I'm getting ready to go to Melbourne,
because YouTube has invited me to join a Creator Summit there.
"Creator Summit" means . . . (you know)
During my time in Australia, I'm going to go and investigate Australian English,
and you're welcome to come with me.
Okay, I have arrived in Melbourne,
so now it's time to go find some Australians and learn about their English.
So, first I want to ask you about some common Australian expressions.
Some of them might be stereotypical.
The one that most Americans think of when they think of Australians is "G'day,"
like, "G'day, mate!"
Is "G'day" something that you would say often?
Typically not really.
It's more of an outback . . . rural, relaxed setting.
In the city you wouldn't hear a lot.
-"G'day!" -Yeah, "G'day, mate!" Yeah.
Do you say that often?
I don't consciously do it, but I think it just slips out occasionally, yeah.
How about "No worries?"
Yeah, we say that a lot.
"No worries" we say all the time. "No worries" is a good one.
I use that probably every day, all the time.
-"No worries?" -Oh, I say that all the time!
All the time.
So can you give me an example of a situation when you use it?
If people say "Thank you," instead of "You're welcome," you say, "No worries."
Like, if you bump into someone, you say, "I'm sorry," they'll go, "Oh, no worries, mate."
Someone says, "Thanks for the meal." "No worries."
So would you say that you say "no worries" more than "you're welcome?"
Yes.
Is that something you say very often?
Yeah, yeah, we do say that.
In what situations?
So, when someone does a good job, you say, "Good on you."
"Good on you, well done."
How about one that you just said, "How ya going?"
-And that means? -"How are you?"
We say that more than "How are you?" It's "How ya going?"
So how would you typically respond to that, if one of your friends says, "Hey, how ya going?"
-So you would say, "I'm going pretty well?" -Yeah.
Okay, next I want to ask you a little bit about pronunciation.
I've got a couple sentences that I would like you to read.
Can you see what sort of pronunciation element I'm trying to highlight here?
Probably the Rs.
Yes, exactly.
-So in Australian English, you pretty much never pronounce the 'r' at the end of the word, right? -No.
It becomes an 'a'. "Teacha."
Here we go.
Maybe this is just a stereotype,
but I know some Australians would say it sort of more like "I mie prie todie."
Almost like "to die."
Maybe people in the country, or kind of out in the bush, they might have sort of, more of like "todie."
"Todie." Oh, yeah, very much so. Yeah, "g'die," "todie," and all of that sort of thing, yeah.
Is that common?
Like, "I mie prie todie."
I'm thinking my sisters who still live in the country talk more like that.
Yeah, I think it's a little more proper English in the city.
Couple more.
So, can you see what I'm trying to show there?
Kind of the "oit."
Is that another thing that sort of differs between city and country?
Yeah, definitely.
Out in the country, would it be more like, "Roit, we'll foit . . ."
Something like that.
I've got one more pronunciation thing.
Now, you pronounced it a little bit differently than I was expecting,
because I read, as I was preparing for this video,
I read that Australians usually kind of leave off the 'g'.
They just say, "runnin', jumpin', and laughin'."
Yeah, that is common, yeah.
It's very bush, very country, to just drop the 'g'.
If you were just having a conversation with one of your friends, do you think you might say, "He was runnin', jumpin', and laughin'?"
Maybe.
One more thing I wanted to ask you about was a bit about Australian slang.
The first one is all of the things where you guys will, like . . .
make abbreviations and add '-ie' or '-o'.
Like "brekkie" . . .
-which means, of course? -"Breakfast."
Or "arvo," which means?
"Afternoon."
So what about things like "brekkie" or "arvo?"
I already know those ones, but are there any others like that that you can think of?
Like, instead of "sunglasses," we say "sunnies."
-Do you? -Yeah.
These are "trackies," not "trackpants," which is too long.
Just "trackies."
"Come for a barbie."
So would you pretty much always say "barbie?"
Yeah.
-Never say "barbecue?" -Oh, sometimes.
If you take a sick day at work, "a sickie."
