My accent is dumb, and other linguistic observations

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I've been living in Australia for a few months now, and the main thing that experience has taught me is that my accent is dumb. American vowels are flat and lazy and nasal. I pronounce too many R's on average. It's really quite unseemly.

The culture here feels like a weird blend of UK and US culture, partly because goods and media are often imported from both places. I've enjoyed learning some of the features of Australian English and hearing a wide variety of Australian accents. There are tons of immigrants from the UK and elsewhere in my department, so I'm encountering a lot of those accents too.

Some Aussie words and phrases I've been interested or bemused by so far:

  • "How are you going?" is used instead of "How is it going?" or "How are you doing?"
  • Tasty cheese = cheddar
  • Barbie = grill, but grills tend to be fireless electric cooktops in this wildfire-prone region
  • Bushfire = wildfire
  • Lollies = candy
  • "Hey" is used in lieu of "huh" when seeking clarity or agreement (e.g., "It's hot today, hey?")
  • Tap instead of faucet
  • "Streaky bacon" is what you would expect to be called "bacon" in the US -- otherwise "bacon" means Canadian/UK style
  • Rego = car registration (one of many abbreviations that end in -o)
  • Ute = SUV
  • Footy = Australian rules football, while "football" can mean either footy, rugby, soccer, or American football depending on the speaker, the region, and the context
  • "Parking ticket" is the thing that indicates that you have paid for parking, not the citation you get when you illegally didn't pay for parking
  • "G'day" seems only to be used when encountering people you don't actually know in the elevator/hallway/a business
  • Coriander instead of cilantro
  • Esky = cooler/ice chest
  • Arvo = afternoon
  • Jan = January
  • Prawn = shrimp
  • Mozzie = mosquito
  • Roo = kangaroo
  • Kangabangas = sausages (hot dog-like) made out of kangaroo. This only makes sense if you think about how "banger" means "sausage" in UK/Australian English and how speakers of UK/Australian English don't pronounce final R's.
  • Ta = thank you
  • Stubbie holder = koozie
  • Togs/bathers = swimsuit
  • Chook = chicken
  • Aggro = aggressive, but maybe also aggravating
  • Hell as an adjective (e.g., "That spider was hell-big.")
  • Shit as an adjective (e.g., "He's really shit at cricket.")
  • Bushwalk = hike
  • Whinge = whine/complain
  • Barrack = cheer for one's team, because...
  • Root = sex (an awkward American mistake is to talk about "rooting for one's team")


Weird cultural/linguistic generalities:

  • Some things are labeled "cake" here that I wouldn't call cake, like brownies and lemon squares.
  • Tea is so commonly drunk here that boiling water comes out of a spigot on the wall.
  • Relatedly, the staff break room is called the "tea room".
  • People play cricket in their yards and driveways and public parks
  • Kitesurfing is a big deal


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