Tag Archives: culture

Aussie-American Translation Guide

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I’ve been in the country for more than nine months now. I’ve been picking up some of the language they use. For your convenience, here is a handy guide for your study.

Disclaimer: While I hear these terms on a daily basis, I do not use them. I will not be held responsible for how ridiculous you, as an American, will sound when you try to speak Australian slang. We Americans just can’t pull it off.

Australian English American English Sample Sentence
Aussie citizen of Australia (pronounce Ozzy)
bench counter Put the refreshments on the bench.
bubs a nickname for a baby Bubs is getting so big!
car park parking garage There is a car park around the corner from the library.
Cheerio! So long!
cot crib Paul only sleeps well in his cot.
dummy pacifier Paul thinks his dummy is yummy.
hamper basket The week before Christmas, bring some fruit for hampers for the poor.
heaps a lot Last week, it rained heaps.
How you going?/How are you going? What’s up? or How are you doing?
mozzies mosquitoes There are so many mozzies tonight!
nappy (-ies) diaper(s) Paul has a wet nappy!
supper a light refreshment in the evening After the baptism, we’ll have supper in the foyer.
tcha OK/the end of a conversation
tea (1) The evening meal; (2) mid-afternoon snack; (3) a hot beverage (1) Would you like to come to tea Sunday after church? (2) She said she’d bring some rolls for tea for new mum’s group Tuesday. (3) do you really need an example?
trolley shopping cart

Daylight

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My son awoke at 4:30 this morning (and at 12:30 and 3, but that’s besides the point). As I climbed the stairs to his nursery, I was somewhat consoled by the fact that this was Daylight Savings Time night. It’s October, so I knew that I would be gaining an hour: it was really only 3:30. I would get a few more hours of sleep!

As I sat with him, I started to realize that the night sky was getting lighter. I no longer needed the nightlight to see in front of me. I peered out of his window to see a bright red ball peeking out behind the clouds. It was beautiful, and it was definitely a sunrise.

A sunrise at 4 a.m.? If the sun rises that early this week, how early would it rise next week? Aren’t the days getting longer?

And then I realized what I’ve always known: Spring Forward, Fall Back. It is October. That means it is Spring. I didn’t gain an hour, I lost it. It wasn’t 4 a.m. It was 6 a.m.

Night was over. It was day.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter what time the clock said it was. Paul was sure it was morning. He wouldn’t yawn or flutter his eyelids even the slightest, despite the fact that I closed all of his blinds and bound him up tightly in a blanket and held him closely for 30 minutes.

I guess he’s getting pretty smart. When he sees daylight, he thinks it’s time to be awake. Even if Mommy wants to sleep.

Cultural Literacy

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I have been pretty good at keeping track of the cultural differences of living in Australia. For example, I no longer walk to the left door of the car first when I go to drive, and I haven’t driven on the wrong side of the road for weeks. I have no problems using cash because I know which coins are each denomination.

I messed up this week.

Here’s the background: To come to Australia on a three-year visa, we are supposed to undertake a chest X-ray. As I was in the first trimester of pregnancy at that time, I declined. I signed a legal form saying I’d be happy to do it at a later date. The government was nice enough to let me come anyway.

A few weeks ago I got the letter from the government clinic that told me that my appointment for the X-ray was scheduled for 10/09/2007 and gave me directions to the clinic. Alright, there is a good chance my baby will have been born by then, I thought, so I put it on my schedule for October, intending to call if I didn’t think I’d make it or if the baby had just come.

So it quite surprised me to get another letter this week telling me that I’d missed my appointment. I was confused. I know my calendar says October! I would have called to reschedule if I thought it was in September (my baby’s still not here…). How could I have missed it?

Oops!

Does anyone else see what my error was?

I’ve been pretty good at remembering the reversed dates issue. My hospital appointment dates are always written in “reverse,” and my first day at the hospital here the doctor kept getting confused by my US obstetrician’s report because the dates were American. But somehow I was completely flummoxed by the date in this letter. I called to tell the clinic that I was just very dumb–I’m not trying to give the government the runaround or anything. The woman at the clinic didn’t seem concerned at all that I’d missed my appointment. I guess this happens. I’m rescheduled for the end of November.

You’d think that I wouldn’t have such confusion. I speak English. This is a modern country that is very much like America. And yet, there are cultural differences that confuse me if I’m not paying careful attention. I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but chances are it will happen again–when I’m not thinking.

What I Miss

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This week, I decided I miss good old American shopping.

I miss:

  • Being able to find prices for things like brooms and ironing boards and baby clothes and sheets online at various stores, then going to the store and getting the exact one I want.
  • Frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast (or any frozen meat, for that matter!)
  • Apple sauce (I never thought it would be so hard to find. I miss rows of Motts to choose from!)
  • Corn meal (polenta mix just isn’t quite the same–too gritty)
  • Cream of Wheat (for me) and grits (for my husband)
  • Variety of breakfast cereals (where are my two aisles?)
  • Frozen pizzas (what ever you do, don’t try a grocery store frozen pizza!)
  • Readily prepared foods (such as a vegetable platter)
  • Carmex (Thanks, Mom, for sending some! Chap Stick doesn’t cut it.)
  • Affordable makeup (The kind of foundation I particularly like is $20, which I’m sure is more than twice as much as that particular Maybelline style in the States. I think I’ll go for the generic. I don’t care about makeup THAT much.)

So here’s today’s story: I volunteered to bring a vegetable platter to a ward event tonight. I figured that would be the easiest possible option. Go to the store, buy a platter and dip, and voila! But no, they don’t have those here anywhere. I had to buy broccoli and cut it up! How old-fashioned!

