OT: Where are the Brits?

[Ash]

I found these articles on Wikipedia to be very informative:

AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH

NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH

I've been to Australia and what got me was the amount of slang everyone used.
I thought AMERICAN ENGLISH had a lot of slang until I traveled Down Under.
They've got us beat by a longshot!

I constantly would have to ask what something meant after someone spoke a slang word or phrase that I was unfamiliar with.
Now I'm pretty much a master after spending just one month in OZ.

[Rombles]

Well as a proud South Australian, I've got to say that I would rather move to New Zealand than your godforsaken city of Melbourne, in that cesspit called Victoria, there, Dean. ;-)

Ouch, my wife just hit me, I forgot she was born in Melbourne.

Just cos we are in the same country doesn't mean we have to like each other though ;-)    

Actually I quite like Victoria, but the rivalry between Vic and SA is incredibly fierce - At least we in SA think so - the Vics probably don't care about us, they are too busy trying to convince everyone that they are superior to New South Wales (Where Sydney is, for those not familiar with our states).  It seems that within the state, people will support their own state rabidly, however if there is no-one from their own state involved in whatever rivalry is at hand, they will support any Aussie against any other country - Especially NZ.

In South Australia, everyone will assume that you support one of the 2 local teams in the Australian Football League (Aussie Rules) - I get some quite annoyed looks when I tell people that I support a Victorian team.  Carn the Saints!  (Heard that one before, Ashthecat? ;-)  )

That said, I would love to see Australia and NZ merge.

[Ash]

Rombles Wrote:
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In South Australia, everyone will assume that you
> support one of the 2 local teams in the Australian
> Football League (Aussie Rules) - I get some quite
> annoyed looks when I tell people that I support a
> Victorian team.  Carn the Saints!  (Heard that one
> before, Ashthecat? ;-)  )

Actually, no I haven't.
I visited Adelaide and loved every minute of it!
They turned me on to Aussie Rules football while I was there.
The people I stayed with were hardcore footie fans.
After watching it, it wasn't too difficult to figure it all out.

What totally perplexed me was Cricket.
I couldn't get it no matter who explained it to me.
I remember picking up a bat in a friend's backyard.
I asked him, "What is this?"
He said, That's a cricket bat."

I asked him what cricket was and he explained it and the rules to me.
I remember saying, "Huh?"
We went inside and he fired up his Playstation and put a Cricket sports game disc in. (I forget the actual name of the game itself)
Even then, after showing me how it's played on the Playstation, I still didn't get it.

The phenomenon of Americans not understanding Cricket has been played out in films such as "The Beach" starring DiCaprio.
In that movie, most of the characters didn't get it either.

[odinn7]

Scott, man...you're starting to scare me. I guess it's a good thing that my built in paranoia has made me stockpile weapons for when it all happens.

[dean]

odinn7 Wrote:
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> Scott, man...you're starting to scare me. I guess
> it's a good thing that my built in paranoia has
> made me stockpile weapons for when it all happens.
>

But those weapons are focused on the squirrel menace aren't they???  God help us all...



Rombles Wrote:
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> Well as a proud South Australian, I've got to say
> that I would rather move to New Zealand than your
> godforsaken city of Melbourne, in that cesspit
> called Victoria, there, Dean. ;-)

Such anger...  is that a hint of jealousy?? :-P


> Actually I quite like Victoria, but the rivalry
> between Vic and SA is incredibly fierce - At least
> we in SA think so - the Vics probably don't care
> about us, they are too busy trying to convince
> everyone that they are superior to New South Wales


Oh and Rombles, we know we are better than NSW so don't even go there.  I've only spent a brief time in SA, and it was pretty cool [alot of good bad movies were filmed in SA, so you can't really go wrong] but I haven't gone to Adelaide the city itself before [just the outskirts on a family trip]  But there isn't really that big a rivalry between SA and VIC, from our side of the fence at least [well, from my point of view anyway: I'm too busy b***hing about NSW].  Where's your wife from in Melbourne by the way?

And yes, when it comes to international rivalries, especially in sport, our country is a united force, despite how much crap people give Tassie.  To do it any other way just isn't cricket.

Carn the Dees by the way!


Actually while I've got you guys on [and then off] the topic of the cricket I've got an interesting story about cultural differences.  Years ago my family hosted a couple of American baseballers who came down for some reason I've forgotten [My brother and I were playing a bit of baseball at the time so it was organised through our club, in fact my brother still plays] and they stayed for about a week or so.

One interesting experience was trying to teach these baseballers Cricket.  I won't go into too much detail for those who don't know the rules, but basically when we were explaining it, somehow one of them thought that in order to get the batter out you have to throw the cricket ball at the batter instead of the wickets [when they are running that is] and it scared the hell out of me having a pitcher throwing a very hard cricket ball at me instead of the nice and safe stumps...  very scary indeed.

Then when the other guy batted, he hit the ball over four fences [we were playing in our backyard, which really isn't big enough for a big-hitting baseballer who doesn't know the word 'soft']  Guess it was six and out for him...

All in all a bit of fun.

[sorry to confuse, I really can't be bothered elaborating]

Oh and Rombles, should we tell them about the Drop Bears?  Gotta be real careful with the Drop Bears...

[Rombles]

I think Drop Bears probably deserve their own thread, don't they?  They are a menace not to be taken lightly....

[BoyScoutKevin]

I'd like to talk about a couple of things. Not about the differences and smiliarities between Australia and New Zealand. I'll leave that up to dean and Rombles, who probably know more about the subject, than I do.

I would like to talk about Canada and the United States. I don't know whether it's still true, but in the past, Western Canadians said that the international boundary between Canada and the United States ran the wrong way. Instead, of running east and west, it should run north and south along the 100 West Longitude. As they felt, they had more in common with the Americans who lived in the Western United States, than they did with their fellow Canadians who lived back East. And listening to some Western Americans, they probably think the same. Feeling they had more in common with the Canadians, who lived in Western Canada, then their fellow Americans back East.

As for North and South, there are still some die hard Confederates out there. I  now live  in a state that left the Union. And while there was not much fighting there, as it was too isolated from much of the rest of the South, it did send alot of men into the Confederate Army. Of course, to be fair, there was alot of support for the Union in the state, both before and during the war, or, at least opposition to the Confederate government. But, 141 years after the end of the war, the descendants of those Confederate soldiers still exist and are proud of thier Confederate heritage.

This was brought up by an incident at one of the local area schools. One must understand, that where I live, there has been so much conflict between various ethnic groups and within ethnic groups, that certain colors and certain symbols are banned from school grounds, because they only cause conflict. One of these symbols being the Confederate flag. So, when a group of girls came to school with the Confederate flag on their purses, they were sent home. Of course, this only caused a royal brouhaha with certain individuals, who said the girls were only showing pride in their Confederate heritage. Which only caused another royal brouhaha, as it was debated in the "Letters to the Editor" section of one of the local papers, as to what the words "Confederate Heritage" may or may not mean. No, for some individuals, the war never ended in 1865.

[dean]

Clicky the link for appropriate info on these pesky native creatures...

LINK 1

LINK 2

[trekgeezer]

That's funny, because most actors that come from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand tend to use the general American accent. I could never watch Cold Mountain because of the way Nicole Kidman murdered her southern accent.

My accent is not very pronounced because I have lived in a lot of places including Scotland. In fact when I came home on leave, my brothers gave me quite a bit of hell for speaking like a "yankee". I actually slip in and out of the accent depending on who I am talking to.