Thursday, 22 June 2006

Something Shocking

Something struck me today that strikes me almost every day I work in Japan but I don't think I've ever even mentioned it here before!

I had no idea how much of my English was slang unique to Australia (and occassionally New Zealand or the UK). This revelation happens almost on a daily basis while working with people from the US when simply having a conversation.
For example, I had the flu something shocky this week and said as much to another teacher yesterday but he wasn't sure what I meant. Apparently that use of something shocking is Australian slang.

I never really had this problem in Australia as much as there were basically no Americans at my university in Sydney and even while working in the city, the only Americans I met were tourists (who would ask me questions like "Do you celebrate Independence Day?"). As far as I can tell, Americans don't seem to travel (for long periods) outside of their country as much as other nationalities.

Had lots of Canadian friends, but almost all of them could understand Aussie and Brit slangage.

Think lots of Aussie slang is shared with the Brits? Think again. Mentioned to a guy from Engand that I had heaps of free time this weekend. Turns out that use of heaps is unique to Australia (and the occassional Kiwi). That really suprised me.

When you think Australian slang, you think mate, wanker, etc but there's so much more that you're not aware of... until you speak to an American.

I'm not taking the piss out of Americans, I'm just talking about my experiences in Australia and Japan and thought I'd share it to get people thinking.

Maybe MTV USA should start airing some eps of Home and Away and Neighbours next season.