The barista quickly slurs: “Howyagoinalright?”
My face quickly twitches into a “Huh?”, as I draw a blank face. Panic! Did a lapse of time just occur? Did I completely zone out for a second? I missed a key word that would make that sentence comprehendible and complete! Was the question “How are you going somewhere”? Well, I’m not really going anywhere…
Nothing seems to make sense.
After this second of awkwardness passes (and I truly feel bad for the bloke on the other side), it registers that the “How ya going?” is the typical greeting in Australia.
Me: “Oh, uhh, great, thanks. I would like to order a flat white – one sugar, please.” as I hand him some oversized cent coins.
Barista: “Ta.”
“Ta”? What? Did he just cut off himself mid-sentence? I mean, I just paid money and he is giving me back change. Does it mean please take your change? Wait here?
Nope, “Ta” means “Thanks.” Truncation, indeed.
As you can tell with the example above, Melburnians like to take the easy way out when it comes to verbal communication. Your first few weeks will be invested in understanding the rationing of syllables and sentences. Then, when you think you’ve got Australian figured out, you’ll be thrown more random phrases, including:
- Don’t glass your mates – A type of violent behaviour
- Pot of beer – A smaller size of beer, perfect for me
- Smoko – Is derived from, but is not literally smoking… sometimes
- Not a drama – No worries
- Heaps – Lots
- Adjective-as – Best explained with an example: “This is funny as.” is “This is as funny as the most funny event ever.”
- Reckon – I think
- Not a drama – No worries
- Maccas – McDonalds
- Wagging – Skipping, but for fun
- Whats to go – Is used to ask if there is anything to stop something from… going
- Tea – Dinner
- Dinner – Dinner
- Supper – Late night snack
Also, did you know any word can be shortened with an “-o”? Jono. Bottleo. Arvo. Teao. Okay, I’m sure some Australian will correct me, but the first three are absolutely legitimateo.
By the way, the lazy kangaroo in the picture symbolizes grammatical laziness of Australians. Perhaps a doped-up Koala may be a better representation?
Welcome back. Glad the trip went well.
Nice write up. How long did it take to get used to their slang? Were they confused by your slang? Also, do we getto see more pics soon? Ok, no more questions from me. Haha I dug this though. I like hearing about other countries languages.
I said a few things they didn’t understand too, so it works both ways. But after a few months, I’m still littering their lingo in my sentences, and confusing people here. Its fantastic.
I’m all outta pics, and only one blog post left to go. Everything final is up on Flickr!
That’s strange talk but kinda fun when every culture has it’s own take on English. And your kangaroo looks a little pissed that he was woken up from his nap to take a photo!