Differences Between the USA and Australia -- 9-20-96

Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 19:11:11
Subject: Differences

Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, September 3, 1996

G'day, Mates.

Today I'm going to tell you about what I found is different and what is the same between Australia and the United States.

The first thing you will notice is that everybody in Australia talks a little different than we do in the U.S. Of course, we all speak English, so we can understand each other, but our accents are different, and some of our words are different.

I'll tell you about accents first. An accent is when someone pronounces a word differently. For instance, in the United States, people in the South pronounce words differently than Yankees from New England do. They have different accents.

Australians sound to me like they have a British accent, but when you listen to them long enough you find out it's not really British... it's Australian. For instance, I thought Aussie's name was pronounced like "Ossie" but they say "Ozzie." I also thought their capitol city was pronounced "Can bear' a" but they say "Can' bra." I wanted to say "Bris bane" but they say "Briz bun". But these differences aren't very big. Pretty soon, you don't even notice that they "have an accent."

But some of the words are different and that can make it hard to understand. For instance, when I got tired and fussy and started complaining, I was told that I was "winging" (pronounced "win-jing".) In fact, Mrs. Rogers bought me some "anti-winging" pills. They were really smarties, which are candies like our M&M's. But they did make me stop winging... at least until I ate them all up. In fact, pretty soon I was winging for some anti-winging pills.

Here are some other Australian words:

Boot is a trunk of a car
Bonnet is the hood of a car
Lift is an elevator
Petrol is gasoline
A napkin is a baby diaper and a serviet is a napkin. So you better not ask for a napkin at the dinner table.
Biscuits are cookies
Take Away is fast food or take out food
Chemist is the name for a drugstore or pharmacy
Tuckerbox is a lunch box Jumper is a sweater

A swagman is a person who travels around and earns money by doing odd jobs or selling things. We might call someone like that a hobo. In fact, Aussie's hat with the corks hanging down is called a swagman's hat. The corks are to keep the flying bugs away from your face.

And there are many more. My new friends in my new class will be able to tell you about many other things. For instance, Vegemite.

Another thing you'll notice is that they drive their cars on the left side of the road, where we drive them on the right side. And the auto driving wheel is on the right side of the car, while ours are on the left side. This can make for some very confusing things you have to get used to. The biggest change is that you have to remember to look to the RIGHT to check for oncoming traffic before you step out into the street. If you look LEFT, like we do in the United States, you'll probably get run over by a car coming from your right. This was really hard for me to remember, so I just looked both ways a whole bunch of times to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Some of the food is different, but mostly it is pretty much the same. I liked Australian food very much. I could even have MacDonald's hamburgers if I wanted.

But the best thing I found out is that Australian people are really friendly and nice people. They made me feel very welcome and comfortable. I'm going to like my new home at Monash Primary School very much.

I'll write another letter soon!

Your friend, Woodsy