-Really? -Yeah.
What's that?
-Really? -Yeah.
So, you said "sparky" for an electrician.
Are there any other words like that, where . . .
like, for a job, you have some kind of special term like that, like a slang term?
And that would mean like a bricklayer or a builder?
-I don't know what they call plumbers . . . -What's a "chippy?" A carpenter?
Yeah, or a builder.
Who are . . . what's the proper word for a tradie?
If you're saying, "I'm going to be there in half an hour," we'll say, "I'll be there in halfa."
-"In halfa?" -"Halfa," yeah.
I've never heard that.
Haven't you?
So, a lot of nicknames.
My sister's name is Eliza, so my parents call her Lizie.
Lizie, okay.
Darren gets shortened to Dazza.
-Really? -Yep.
Barry to Bazza.
Really? Okay.
My name is John, but I get called Johnny or Johnno.
I read that sometimes Australians will . . .
they'll add the word "as" at the end of a sentence.
Like "good as," "well as."
Right, or they'll say, like, "Oh, today the weather is cold as."
So when you say it, you wouldn't say it's /ˈwɪndi: əz/, you would say it's /ˈwɪndi: ˈæz/,
-and emphasize the "as." -Yeah.
And it just means, like, "very" or "really," right?
Yeah, yeah, accentuating.
It's kind of the shortening of a metaphor, so it would be, like, "It's windy as whatever,"
"It's windy as hell" or something,
but you just put the emphasis on the "as" rather than on the noun afterwards.
Do you do that much?
I don't do it that much, but it's pretty—it's kind of common with younger people.
And one more thing.
I'm not sure how to pronounce it:
Can you explain for my students what bogan is?
It's someone who's a westie.
-A westie? -Yeah.
-So what's a westie, then? -A westie is a bogan.
Like a super stereotypical Aussie person.
It's going to sound really rude,
but, sort of more lower-class people who don't really . . .
or people who just don't care about their appearance.
I think "bogan" means, like, not cultured.
It's another way of saying working class or . . .
Rural, typically, like, less educated, lower socioeconomic, kind of . . .
-It's probably not something you would ever say to someone's face about them. -No.
Unless you were, like, joking with friends, but you'd never go to someone and be like, "You're a bogan."
Is there any other Australian slang
that you feel like foreigners ought to know if they're planning to live here or study here?
One thing is, like, you know, having tea, "come for tea . . ."
that's actually dinner.
"Thongs."
Okay, yeah, what are thongs?
Thongs are "flip-flops" to the rest of the world, usually.
And you know what a thong is to an American, right?
-All right, well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. -That's okay. All the best.
All right, guys, well, I think that's enough, so thanks a lot for your time. I appreciate it.
And there you have it: a little taste of Australian English.
But before I finish,
I just want to point out that in most of the cases where I was trying to investigate their accents,
there wasn't much there.
The truth is that with educated, urban Australians,
the accent isn't that strong.
And that's true for educated Americans, educated English people, Irish people, and so on.
And, you know, I've got a lot of students who are really concerned about studying
American English or British English or Australian English,
because they're planning to go study or work in one of those countries.
But it really doesn't matter that much.
I mean, imagine that you spent 10 years studying American English,
and only studying with American teachers.
And then you ended up with pretty good American pronunciation and American vocabulary.
But then, you came here to Australia to study.
You would have the same experience that I have here,
which is understanding almost everything,
almost always being understood,
and then once in a while hearing someone pronounce something in a way that kind of makes you go:
"Wait, what?"
Or maybe they use a word that you don't really understand,
or you use a word that they don't really understand,
and then you have to take, like, 10 seconds to figure out what the other person was talking about.
Not really a big deal.
So don't worry about studying with an American teacher or a British teacher or whatever.
Just study English from educated, intelligent people.
It won't really matter which country they come from. They will prepare you well to go anywhere.
And that is it.
The YouTube event has ended,
so now it's time for me to go home.
Coming home isn't so bad.
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And that is it. You guys will see me again in a couple of weeks.