As an Asian-American, my origins are ambiguous to those who don’t know me. More than once, I’ve been asked by my Aussie classmates:
It’s odd to think of myself as the one with the accent, because to me, everyone else has an accent! With the colorful Aussie slang to match.
Sydney probably isn’t the best place to go if you want to hear that classic Crocodile Hunter accent. Sorry to disappoint: nobody says “crikey” around here. In fact…
Though the accent is understandable, I have encountered some Australian words that I’ve never heard before. For instance, Australians really like to shorten everything.
Or, the same words will have different meanings here…
…and different pronunciations.
When an Australian is interested in doing something, they’ll often say…
When someone does something good, they’ll get a flurry of:
If I put on a sweater, I’ll be told:
Australians aren’t tired, they’re
And of course, there’s the occasional word that I’ve never heard before in my life.
The list goes on and on. The Australians really do have their own brand of English! Even if they don’t use all the slang I expected them to:
Still, it always brightens my day when I hear someone say:
I think I’m even picking up on some of the terminology!
I’m going to return to Boston with an impeccable Australian accent, I swear!