Some of my family members -especially my dear sister- asked me several times to write a post about the aussie slang. Here we go, I took my time to collect some funny and truly Australian slang expressions. Some of them were known by us, but there were plenty of them which were completely new to us, of course.

It was really interesting to see what differences there are between websites and between their slang word collections - what kind of words are included there, and how they are spelled. I think there are some words that are only used for a short time, but on the other hand, this country is sooo big, that it is virtually impossible that everybody in every corner of this country knows everything. Here is a nice video on Youtube, it is worth to read the comments as well. Nice to see how some people are almost angry on each other because of using different expressions in the same country.

To tell you the truth, the task to write about the slang of another country is a bit difficult-especially because we are not native English speakers. We do not know every expression here; it is much more difficult to understand them on the train when other people are chatting behind you, etc. However if we knew more we also would not use them -except maybe those two or three which are really in our mind because they are used commonly in every situation, not just as slang words, like `no worries`, aussie, etc. Furthermore it is always really weird when a non-native English speaker tries to say something funny `aussie`, because it just does not work. You can not imitate that kind of funny and energetic pronunciation, especially if you have some kind of sweet but tough European-sounding accent. This is not funny but embarrassing. Especially if he wants to curse (Attila: what about she-ilas??). There is a saying that one can pray and count numbers only in his/her own mother tongue. In my opinion, cursing is the same category. Or do you have a different view?

So, let`s talk about the topic!! We shall start with the most typical expressions.

Australians use to talk about themselves as `aussie` or `Oz`, and the latter means the country itself, as well, just like the expressions `down under` or the `Lucky Country`. By the way, the lingo or the slang is called `Strine` (Australian English).

Friends or buddies like saying hello as `ga day`/`gidday`/`G`day, mate`, but it is also common among friendly strangers and you can hear the shop assistant saying it as well. If they want to start a conversation, it often begins as ` How you going`. Also a very typical expression is the so called `onya`/`Good on-ya` instead of the well known `good on you`or `well done`. Sometimes if they want to say thanks, cheers or don`t worry, they use simply the same words: `no worries`.`No drama` is also used as no problem. They say `Hooroo` (without h) instead of goodbye sometimes, and `ta` or `tar` as `thanks`.

If you live here, the very first thing that you realise, is that these guys in Australia really like friendships, so they use buddy or mate in almost every sentence. How are you doing, mate? Good on ya, mate! Have a drink, mate? Etc. The so called `fella` (fellow) or `bloke` are also used very often. By the way, an aussie woman is `Sheila` for a lot of people when they talk about an Oz girl or woman.

After the greetings, let`s talk a little about the geography. You know, the big cities -like Sydney and Melbourne -are `big smoke` in slang, but this is not as typical as the expression for `the bush`, which means the rural area near towns. The bush is not so extreme as the `outback`, where so called `bushwhackers` live. On the other hand, even aussies can not tell you where outback begins exactly, but you maybe feel the difference between these two words. However we also have not been in the outback yet, but we are planning to do so later this year before we leave…

Going further on the map, I have learned many more expressions related to the states and their people. If you come from tropical Queensland, you are a `Banana bender`, or a `Cane Toad`. Its state capital -Brisbane- is called `Brizzie` or `Brisvegas`, showing how famous it is for its night life, local bars, casinos, etc. If you live in the far north, you come from the `Top End`, and the middle of the country is called `Centralia`. If you come from South Australia, you are a `Croweater`, whereas those coming from Victoria are so called `Gums..kers`. Tasmania is shortened as `Tassie` very often, and its inhabitants are the `Apple eaters`, while New-Zealanders are `Kiwi`-s, or `Sheepsh..ger`-s. According to this site, people living in NSW are `cockroaches`, but I can not understand why, because as far as I know, people in all parts of Australia are suffering from these animals. However, after several tough months, at least we managed to make a clear sweep of them. In addition, if we talk about geography, let me tell you, that Manchester is not a town here, but means bed linen, quilt, etc., just like `Matilda` is also meaning the `swagman’s bedding or sleeping roll`. A swagman, or tussocker is an old expression for temporary workers who travelled from farm to farm while carrying a “swag”.

