How to Speak Australian: Part 1

Hey all,

Here's a bit similar to one that my friend Maggie Olson has been doing on her study abroad experience.  She's in Canada at the moment and you can find her three (quite humorous) blog posts on "how to speak Canadian" here, here and here.

We've all heard the stereotypical "G'day mate!" and "throw a shrimp on the barbie!" from such characters as Steve Irwin.  While the latter isn't really accurate anyway (Australians call shrimp "prawns"), those phrases aren't as common as Americans tend to think.  First on the list, any American has grown up with Heinz Ketchup on our burgers, hot dogs and french fries.  Australians don't have ketchup; they have tomato sauce.  Just slightly different in taste, it really isn't a huge change from ketchup.  You'll get funny looks if you ask for ketchup, so make sure you remember to ask for tomato sauce!

Australian culture is relaxed and laid back.  This is why I believe that Australians tend to shorten everything.  For example, afternoon translates to arvo, breakfast is actually brekkie, and when you're sorry for something you're actually soz.  Here's an example of something you might hear: "Soz mate, I missed you at brekkie.  I'll catch you in the arvo!"  You can imagine my first experience with arvo.  I was constantly asked what I was doing in the arvo, and for the life of me I couldn't understand what was being asked of me.

Finally, I would like to note that Americans are the only English speakers who say "zee" for the last letter in the alphabet.  In Britain, Canada (reference Maggie's post vol. 2) and Australia the name for this letter is zed.  My first math class we covered the cardinal 3D coordinates x, y and zed, and I kept getting taken aback by it.  I'm still partial to my American ways, so I'll stick to "zee" please.

There are many other differences between American and Australian English, so I'm sure there will be more posts like this!

Cheers (which is also an Australianism),
Paul