Australia

Spending my semester abroad in Australia had a few good reasons and one was the English language. This was so important for me because I travelled there together with my family. We all wanted an English-speaking country as it would be best practice for our son and ourselves. Our son started to learn the language in an Australian school without any previous knowledge. Before we arrived in Adelaide, Australia he knew a few English words but could not talk to the English-speaking students in his class. He developed his language skills very fast and is now able to communicate with his classmates. For me and my boyfriend it is a good practice to speak English and to improve the language.
Before we came to Australia, I was afraid that even though the native language is English we would have problems to understand something. A lot of people have told me that the Australian Slang is horrible, and that people speak very fast and shorten a lot of words. We were surprised that when we arrived in Australia it was neither difficult to communicate with our landlord nor with others. Some people spoke very fast but slowed down when they realized that we are no Aussies, as the Australians call themselves.
In the first week of University during the introduction week we got to know some important words which are used in Australia. Australians call it the Aussie slang, and it is important to learn it in order to get through the day. For example, they taught us some very useful words for the hot summer period such as bathers, which means swimsuit, and sunnies, which are sunglasses. In the summertime, one should also wear thongs on the beach, as the sand gets very hot. Thongs is the Australian word for flip-flops. Most Aussies love to have a Barbie for Chrissie since this is celebrated in summer. Barbie for Chrissie means to have Barbecue for Christmas which is very common in Down Under.
Further I often heard the words bloody, which means very and g'day, which is used to greet someone. At the beginning of my stay abroad I was confused every time someone said hello to me. For me it was also difficult to hear the difference between veggos and veggies. Vegetarians are called veggos and vegetables are called veggies. Additionally, there is of course a word for Australian football which is Aussie footy. Something very annoying for everyone are mozzies, not only in Australia, but I am sure that these insects suck the blood of people all over the world. Mozzie means mosquito and in my opinion, these are the most annoying insects in Australia beside flies.
Among other things we learned that Bottle-O is an Australian bottle shop, which is basically a shop for buying alcohol. Two words that still confuse me are Arvo and Avo. They are very similar but mean completely different things. Arvo means afternoon and Avo is the short word for Avocado. I will probably never be able to pronounce it correctly. Some easy words that I also heard a lot during my studies, are Maccas which is the word for McDonalds, Brekky which means Breakfast, Mate which is a term of friendship and fellow which is a child.
My son goes to school here in Australia and is really learning a lot. He develops good language skills without being aware of it and he can even write a few English words now. It was funny to see how he started to interact with the children without knowing what they were saying. Now he can interact and talk with them perfectly even though he only had a few months to practice. I wonder if he also develops an Aussie slang during our time here in Australia.
Generally, one can say that Aussies have a tendency to shorten a lot of English words which makes it sometimes hard to understand something. It can be compared to a dialect in the German language. Like in Germany, the English within the university or school is very nice and easy to understand. But when you talk in another context, everyone with a good knowledge of English would have problems to communicate with real Aussies.
Viviane Göbel