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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Learning A (New?) Language

JUST when I think that my ear has become accustomed to the Australian accent and some of the typical Aussie slang and abbreviations of oh, EVERYTHING, (which I've talked about before here) I see this commercial on TV. 



No joke, I think I can understand about ten words in that commercial.  Granted, this commercial is a little bit exaggerated.  It was created to celebrate the upcoming "Australia Day" (which is kind of like their Independence Day- only without the independence part and just lots of Aussie pride).  So the commercial is basically trying to use as many Aussie-isms as possible.  It was a big deal that in honor of this holiday, McDonald's officially accepted the Aussie abbreviation of "Maccas" to be used in their advertisements. 

I just had to share this commercial with you all, because it gives you a really good idea of how truly different American English is from Aussie English.  Some days it really feels like we might as well be speaking different languages.  As if the accent wasn't enough, their extensive slang and abbreviation of nearly everything makes deciphering what someone is saying sometimes impossible.  I typically give myself three chances to ask, "huh?," or "what was that?" and if I still don't understand what is being said or asked after that point, I just randomly answer yes, no, or just smile and nod. 

5 comments:

  1. so strange! why do they do that? Doesn't it make a person sound kind of, um...dumb? Not that they are but it just sounds so silly!

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    1. Ha! It does sound very silly to me, too.

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  2. Hah! I kind of love it, even though I also didn't catch a lot of it. =)

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  3. I had a conversation with an old Irish man when I studied in Cork that reminds me of that.....I, however, broke the three "huh?" limit resulting in the man asking me "do. you. understand. the. words. that. are. coming. out. of. my mouth?!" No, sir, I do not.

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