I started this post last July…. clearly I never finished it until now. When I started it, the intent was to highlight what I noticed most about the differences in our English and what new words and phrases were standing out to me in Aussie speak. And shortly after I starting writing it, I had dinner with one of Brent’s American colleagues, and she said that after living here for a year and a half that she didn’t even hear the accent anymore. I thought that was ridiculous! Well, here we are almost a year and half later, and I have to agree…

However, as you can imagine, the transition has been much easier because they speak English.  I can easily read labels at the grocery store, call customer service about our utilities, arrange appointments, enroll kids in activities, etc. Many easy tasks that I struggled with in France.

But, we don’t always speak the same English which reminds me almost daily that I’m in a foreign country. And just last week, I was told by the young cashier that she liked my accent. It’s strange being the one with an accent. As soon as I speak, I’m usually asked where I’m from, knowing it’s America, but they want to know from which city. (Then they ask me how crazy I think Trump is and do I own a gun, but I digress!)

So, for daily reminders, here are some examples… I’m glad I can laugh about it, but for some newbies, I’m sure they get frustrated.

I went to join the gym shortly after we arrived. The girl that was showing me around was explaining that some of the classes needed to be reserved in advance and some were “first in, best dressed”. The conversation was something like this… “This is the cycling studio. It gets pretty crowded for the classes in here, but, it’s just first in, best dressed.” After about the third time of her saying this, I said, “Can you explain what you mean by first in, best dressed? I know that I shouldn’t wear flip-flops to cycling class, but what do you mean?” She just looked at me puzzled and then burst out laughing! It’s just a figure of speech that she’s never thought about. So, we agreed that our equivalent would be first in, first served. (And flip-flops are called thongs here. That isn’t entering my vernacular!)

Another scenario was around the term “whack”. I went to a cooking store with my friend (and emergency contact), Fiona, and she was asking for an omelette skillet. The lady was explaining how to season it, and she said to heat the burner, place oil in the skillet and then whack the pan on the stove. This was slightly baffling to me as I couldn’t imagine why you would hit the pan on the burner, but she said it a few times so I knew that I heard her correctly. She really seemed to know what she was talking about, and I wasn’t buying the pan, so I went with it… until… I was in photography class and the instructor said to whack the camera on a specific setting, then I had the “ah-ha” moment. It means “put” here! I leaned over and asked the girl next to me if “whack” meant “to put”, and I got the same response as the girl from the gym. After she laughed, she confirmed it was.

I asked the girl at the cash register the other day if I could get “cash back”. She looked at me puzzled and said, “Do you mean cash out?” And I said, “Yes, I do.”

After we went on a trip along Great Ocean Road, one of the moms in Isla’s class had this conversation with me…
Mom: I saw you posted a picture on Facebook that you saw a kangaroo. Where were you?
Me: We were on our way to the town of Forest to a brewery. It was about an hour north of Lorne.
Mom: We love Lorne and go there all the time. But, where were you going? I don’t know that town.
Me: Forest.
Mom: Hmmm. Forest. I don’t know where that is.
Me: It’s an hour north of Lorne. You know, Forest. Like the woods.
Mom: Ahhhhh! You mean “Fahr-est”. (She didn’t understand my accent)
Me: I guess I do. We say Forest, not “Fahr-est”.
We both had a good laugh.

However, lately, I’m not as surprised by what they say because I’m used to it, but one phrase I did have to ask about the other day…. Greyson goes to a sports class with another little boy that we know from Isla’s school. The mom said to me that morning… “Oh, we have Sportzbuzz today. It’s so cold in the gym, so I need to remember to rug up.” They say “rug up” instead of “bundle up”. I had to ask where this came from (because who wraps themselves in a rug?), and she just laughed and said she didn’t know.

Sometimes it isn’t the accent, but it’s actually different words… We saw a snail crossing the sidewalk on the way to school one day. Once we arrived at school, Isla wanted to tell her teacher all about this snail, but the teacher couldn’t understand what she was saying. After a few times of her repeating it, I finally jumped in and said that we saw a snail crossing the sidewalk. She said, “Oh! We don’t say sidewalk so that’s why I didn’t understand her!” They use the word “footpath”.

But the most interesting thing is what the kids are saying. With Isla being in school full-time and Greyson being at “school” and with the sitter several hours a week, their language has changed. When we were home in July, often people said that they can hear Isla’s accent. She has really started to drop the “r” off of words. A little boy in her class is named Oscar. She calls him “Osc-ah” as they all do. When she can’t do something, she says she “c-ah-n’t” do it. And as you can see from the picture above, mommy is spelled “mummy” (though she’s missing the extra m).

The kids have started replacing words- pram for stroller, nappies for diapers, bin for trashcan, tip instead of dump, bit instead of piece…. They use ages and nearly instead of forever and almost. For example, Greyson said it was going to be ages until dinner was ready the other night. They will say, “Are we nearly there yet? This car ride is taking ages!”

And here we have Greyson telling me he is going to “we-wax” (that’s just toddler speak for relax) and asking me to turn on the “tele” (now that’s Aussie slang for tv) the other day.

It’s been interesting to see the subtle differences when we speak the same language. When we were beginning the transition here, our relocation agent sent us this video…. How to Speak Australian. It sounded ridiculous the first time that I listened to it, but I just watched it again for this post, and it now makes sense… so I guess we are getting integrated quite well now…