Home ›
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
While we're at it, do you guys drive trucks or lorries?
the hell's a lorrie
Her Majesty isn't going to be proud of her subject.
... There's no chance at all you mean ute, is there?
Ohhh, a lorry! Why didn't you just call it that in the first place?
Ohhhh. No wonder I couldn't find anything on lorries on Google. :V You'll have to forgive me, I'm blanking out.
The terms 'truck' and 'lorry' are basically interchangable, but I usually hear 'truck' used instead unless you're referring to the smaller varieties.
Yeah, this is a college course.
And no, I don't think you could opt out of subjects in secondary schools either, even if I didn't attend. We are the pressure-cooker education system, after all.
Some more Australianisms:
"Chips" refers to both what Americans call crisps and to thick french fries. While the term "french fries" is used sometimes for thin potato chips, such as what you'd get at McDonalds, the term "chips" is just as applicable.
"Sweets" can refer to a proper dessert or to any kind of candy. The term "lollies" is reserved for the latter, particularly for those that err away from chocolate, marshmallows and other sweets that suffer (or benefit!) under heat. So chocolate is "sweets" and milk bottles are "lollies". I hope that makes sense. "Lollies" has been falling out of favour for a while, though, even discounting the influx of Japanese pop culture.
Our equivalent to the English "chav" is a "lad". Fairly self-explanatory.
We have a brand of cheese called "Coon Cheese". Foreigners find it highly offensive on occasion, but no-one else seems to care. That said, I've never actually asked an Aboriginal how they feel about it.
For the most part, Australians tend not to use "crikey" -- "fuck" is much more common and generally considered more socially acceptable. At the very least, it'll get you less strange looks.
A "wog" is any white person who isn't the right kind of white person. Italians, Greeks and some other Eastern European nationalities get pegged with this. Closely related is a "muzzer", which are wannabe gangsters who tend to be wogs. Expect all the trappings of hypermasculine culture with nothing to back it up. Wogs are fine; muzzers are nonthreatening but annoying.
A "meat pie floater" isn't a special kind of defection, but a meat pie served in pea soup. So it's a very special kind of defecation.
A "tinnie" is a can of beer. One is often invited to crack them open.
"Acca Dacca" is a way to refer to AC/DC, if you really want to use it.
What confuses matters is the amount of Australian subcultures in play, inherited primarily from both the UK and US, but with contributions from a variety of other nationalities. For instance, hipsters and other faux-gentrified idiots (such as myself and most of my social circle) tend to avoid much of the above. Country folk (epitomised by the dreaded bogan, which has adapted to both urban and suburban environments) use a lot of traditional Australian slang. Muzzers are a combination of the above, being kind of simple like bogans, but suburban and urban in natural habitat.
Australia is going to be interesting from a cultural perspective going forward because of our reliance on immigration. Our culture is usually in a state of moderate chaos, so new groups and whatnot arise every few years and make their mark on the wider culture. For instance, Indian immigrants are currently in the process of doing just that. Won't be long until they're considered just as Australian as our other kinds of Asians, and a new Indian-Australian culture will emerge out of that. If it hasn't already, mind -- as a white suburban guy, I'm likely slow on the uptake compared to others.
Also, stubbies, which can refer to either beer or a particular kind of pants. I dunno if the former meaning is Australian-exclusive though.
I think that's the other way around, unless you're talking about Pringles.
^^ Also, "thongs" are footwear.
^ I stand corrected. Maybe.
No, that is correct. What Americans would call crisps, we call chips.
Also, shrimp are prawns. And you will never hear an Australian talk about throwing a shrimp on the barbie.
What do we call crisps?
Do you mean fries?
hurr hurr
Chips.
A thin slice of potato that is deep-fried/baked until crunchy.
This is, of course, conditional on the fact that literally everything I have heard on the subject is not a lie.
We call those chips.
No, we don't call anything crisps unless we're trying to be fake British.
Thinly sliced fried potatoes (or anything that looks like them, like Pringles) = chips.
Fried potato strips = fries.
Then the both of us would be wrong, and I have to go hunt down every source which has lied to me about this and exact my revenge.
The crisp/chips confusion is one of those more annoying aspects of the English for outsiders
Ah, damnit, I think I caught one of the illnesses going around...
I don't get what going on anymore. But! Did you know that Pringles somehow failed to meet the definition of 'potato chips' and were only able to refer to their product as 'chips' if they qualified them as "potato chips made from dried potatoes"?
And that when forced to make a decision, they chose to market them as 'crisps' instead?
They just market themselves as Pringles here. :V
Note that in Britain, "wog" is a rather offensive racial slur against people with dark skin (Mostly Africa/parts of Asia.)
Here in the good ol' USA, they market them as a breakfast cereal. You can pour the milk right into the can and have a bowl of cereal just like that.
Pringles don't come in bowls.
Literally, no, but that can, dude. That can is anything you want it to be.
They do if you don't want to shove your arm into a cardboard tube.
Even an incineration chamber for Cool Ranch Doritos? Yay!
Is it also a spoon? With an extra-long handle? Because I would need that.
Also, salt and vinegar Pringles would be horrible with milk.
Yeah, the lid unfolds into a gigantic spoon. Good thing, too, because if you try to drink the potato slurry from the can, then everything dribbles out of the Pringles guy's eyes and you'll ruin your shirt.