs out there!)
frog and toad

"I just had a butchers at all the noahs out there. Better get on the dog and bone before we hit the frog and toad", LOL

pearljamjen

Tone wrote:

Ahh Mexicans, they're strange too. I lived in Melbourne and aside from calling a cossie "bathers", pronouncing anything "el" with an "al" sound eg. they pronounce Melbourne "Malbourne" and inexplicably calling cabanossi "cabana" I pretty much understood them Anyway, I'm from Sydney and have no clue what your roommates are on about... could be I'd need to hear it, but reading it, it sounds very odd indeed.

"Arvo" is short cause it's only 2 syllables as opposed to 3... see!? LOL We love shortening things... Aussie, cossie, fishy, sunnies

YEAH but there is no letter "v" in the word "afternoon." That's why I don't get it.

Mexicans? LMAO! Well, maybe they are just weird then. Here is how it was used with the guy from Sydney:

Guy from Sydney: I'm going to Wollongong tomorrow

Me: I know someone from Wollongong!

Guy: Oh, you do too!

But, maybe they are all just weird then.

Someone from Tassie sent me clinkers. Funny name, clinkers.

Jeanie

pearljamjen wrote:

The whole "arvo" thing throws me off too. How is short for "afternoon"

Everything gets shortened and an o put on the end.

afternoon = arvo
business = bizo
aggravation or aggravated = aggro
bottle shop = bottlo
lost your mind or moved to QLD = gone troppo as in gone tropical.
often shortened to just troppo. As in "she's a bit troppo" meaning she's loopy.
relative or relatives = relo or relos.
vegetarian = veggo


or sometimes we just put an o on the end coz we feel like it.

like
smoko = which is having a break or a cigarette. (smoke)
or
yobbo = which is a person who's a bit of a dickhead or a lout
drongo = an idiot


And sometimes it gets complicated. (just in case you thought it wasn't already! )

Americans are called sepos which is a shortening of septic tank with the o then added on the end and septic tank is rhyming slang for yank.

People's nicknames are often a shortening of their surname and an o put on the end too like
Johnson becomes Johnno
Thompson becomes Thommo

kristophed

Red/Green Capsicums = Red/Green Peppers
Subway in NA has sub-sauce!

OZ= "How you going?"
NA= "How's it going?"

Can of beer
NA= Can
OZ= Tinny

Also have noticed a lot of Aussies like to add O to their words.
Johnathan = John-O
Alright = Right-O
It does become catchy

Jeanie just posted a lot of what I just wrote

Jeanie

Tone wrote:

They probably will, us Aussies are just gah-gah for Tim Tams Just bring some vegemite in the tube, that's what a friend of mine did when she came over from Perth

Rhyming slang:
dog and bone = phone
captain cook or butcher's hook (shortened to "butchers") = look
noah's ark (geez, there's alot of noahs out there!) = shark
frog and toad = road

"I just had a butchers at all the noahs out there. Better get on the dog and bone before we hit the frog and toad", LOL

crack me up!!

"I just had a butchers at all the noahs out there. Better get on the dog and bone before we hit the frog and toad"

Translation for those that have no idea what we're on about:

I just had a look at all the sharks out there. Better get on the phone before we hit the road.

Yeah, I got the tube of vegemite all sealed up pretty like in the cupboard waiting to take with me. It's not like it ever goes off.

pearljamjen

kristophed wrote:

Red/Green Capsicums = Red/Green Peppers
Subway in NA has sub-sauce!

OZ= "How you going?"
NA= "How's it going?"

THAT'S RIGHT I forgot about that! The aussies I mentioned earlier and I were in the same course to get certified to teach EFL. And we were in a group together doing practice teaching. Our teacher trainer (who is from the UK) kept getting mad at Toby because he would go up to the students (from the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and ask "How you going?" and they would just look at him with the most confused looks on their faces! It was quite funny. And I wasn't the only one who was confused

Jeanie

kristophed wrote:

Red/Green Capsicums = Red/Green Peppers
Subway in NA has sub-sauce!

OZ= "How you going?"
NA= "How's it going?"

Can of beer
NA= Can
OZ= Tinny

Also have noticed a lot of Aussies like to add O to their words.
Johnathan = John-O
Alright = Right-O
It does become catchy

Jeanie just posted a lot of what I just wrote

Ooh! I forgot righto! I say that all the time!

kristophed

I thought Aussies called Americans seppos because they feel that they are always talking shit. Am I wrong?

Jeanie

kristophed wrote:

I thought Aussies called Americans seppos because they feel that they are always talking shit. Am I wrong?

Well I'm not sure if that's how people think of it now, it's more of an affectionate thing I think these days, but it came into the language during World War 2 when we had a large contingent of American servicemen in the country. Things didn't always go well and I think there was a bit of animosity because of some of the stuff that went on but it's definitely a shortening of the rhyming slang septic tank = yank. Why whomever coined it to begin with picked septic tank I do not know.

But then we do have some pretty harsh nicknames for ourselves that are usually only ever used in jest. I mean people from NSW are known as cockroaches. :eek:

mert

Jeanie wrote:

Tim Tam slam means you got Milo too right?

No, so maybe it was just the Explosion then.... Just with tea. but delish!!!