Sunday, January 26, 2014

Recap: Oz Speak

This post is frightfully overdue.  I will do much better at keeping up with updates, I really will. This was meant to conclude my three months in Australia, which actually ended about a month ago. While I was over there I kept a log of all the bizarre words they used! Okay, I'm kidding.  To them, some of our vernacular is weird too. There are also a lot of pronunciation differences, but this list is for different words we use for the same thing. I'm sure you'll know many of these, but some may offer some new laughs.


Australia                                       American
Capsicum                                       Pepper (Red pepper, green pepper...)
Prawns                                           Shrimp (Yes, this means that Australians never say, "Put another shrimp on the barbie"! We've been so fooled!)
Sultanas                                         Raisins
Bickies (Biscuits)                          Cookies/ Crackers
Tomato Sauce                                Ketchup (This was confusing since I use tomato sauce for pasta sauce)
Texters                                           Markers
Mobile                                            Cell Phone (This is obvious, but I got made full of for "cell phone" enough to put it on the list.)
Trackies                                         Sweat pants (I think.  This seemed to get used for a few things, but I believe it came from "track suit", and was simply abbreviated.)
Lounge                                           Couch/ Sofa (We typically reserve lounge as a verb.)
Pram                                               Stroller (Pram always made me think of the 1950s.)
Bindies                                           Stickers (Like the kind that gets stuck in your foot when you walk barefoot in the grass. This made me laugh so much! It's also an acceptable name.)
Needle                                           Shot/ Injection
Fringe                                            Bangs (I'll admit, ours makes less sense here.)
Plait                                                Braid
Braid                                              French Braid (Nothing confused me more than these last two.  I'd be doing one of the girls' hair and always end up saying, "wait, did you want a braid braid or the plait braid or... which was which again?!)
Singlet                                           Tank Top
Gum Boots                                    Rain Boots
Fairy Floss                                    Cotton Candy (Their name is so much more fabulous!)
Bench                                            Counter (i.e. Kitchen counter.  Another very confusing one.)
Chemist                                         Drug Store/ Convenient Store
Bottle Shop                                   Liquor Store

and... of course...

Thongs                                         Flip Flops (Yes, it is totally normal to say something like, "Oh, I'm just putting away my husband's thongs.")


Well, there you go! You are ready for your trip Down Under. There are others but these were the ones I kept track of.  Throw in some comments of any others that you know! <3