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Words/things I learned watching BBAU from the US

San Antonio said:
My best friend is from York, England. People in America thinks she has such a posh (English word not American...we would say fancy) accent. She just laughs because in England, people from Yorkshire are "common" (another English word...we would say low-class or uneducated) because of their bad accents.
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Reminds me of a funny story. My family moved to the US when I was 13 for my Dad's work. After a year or so, upon meeting some other newly arrived English people, they got to talking about US/England differences. My Dad commented that it really annoyed him how Americans don't pronounce the "h" at the start of words (like "herbs"). This couple just looked at him & said "Well, you're just a lot more posh than we are because we don't pronounce it either!" So many regional accents in the UK! I've noticed that it seems the Aussies do pronounce the "h" as well.
 
San Antonio said:
No, sook and whinge are not part of American English or English English. Neither are pash, bogan, or footy. I had to look up rissole in the Australian slang dictionary. It sounds so strange when they announce who has how many points or the percentages after the vote...they say "on". We would say "Jade has 6 points, not Jade is on 6 points." I heard a new one today - furfy. Don't know what it means. Also saw one post where housemates were not picked off, but "pegged off."
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Look in an English slang dictionary (http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/search.htm), and you'll find some words like whinge, pash and footy. And someone 'on' a certain number of points has certainly been used in Britain for years.
 
psykologist said:
What does "pressed" mean?
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As in "they were pressed about what happened in the Presidential Suite?"

Like: kept being asked about it, persistently. Something's that "pressing" is urgent and emphasised.
 
pjac said:
THAT'S the one. Funny name. Thanks.
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Hoagies are a regional term. Mostly Northeast of the US. Philadelphia/Jersey to be specific. The only place to get a decent one but I'm sure you can get a half way decent one in New York. Most of the country just call them subs.
 
Rose711 said:
Most interesting or entertaining things:

School year starts in January
Bert Newton- who would have known about him otherwise?
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So funny you think it odd to START the school year at the START of the year!...Also it is High Summer and extremely Hot in December and January...That is why we often have Barbie's and Pool Parties for Christmas!

WE all know who Burt Newton is. There are millions of us. Burt was part of our Television?Entertainment industry since Television first went to air in Australia...In fact he used to be the sidekick on a Tonight Show with an American Host - bit like Andy Richter, but more more famous in his own right.
 
jb4493 said:
I can always tell Queensland and South Australia accents. Queenslanders have a drawl and often say "Aye!" a lot, its one of the thicker accents. Then South Australia words like "pool" become "pull" its like they shorten everything.

At least thats been my experience.
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Queenslanders appear to end their sentences with but? Or perhaps just my Queensland cousins.
 
SenoritaB said:
I live in Austin! Yes, Texas is so big that we have different accents depending on what part of the state you live in. I used to live in El Paso, so I had a slight Tex-Mex accent, but ever since I moved to Austin, I slowly developed a soft Texan drawl."
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Always makes me laugh that Americans, especially Texans think that Texas is sooo BIG..... Texas would fit into Queensland 4 times!

And that's not even our biggest state!
 
watermellie said:
No love for the Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit? Only yummy thing Mcdonalds sells imo...
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WE don't have that at "Macca's" ( yes that is what we call McDonalds)

We do have a Bacon and Egg McMuffin, or a Sausage McMuffin -My favourite!

So maybe biscuits are similar to Muffins? (although Muffins are soft rather than flakey)
 
San Antonio said:
I heard a new one today - furfy. Don't know what it means. "
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A furfy or furphy is also a con, but is more sleight of hand by devious thinking perhaps. It can sometimes mean an unfounded rumour. A professor had me believing (for at least five seconds) that the word had originated with Dr Nicholas Furfy who liked to spin yarns on his ward rounds, until I realised, from the glint in her eyes, that this was itself a furfy.

"Spin Yarns" means "to tell Tall stories"
 
I had a biscuit once from Popeyes. The other Aussies I was with hated it, but I didn't mind it. It's got the same texture as a scone, but it was.. a bit salty? Just really lightly though. The closest thing I could equate it to is scone-shaped cornbread with VERY light salting.


Bobbi said:
Queenslanders appear to end their sentences with but? Or perhaps just my Queensland cousins.
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Happens here in regional Victoria too. Same with "youse", which is a slang for '(all of) you'. They're two of my pet peeves. It took a lot of restraint when I dated a girl who had a habit of doing both, occasionally at the same time (eg. "Youse are pretty beachy guys, but.")
 
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Tillyestelle said:
Always makes me laugh that Americans, especially Texans think that Texas is sooo BIG..... Texas would fit into Queensland 4 times!

And that's not even our biggest state!
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And the biggest cattle station in the world (American - ranch?), measured in kilometres and bigger than many countries, bigger than Israel for eg.

If your like me, I used to hate geography, and it took my nerdy ex to point out that world maps are made on a Mercator system.

That means, the southern hemisphere scale is different from the northern hemisphere scale.

Everything below the equator is shrunken scale, everything above the equator is bigger scale - so they can fit all that top heavy shit on a map'.
And since there isn't much down here with us, we get squished.

If you see the real scale, the world looks totally different - Africa is way more enormous, and European countries look more dot like.
And Australia is huge, about the same size as North America.
 
Tillyestelle said:
Always makes me laugh that Americans, especially Texans think that Texas is sooo BIG..... Texas would fit into Queensland 4 times!

And that's not even our biggest state!
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It's really only Texans who brag about how big Texas is. It's not even our biggest state (Alaska is nearly as large as Queensland). Of course, with 50 states, compared to Australia's 6, our states are generally much smaller in area. As far as population, both California and Texas each have more people than all of Australia.
 
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kxk said:
And the biggest cattle station in the world (American - ranch?), measured in kilometres and bigger than many countries, bigger than Israel for eg.

If your like me, I used to hate geography, and it took my nerdy ex to point out that world maps are made on a Mercator system.

That means, the southern hemisphere scale is different from the northern hemisphere scale.

Everything below the equator is shrunken scale, everything above the equator is bigger scale - so they can fit all that top heavy shit on a map'.
And since there isn't much down here with us, we get squished.

If you see the real scale, the world looks totally different - Africa is way more enormous, and European countries look more dot like.
And Australia is huge, about the same size as North America.
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Biggest Ranch/farm in the world is in Canada http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B1FF73A5D11738DDDAE0A94D9415B8885F0D3

Then it could in in Kazakhstan http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...lga-puts-worlds-biggest-farm-up-for-sale.html

or...

Ann Creek is the biggest cattle station south australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station
 
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