Words/things I learned watching BBAU from the US

[kxk]

Oooooo this is my favourite thing about RTV, international viewing and chats and stuff.

As I am a little bit addicted to this cultural/language exchange, I even lurk places like
yanksdownunder.com.au

I can't help myself I get a kick out of Americans tasting vegemite and freaking out at Christmas with no snow

The Aussie word I love the most - CHOOK, I was really impressed when I found out it's Aussie, I love it, and love kids calling babies chookins.

Have you heard of DROP BEARS

And here is a challenge - can you discern differences in the HMs speech/accent, they come from different parts of Australia, and there are differences, some subtle some obvious????

 

[watermellie]

Oooooo this is my favourite thing about RTV, international viewing and chats and stuff.

As I am a little bit addicted to this cultural/language exchange, I even lurk places like
yanksdownunder.com.au

I can't help myself I get a kick out of Americans tasting vegemite and freaking out at Christmas with no snow

The Aussie word I love the most - CHOOK, I was really impressed when I found out it's Aussie, I love it, and love kids calling babies chookins.

Have you heard of DROP BEARS

And here is a challenge - can you discern differences in the HMs speech/accent, they come from different parts of Australia, and there are differences, some subtle some obvious????

I've never tasted vegemite, but marmite is nasty...
Christmas without snow is lovely imo..
Never heard of Chook, or Drop Bears.

I can tell the difference in accents sometimes, but don't know which goes where....

 

[LovelyCoconuts]

Most interesting or entertaining things:

Kookaburra in the flesh
Compulsory voting
School year starts in January
Bert Newton- who would have known about him otherwise?
Boys fantasies about girls in school uniforms
Slut strands
How smart Australian cattle dogs can be

Most important thing:
Australians are awesome!! Though I strongly suspected that before.

To be fair, slut strands is a common expression in Minnesota, as well as fantasies about school girl uniforms.

Oooooo this is my favourite thing about RTV, international viewing and chats and stuff.

As I am a little bit addicted to this cultural/language exchange, I even lurk places like
yanksdownunder.com.au

I can't help myself I get a kick out of Americans tasting vegemite and freaking out at Christmas with no snow

The Aussie word I love the most - CHOOK, I was really impressed when I found out it's Aussie, I love it, and love kids calling babies chookins.

Have you heard of DROP BEARS

And here is a challenge - can you discern differences in the HMs speech/accent, they come from different parts of Australia, and there are differences, some subtle some obvious????

I can tell there's a distinct difference between Tahan's, Tim's and Drew's. But I wasn't sure if it was just their speech patterns.

Lol, had to google Drop Bear! Learned the term 'fair dinkum' in the process

 

[watermellie]

I can tell there's a distinct difference between Tahan's, Tim's and Drew's. But I wasn't sure if it was just their speech patterns.

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

 

[LovelyCoconuts]

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

I've wondered that too. Mine tends to confuse people. I grew up in Boston and moved to Minneapolis so I skip my r's and stretch my o's

 

[watermellie]

I've wondered that too. Mine tends to confuse people. I grew up in Boston and moved to Minneapolis so I skip my r's and stretch my o's

I have a friend that grew up in upstate NY but has lived in Arkansas for the last 20 yrs... she has quite the interesting dialect!

Ever noticed people from CA and FL sound the same but are nowhere near each other?

 

[Illabeth]

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

I can tell the difference between Canadian and American, although if someone were from the Boston/New England area I might have more trouble due to the fact they have a non-rhotic r. But then I spent 9 months in the US during my Gap Year.

You'll find in Australia if you have a North American type accent (unless it's distinctly southern US) people will ask if you're from Canada. This stems from Canadians getting annoyed if we assume they are from the USA, but we've learnt that American's don't seem to mind being mistaken for Canadians as much.

I'd say that people in Aus would easily be able to distinguish the Southern Vs. Northern accents, and some would be able to pick the New England type or that weird way people from Florida seem to talk, but anything more regionally subtle would go over our heads.

That being said when I was in the USA more people thought I was from the UK than Aus, and then when I travelled with a Kiwi, they thought we were both Aussie. Kiwi's and Aussies have very distinct accents to my ear, but apparently the same to most North Americans we met, so I'd say the subtleties of the regional accents in Aus would fly way over most of your heads.

One that I thought about doing some research into the the Victorian train of pronouncing /e/ and /a/ the same, so Allen and Ellen both sound like Allen in rapid speech.

 

[Badlands]

And here is a challenge - can you discern differences in the HMs speech/accent, they come from different parts of Australia, and there are differences, some subtle some obvious????

I notice some differences in the HMs' accents, but I definitely couldn't identify them.

I find Ed by far the hardest to understand, but I don't know how much of it is his accent and how much is his speech pattern. Of course, even when I can understand the words he's saying, I often have no idea what he's talking about.