There are also some nice or less nice expressions in slang lingo for foreigners, of course. Englishmen are `Poms` or `pommies`, meanwhile Americans are called as `yanks`, `Seppo` or `Septic Tanks`. Less PC words for Lebanese origin people is `Leb` or the `wog` for Mediterranean originated people usually with darker skin types, but this word is a kind of insult for them. However, wog means influenza, as well. Further more, `Westie` is used for those people, living in the western parts of Sydney and are mostly associated to people from lower social or economical background. Aussies have a slang word for refugees as well: like `reffo`.

But lets continue with some happier and more common words… Very typical and commonly used is `Barbie` instead of BBQ or grill; or `veggie` as vegetable; and those shortened `cute` words ending with `ie` or `y`. In this way, underwear is just called `undie`, and a kangaroo is `skippy`. A bottle of beer (375 ml) is a `stubby`, but the canned beer is `tinny`, while the cold beer is `coldie` among friends. Not to mention, that the famous aussie souvenir thing is called `stubby holder`. The chewing gum is just `chewie`, breakfast is `brekkie`, and both the cockroach and the cockatoo are called `cockie`. People who do not go to work because of sickness, are `sickie`, but they `chuck a sickie` if they are actually healty. Sunglasses are only `sunnies` in Australia, as mosquitoes are `mozzies`, a surfer is `waxxy` or `waxhead`, maybe because they are using wax to wipe their board. If you have a good `pozzy` in the stadium, you can see the aussie football called `footy`, and you can shout ` Av-a-go-yer-mug`!!!  to your favorite team…Children use to go to `kindie` (kindergarten); Christmas time is only `Chrissie`; a gift is a `prezzy`, and expensive is `exy`. Lipstick is called `lippy`, like sweets are `lollies`, and your cup of tea is also a `cuppa` for Oz-s, just like for the `Poms`.

There are more interesting slang expressions, maybe more interesting than the ones mentioned here. Would you like me to continue? Than make a comment))))

www.aussieslang.com

www.koalanet.com.au

www.australiatravelsearch.com.au

www.australianhistory.org

www.dunway.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

First of all, the Easter Vigil yesterday was incredibly looong, I can not believe it! It took three hours, the reason why it was this long was because the mass included the confirmation and baptism of new candidates. I think it might have been better if these two feasts (Easter, and these sacraments) are held separately. You had to see those unconcentrated and bored faces yesterday all over the church (St. Mary Cathedral) at the end of the mass, and compare the number of people at the beginning and at the end of the vigil. I am really sorry to tell you this, but it was much too long.

But during the day we had both nice and unfortunate things happening as well. This time we planned to make a trip from Manly and go a few beaches north. We passed at least three beaches and several long rocky cliffs.

At Manly we could not swim, neither go into the sea -as we planned originally-, because for some reason it was full with kelp, sometimes the kelp-hills were almost one meter high! All along the sandy beach and inside the water it was dirty, so no one could swim. Further more it had an `interesting` smell, a bit disgusting. According to the news it will stay there for a while, because it fertilizes the sand and water, in addition there is more kelp coming out of the water in the next few days.

So we went further till Curl Curl Beach, were there also was a certain amount of kelp, but it did not seem as much as on Manly. But the boys (my dear husband and my cousin) soon realized, that it still was impossible to swim in the water or move in the waves, because these plants get stuck to you everywhere. It is a bit annoying to go under water and come back with your head full of weed.  Then we realized, that further north of the long beach there seemed to be no kelp on the sand, we thought there also would not be kelp in the water. Fortunately that was indeed the case! The sea was really clear there but unfortunately there were no waves either …

Just before we wanted to leave, we wanted to see one lookout -very close to the beach -, and this was not the best idea: because of this we just missed the bus…When you are in a hurry to go somewhere on a holiday evening without having checked the timetables at home, it is not the best idea to discover the beautiful remote places around you. No worries, we were waiting for the bus, and waiting and waiting, less and less patiently. There was a certain point when we had to decide to go and not to wait for a bus in a bus-stop where there was not even a timetable…Okay, this was a good decision, because after a few hundreds meter we realized that we were in a wrong bus stop, but while we were going further and further, we just missed two busses again…You maybe know this feeling that everything goes wrong. One day after this has happened, we can easily laugh about it, but at that moment it was a bit frustrating.

