Hehe, weeeell, I live in Brisvegas aka Brisbane... The "gas" thing never made sense to me either? To me "gas" usually has LPG written in front of it! ;-) We too call them petrol stations, or fuel stations or service stations, cause they are places that we go to to "fuel up".
Another one that always confused me as a kid when I was an avid reader of Judy Blume and Enid Blyton - I could never understand what a "drug store" was! I used to think it was a shop that addicts could go to! Lol. Here we call them pharmacies or chemists. Of course, I do understand that a "chemist" is actually a person who is trained as such, but that is the Aussie way, I guess. So, true about the pronounciation of things! Around these parts we call it "WORTUH", kind of like the word wart, with an "uh" sound on the end! Of course, anyone who knows anything about Aussies knows that we usually use "uh" sounds whenever there is an "er" suffix on a word, we've also extended this to invent our own one word contraction for two word phrases ending in "of" - "whateva", "kinda", "sorta", "wanka", "wata", "jumpa" "singa", "swimma", "mp3 playa", oh, and to keep this on topic, the all important "photographa". Oh, and one other thing - I used "jumpa" above, sorry didn't mean to be confusing there, because of course, for the Americans, it should have said "sweata". ;-) Btw, I'm a lumberjack and I don't care... LOVE Monty Python!! t.x. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Miserere Sent: Sunday, 14 March 2010 8:29 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: question for the brits American to English translation Good insights there, Tanya. Maybe the biggest differences between British and American (and Aussie, Kiwi, etc) is the pronunciation of certain words. When I first arrived in the US (with my British accent) waitresses couldn't understand when I ordered water. 9 years later...and they still can't. It seems woh-ter (closed "o") is sooooooo far removed from wah-rer (open "a") as to be a completely different word, even when placed within the context of the answer to the question "what would you like to drink?". Nowadays my wife translates for me when we order at restaurants. Another interesting point worth mentioning is that in the UK **everyone** understands American slang and pronunciation, while here in the US only 1% of people understand us Brits. Whenever I come across someone who understands everything I say, I always ask them if they're big fans of Monty Python, at which point their faces light up and they proceed to re-enact the Blue Norwegian sketch. Or sing the Lumberjack Song. I was once at a petrol station (why would you call it "gas" if it's liquid!?!?!?) in Tennessee where the manager, a lady in her 50's, started chatting me up (I was in my mid-20's) because she "loved my Australian accent". When I told her that, actually, my accent was from London, she asked me what part of Australia that was in. So Tanya, what part of Australia are *you* from? :-) --M. -- http://EnticingTheLight.com A Quest for Photographic Enlightenment On 13 March 2010 08:13, Tanya Love <[email protected]> wrote: > Ok, so here's my (Aussie, which is kinda, sorta Pommie) take on it > all, as taught to me by Thomas Van Veen at GFM... > > 1. Our biscuit (or "biccie") = your cookie. > 2. Our scone (pronounced SKON, as in "he bumped his scon (aka head) on > the > door") = your biscuit. > > We also have this DIVINE invention that we call "choccie biccies", > which are really a combination of #1 above, coated in chocolate. We > also like to call them Tim Tams, and those of you who were at GFM may > remember sampling some that I brought with me! > > Further to this, we have TWO types of "muffins" - the ones that are > like a huge patty cake (which you call cupcakes) without icing on it > (you call it "frosting"). And then the muffin (aka "English" in > variety) that you have for brekkie (you call it "breakfast"), with > heaps of melted butter and Vegemite or jam on it - oh, wait, you call > it "jelly"... Doesn't matter as they are much better with Vegemite anyways! > > Which brings me to the next part of my education whilst I was in that > weird country of yours... > > Our jam = your Jelly > Our Jelly = your Jell-O > Our lollies = your candy > Our chewy = your "gum" > Our maccas = your "mickie dees" (WEIRD!) > > I also learned that Americans think it is really weird to say that a > food tastes "nice". It is something I say all the time "oooh, yuuuum, > that is soooo nice!" And, everytime I said it at GFM, the American > reply to me was raised eyebrows (or just one to those who are clever > enough to possess that talent). Apparently, you should only ever say > that food is "good", because people are "nice". > > Oh, and you don't say "heaps" because you should say "a lot" as > apparently, you only manure in "heaps" and you don't say "thanks > heaps!" (another thing I say ALL the time!), but you CAN say "thanks A LOT". > > You also don't seem to understand it if a person says a really simple > thing like "ta muchly", which of course translates to "thanks very much". > > Oh, and here's yet another straaaaaange American fact - you lot drink > your tea COLD!! AND, like, with EVERY meal!! See, we tend to drink > WATER cold, and with every meal, and save the "tea" for when we are > needing a nice hot cuppa at the end of long day - personally, I like > mine with milk and oh, about 2 1/2 sugars, but with ice cubes, and in > a glass, well that is just WRONG! > > And here's another fun fact - Americans LOVE it when Aussies > (pronounced OZZIES!!! Very weird that you have no trouble pronouncing > it when it has the word "Osbourne" after it), say the word "wanker". > I must have said that word a thousand times whilst I was there as it > seemed to entertain you (well, Tom) so much! So, here it is again ... > Wangka...! Ooooh, I can hear the giggles now! > > Oh, and btw, yes, this is indeed what we call a crumpet... > > http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1383338/2/istockpho > to_138 > 3338_toasted_english_crumpet_with_melting_butter_against_whiteon.jpg > > I think the strangest thing of all though, was the fact that Cotty was > really the only one who I could understand 100% of the time! Sad, but true! > We also had this amazing common bond called junk food and we were both > in heaven when we discovered how EVERYTHING in America is HUGE!! You > could have knocked me over with a featha (bit more Aussie twang > there!), when I saw the MONSTER boxes of Tic Tacs!! OMG, HEAVEN! > > One other strange thing I learned at GFM is that there is a weird > species of red haired, bearded Welshmen that like to go off into bear > country on their own, overnight, in almost freezing temperatures > (apparently this was your SUMMER!), and rain, on some strange quest > for photos of a sunrise. I got to meet one of them, although I am > sure that there must be others in existence too... right? > > t.x. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4942 (20100313) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