 

[watermellie]

[MENTION=36472]Illabeth[/MENTION] I have spent a lot of time watching AU and UK programs and have a lot of friends from both so I can understand the difference, and with NZ as well, but in general most of the people I know in my local area wouldn't be able to.

Also I have been mistakenly identified as a Canadian and didn't mind *hangs head* ... worst American ever.

We aren't all bad, we've just lost control of our government. Judge us as a whole if you must but plz cut us some slack individually.

 

[kxk]

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

Mostly. Your accents are very distinctive.

My favourite is Boston, I adore that accent, Boston rob is my favourite ever Survivor.

Canadian is much softer, and the differences are less distinguishable than Aussie/New Zelanders???

About/aboot, the ou sound is the easiest for me to pick up. I used to love that newsreader who was on a major US network who died a few years ago, Canadian softly spoken.

New Jersey - yeah we get Jersey Shore, and cop shows. Guy Pearce - our actor did a great one I thought???
Southerners, I haven't really thought about the differences, but they are very distinct and colourful, I love them.

I would expect but not know, is Alabama more broad/colourful?
Texans to me don't sound very southern at all............I guess Dallas would be a reference point for me, or George W Bush.

 

[watermellie]

I would expect but not know, is Alabama more broad/colourful?
Texans to me don't sound very southern at all............I guess Dallas would be a reference point for me, or George W Bush.

I don't know how to explain the difference other than Tx sounds more polite, charming... less rednecky.. to me anyway, that's how I sort it in my head.

edited to add: It could just be the selection of people from Alabama I've met!

 

[tahan's kneesocks]

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

we can definitely tell the difference between all these accents.

I'm australian and have lived here my whole life though and I struggle with regional aus accents - I can only tell vic from SA, I'm lost with everything else.

 

[rachael92]

I notice some differences in the HMs' accents, but I definitely couldn't identify them.

I find Ed by far the hardest to understand, but I don't know how much of it is his accent and how much is his speech pattern. Of course, even when I can understand the words he's saying, I often have no idea what he's talking about.

Ed's got a strong Melbourne accent. Drew's is weird- he drags out his words.

Melbourne and NZ are the only differences I notice. I can't see a difference in accents from other states.

 

[crimmy]

Australian biscuits are cookies ...
Amercian biscuits you use to soak up gravy?

My online American friends used to wonder wth would we have choccie bikkies (chocolate biscuits) but when we showed them what a Tim Tam looked like they realised ohhhhh you mean chocolate cookies!!

The other big one I got caught on was calling a US friend a ratbag ... (mischievous person or trouble maker) He really took offence ... and it took some major explaining to tell him calling a friend a total ratbag was NOT like calling them a douchebag at all!! That depending on context it can be good or not so good (that car salesman is a total ratbag - don't buy a car off him!)

I love South'n accents ... also Montana accents and the "Yes Ma'am" and "Hi Hon!" and love a New Jersey (Joysie!) accent

 

[San Antonio]

I live in San Antonio, Texas and can say all Texas accents are NOT alike. But instead of regions, accents are more related to race, culture, and economic situation in Texas.

I have several friends from Minnesota and that accent is easy to pick out. I grew up in Florida and never was aware of odd accents EXCEPT for the many people who moved from New York & New Jersey. Maine has a very distinctive accent. Virginia southern-speak is different than Georgia. We are retired Air Force and lived and worked with people from all over America. Except for a few exceptions, most people sound alike.

 

[kxk]

Ed's got a strong Melbourne accent. Drew's is weird- he drags out his words.

Melbourne and NZ are the only differences I notice. I can't see a difference in accents from other states.

Nooooooooooooo, Ed is south Australian, don't blame that on Melbourne!
Ed speaks footy, they get trained to speak in meaningless rambling bullshit - bit like politicians.

Ed is trying to speak more properly and it just comes out mumble.

Drew is fairly typical Melbourne speak, south of the yarra.
There is a difference between sides of the river in Melbourne.

 

[jb4493]

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.

 

[wytcheewomyn]

I have several friends from Minnesota and that accent is easy to pick out.

I live very close to the Minnesota border and I was always offended by the movie Fargo. I didn't think we sounded like THAT. Then I spent some time in Northern MN/WI. Yeah, they kind of do up there. It's interesting what a few miles can do to an accent. Dontcha know

 

[rj1]

"Day dot" Dont know if that's specific to Australia or not, but had never heard it until a couple of housemates used it.

 

[bbbb]

I wonder if they can the difference in our accents. Boston vs. New Jersey ... or Tx vs Alabama ...

Honestly I'd be impressed if they could tell the difference between American and Canadian!

There's that MOST ANNOYING accent over there, a whiney twang! Less David Letterman and more that chic from the closer??? What accent is that? I CAN"T STAND that accent.