How to Speak like an Australian… or should I say Aussie

If there’s one thing that characterises the way Australians speak, more than anything, I’d say it would have to be their use of abbreviations. Australians, or should I say Aussies, love shortening as many words as possible and it seems anything goes.

I first became aware of this while working with Aussies at a dairy farm. ‘Arvo’ would be used instead of ‘afternoon’, ‘preg’ testing instead of ‘pregnancy’ testing, and a calf born ‘premature’ would be called the ‘preemie’.

Once you become aware of it you start to hear these abbreviations everywhere, especially if you watch TV or listen to the radio. ‘Musicians’ are referred to as ‘musos’, ‘jelly’ is the word used for ‘jealous’, and I’ve even heard journalists call ‘politicians’ ‘pollys’!

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Samoa, It’s All About the People

If you travel all the way from the UK to New Zealand it seems silly not to take the chance to go to a South Pacific Island at the same time.  After doing a bit of research I decided that Samoa seemed like a good option.  The country’s two main islands appeared easy enough to travel around and the flights, although not cheap, are cheaper than Fiji.

Chris and I arrived into Apia, Samoa’s capital, at 9.30pm on a Tuesday night.  As we stepped off the plane and were hit by hot humid air we smiled at each other.  Finally some hot weather! We collected our bags and went out to the arrivals area expecting to be met by a Kiwi man, Dennis, who would drive us to his accommodation.  However, Dennis was nowhere to be found and instead, there was a row of Samoan taxi drivers all fighting for our attention. Continue reading