Here’s the other story: The other day I went to no fewer than three stores before I found an acceptable ironing board (Target, Kmart, and Big W). All of these stores are in malls. Why can’t there be a store that stands by itself and has acceptable parking? I’m very tired of walking through malls. Besides, all of them have these very tempting ice cream kiosks on every corner. It’s very hard to resist (but I did! This time, at least.).

So, this week I really started missing all those good old American comforts when it comes to shopping. Go eat some apple sauce and enjoy it.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

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The best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever discovered is the one from the back of the Western Family bag of chocolate chips. It amazes me that the discount brand of chocolate chips was the most successful at discovering the best combination of fat, sugar, and chocolate. And yet, it is this recipe that is truly delicious.

I have made this recipe on many occasions. It is truly the best out there. I believe good things should be shared. So here it is for your baking pleasure!

Western Family Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

    2 1/4 c. flour
    1 t. baking soda
    1/2 t. salt
    1 c. butter/margarine (225 g)
    1/2 c. sugar
    3/4 c. brown sugar (packed)
    2 t. vanilla
    1 egg
    chocolate chips (I put in as many as I want!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg. Beat well. Mix together dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add them to the creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons, 2″ apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-15 minutes at 375 F (190 C).

The last time I made this recipe, the cookies were a dismal failure. It was a few weeks ago, right after we moved in to our new home. I didn’t have any of measuring spoons or measuring cups so I “estimated.” I didn’t know what the Celsius equivalent of 375 F was, so I guessed. I was wrong on that. I can’t remember if the oven was too hot or too cold, but it didn’t work out very well. I decided at the time that the oven just didn’t work. In the end, I had very crispy dough that just didn’t taste right.

Tonight I felt like eating my chocolate chip cookies. So I tried again. Now I have my measuring cups and spoons and I even checked to make sure that my oven temperature was the correct Celsius equivalent. I think my cookies turned out perfectly!

Try some yourself!

“Foreign” Country

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We made it Australia.

Take a deep breath now.

Most things are the same as anywhere else. Many of these things don’t feel foreign. I might as well be living in Any City, USA. For example:

  • People walk to work quickly.
  • Trams, buses, and trains all follow a schedule.
  • The hotel restaurant has icky food.
  • People all speak with some kind of accent, just like anywhere else in the world. (Many are from Asian countries, but even the Australian accents aren’t too strong as to be “foreign.” It’s like having people from the South, Brooklyn, a farm in the West, and Asia all in one room. Lots of accents, but it’s all English.)
  • Grocery stores and retail stores have food, clothes, and goods of all kinds.
  • Big W has the lowest prices. All the time. Guaranteed. (It looks remarkably like Walmart…)
  • Plastic grocery bags break when you walk two blocks with them.
  • There are lots of museums and things to do.
  • My husband goes to work every morning.

There are a few things that feel foreign. Here are my foreign moments in the past few days.

  • My recipe called for bacon so I grabbed the cheapest I could find on the shelf. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that bacon here is “Canadian Bacon” or ham. Ooops.
  • The deli counter had meat for $24+! I was quite shocked at the sticker price until I realized it was $24 per kg, not per lb. A kg is 2.2 lbs, so it really wasn’t that awful.
  • Milk seems to come predominately in a “whole” or “full” variety. “Skim” milk as I know it was hard to find. And the stuff I did get tastes funny. I wonder if it the carton I got is bad or if all “skim” milk here is just nasty. I certainly don’t think it would be wise to eat whole milk for the next two years.
  • I had just purchased something at Big W, so I knew I had three dollars in coins. But when the cashier stood waiting for the two dollars I owed, I just couldn’t figure out which coins made up two dollars. Who would have thought that the littlest coin was worth the most, even two dollars? How silly! (Then I realized that the US does the same thing with dimes. Why? It’s just confusing.)
  • Drivers are on the right side of the car. The cars drive on the left side of the street. Usually I don’t notice because I’m not driving yet. But it does throw me off when I go to cross a street.
  • Some intersections require all right turns to be made from the LEFT lane. Even if there are two lanes of left-flowing traffic. That really doesn’t make sense to me.
  • The State Library of Victoria had a historical exhibit. I guess I was supposed to know who the infamous Ned Kelly was because there wasn’t a lot of explanation.

Other than those things, it doesn’t feel very foreign. Now we are going to get a bank account set up here so we won’t have to keep paying foreign exchange fees. This afternoon I’m taking the tram up to the hospital for my first doctor’s appointment in this country. My husband will take a cab from work and meet me there. How are we supposed to meet up without cell phones? (Mine has no signal…) That is kind of foreign, to be without instant communication means. Tomorrow we are going to look at homes. We are excited to find out where we will be.

I feel like we’re in our new home town. It feels right.

In Australia

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We don’t have anything packed, and I’m not telling the people I work with yet. But I sure am reading up on what life will be like in Australia. I’ve read some guide books and some “Moving to Australia” books. Here are some things I’ve read. I’m not sure how true these things are….Some are probably more true than others.

Most definitely true

  • Cars have the steering wheel on the right side. Australians drive on the left side of the street. (Oh, dear!)
  • Australia is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world.
  • Australia is the size of the continental U.S.
  • Australia uses the metric system. (Any help, Carl?!)

Maybe true

  • Soft drink cans open up differently. (Not sure yet how.) [Thanks, Elizabeth, for sharing.]
  • Kangaroos are in every state of Australia. They may even be near major metropolitan areas. (How many near Melbourne?)
  • There is a big hole in the Ozone over Australia, so people wear body suits to the beach and always cover up and wear sunglasses.

Am I missing something about Australia that you have heard? Send me an e-mail or comment.