At the end we had to make our way all along the beaches back to Manly, because once we reached a bus stop where the timetable was not missing, we found out that we had missed all the busses and the following one would come maybe only after an hour. Okay, we are young, we can do that! So we started walking further. But at the north of Manly beach we felt tired again. We found another bus stop with other bus services, and we thought, the timetable was in our favour this time:  according to it, two busses had to come within five minutes. So what would you do?  Would you try to go further and walk the last one and a half km in ten-twelve minutes to the ferry -which you do not know the timetable of either-, or would you  wait for the bus? It is a difficult choice, think about it.

We stayed there waiting, and waiting and waiting, of course the bus did no come. One thing we learned is that you should not trust the Sydney busses timetable.  It gives a rough indication of when the bus is not driving.

As a result of all this, we missed the boat of coarse as well.

But at the end, fortunately we did not miss the vigil`s beginning in St. Mary`s Cathedral, which is so beautiful, it is hard to describe. It begins at 8 pm, when it is dark outside, and if the lights go out inside the church as well, it is unbelievable, it is really nice. After a few minutes the priests and the choir is coming inside the church from the back, meanwhile the light is going on continuously, as people give the light to each other from candle to candle.  That is so nice here in Sydney, I liked it last year very much as well, so I would have felt really bad to miss it.

And the vigil continued nicely as well. The problem started for a lot of people, when after an hour the ceremony of baptism and confirmation began. I think the Easter vigil is a long ceremony itself, and people came here to celebrate Easter. But putting both ceremonies together makes it less special, when people are getting more and more tired, especially the elderly and children. In my memories it was a really special moment and mass, when we had our confirmation. The mass was only about that, the speech had a message only for us, etc. I really felt sorry for these new candidates, especially because they do this as adults.

Anyway, I liked the end of the mass very much as well. The Alleluia sounded beautiful and cheerful as the singing choir was passing us, this church has a great acoustic.

It was amazing how strong my nephew was as he was standing all along the mass, although he did not need to do this because of the high number of leaving people during the mass…

By the way, I always have to laugh when I think about those Easter Vigils in Hungary. I am really interested in what my mother will tell me about the ceremony this year. How many in my family will faint during the mass…To tell you the truth, the situation is very different in Hungary. The churches are 200 percent full this time, there is no air, no place, it is like a silent rock concert, at least in the way how many people can share one square meter…The spring is starting, people are still pale from the winter, need more vitamin, and young people do not use to eat healthy, but this is maybe the case worldwide. So in this condition there is always somebody who faints. It is not funny at that moment, just afterwards if you look back and start to count your `fainting` experiences.

In addition, Hungarian catholic churches use to organise a kind of procession around the church, which is part of the mass.  That is a nice experience and I like to do it for several reasons. Apart from that it is a spiritual thing, it is a good time to socialize as well. You meet people from the past, you meet your family members, you hear some stories or have some big hugs with your aunties, etc. It is funny to see how non-catholic people in the busy bus stops or on the bus looking at you with those staring eyes; how people try to take a cutoff  during the round-route, and there are always some accidents with the loudspeakers, etc. Then you hurry home and eat the Easter supper - cold hard eggs, sometimes with green yolk, nice cakes, and other typical Hungarian cuisine. I love Easter!!

And then I have more interesting stories, like `how many rabbits were alive after Easter times` or how Easter Monday is happening in Hungary, but this blog is not about my country, it is about this country. However I really want to tell you about it sometime in the future.

Any way, we wish you happy Easter!!!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Excited by all the news and advertisement, last week it was our chance to watch the movie Australia. Now we can finally make up our own mind about all the comments in the newspapers.

