Australia-isms

For a couple of days in the week of the April 10th, all I did was work at the church.

Thus, taking a break from my narrative, I wanted to tell you all a bit about some South Australian idiosyncrasies. Though I mocked them at first for some of these goofy sayings, I am starting to turn into a proper Aussie with ever passing day. So here are some of the unique phrases I have noticed:

"Heaps": South Australians use the word heaps (as in "a lot," or "much," or "many") in a lot of contexts. For the most part, they use it to emphasize a quality in something. For example: "Australia is heaps good." "Driving in rush hour is heaps difficult." "That test was heaps easy." They say it so much in this area that they have t-shirts and such with a picture of South Australia and the words "Heaps Good" written under it. Go figure. It's a heaps weird thing to be saying all the time.

"Reckon": Australians use "reckon" a lot of the time in conversation to replace the word "think". For example, we Americans from the midwest might say something like: "I think that is a good idea, do you?" "Yes, I think it is." Australians on the other hand would likely say something more along the lines of "I reckon that's a great idea, how about you?" "Yeah, I reckon so." I find myself saying "reckon" all the time now too. I wonder where this difference comes from. We often think of Americans in the deep south using "reckon" a lot in their southern drawl. I wonder if it has connections to a higher form of British English or a lower one? In any event, I reckon it doesn't matter.

"No worries": Oftentimes, when you thank someone for something in Australia, the response is "no worries." That's it. I guess it is a shortened form of "Yeah, don't worry about it." But you hear "no worries" all the time around here. At first this made me laugh a lot because it always seems ladies are saying it in the highest pitch and in the most sing-song manner possible. Moreover, the idea of there being "no worries" is absurd, as Arj Barker pointed out in one of his comedy routines. There is always some worries! So the response is a bit disingenuous (I am being sarcastic now, of course). But, like everything else, the phrase has begun to stick with me. I wonder how long it will take for that to change back when I return to America.

"How you going?": This is the colloquial way of asking somebody how they are doing. I hear it all the time. The first time it really threw me off. I didn't know how to respond...."um....I'm going?" This response only got me confused stares though. So now I have just learned to respond as I would to the equally absurd American phrase "What's up?"

Isn't culture funny? I love looking at it and learning from it.

And for the record: Vegemite is still gross. I don't know how they eat that stuff. It reminds me of solidified soy sauce with extra salt dumped in. This is perhaps the only part of Australian cuisine I do not like.

I hope this was informative for my American readers and humorous for my Australian ones. :-)

In Christ,

Chris