In the past few days there were some critics about the movie, which question marked on one hand the acting talents of Nicole Kidman, on the other hand the theatrical style of the producer. We have to say there has been overkill on advertising, as you can see the two main actors in almost every show on television to promote the movie, and then we haven’t even talked about all the commercials and advertisements.    However this big excitement can be understood: it is the most expensive Australian movie ever made and the expectations are very high. The hope is not only to make a great movie, but to attract many tourists as well with all the beautiful landscapes.

But let’s go back to the movie. It is almost three hours long, but in contrast with the critics we weren’t bored at all. The start is maybe a bit slow, but if there is no action, the film is usually funny, sometimes romantic, but luckily this didn’t reach Titanic-like scales.

It is true, that Nicole Kidman is almost over acting at some moments, which doesn’t look very realistic. But it would be to much to say that this kills the movie.  I think she acts well, although it maybe isn’t her best role ever. The film is mainly carried by three other actors that make the film a success: Hugh Jackman and two aboriginal actors, the small boy Brendan Walters and his grandfather in the movie, David Gulpilil. It is really enjoyable to watch them through the whole movie.

Furthermore it is quite funny to listen to the strong Australian accent, that certainly gives the film more atmosphere, which unfortunately will be lost in synchronised translations.

Some scenes ended up being very theatrical, mainly due to the filming techniques. The film is recorded on amazing places, but quite often animation tricks take away your attention from this. For example when they are driving the cattle - several hundreds of cows are chased - through a really nice region, but it almost looks like a scene from a Disney movie.

I was looking forward to this movie, especially because of the locations. As I have read in several interviews, most of the scenes were shot around Bowen, Kununurra, Darwin and Kimberley; and this all of course in extreme dryness and hotness. You can see all of these locations in the movie, but they don’t get very much attention. You can read on other blogs and websites what the film is about, so we will keep this short. It plays around world war II, when an English aristocratic lady travels to Australia after her husband, to help him selling the cattle. When she finally arrives, she finds her husband murdered. It is only proud that makes her stay, to cope against the bad guys and drive the cattle through the desert on her own, helped by some outsiders. She faces all kind of struggles and at the end, when she finally brings the cattle to Darwin, the city gets bombed by the Japanese.  What is interesting about the movie, is that the ‘Stolen Generation’ gets a lot of attention, which actually deserves a few more movies dedicated to it, so the world learns a bit more about the fate of the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent.

Aboriginal people live for about 40-60.000 years on this continent, which makes them the oldest continuing culture on earth. They don’t have written remnants or memories; all stories are told from father to son. These stories live on for thousands of years and play a very important role in daily life. There is a story for each natural appearance, tree, stone or star, which helps in navigating. People can go on large tours (walkabouts) without getting lost, by singing the stories for days. This can be seen as well in one of the most famous aboriginal movies; Ten Canoes.

From the end of the 19th century till about 1970 many aborigine children were taken away from their families. They were sent to white families, or put into church missions to be raised according to Christian standards. This is called the “Stolen Generation” .  For this generation the ties with their culture and families were broken.

p.s. The interesting tree with the very thick trunk you can see at the start of the movie and which is later used as Christmas tree is the so called ‘boab prison tree’, or baobab tree. It is family of the African baobab tree, it can hold a lot of water in its massive trunk and likes extended rocky environments like around Kimberley (Eyewitness Travel Guides-Australia). In the past they have been used to lock up the native inhabitants on their way to Derby, which is where the name “prison tree” comes from according to Wikipedia.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Last weekend we already knew that this will be a new hit that you just cannot get out of your head. It was performed in the week before the final of Australian Idol 2008. And tonight we can announce that we were right: our favorite idol, Wes Carr, won the final with his song “You”! Congratulations Wes, it was a touchdown!

We have heard this song several times now and we think it will be a hit not only in Australia, but also in Europe. This song is really sweeping you up, we are sure you will hear the name of this funky guy in the future.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!