a land down under

{very different to my usual style of photography, I know, but I do like to break out every now and then!}

“I don’t know what that means” accompanied by a slightly befuddled expression is quite the regular occurrence in our lives these days, as D struggles with trying to get his head around the plethora of strange words and phrases that pervade the Australian language, as well as the Australian accent in general.  I know that I have previously posted about this particular issue, but now that we are married and living our daily lives, D’s learning curve has suddenly steepened, much to our mutual amusement and, sometimes, frustration.  Occasionally we will reach the point where D simply cannot understand something that I have said and, after having repeated myself what feels like a hundred times, I will adopt a cheesy American accent in a desperate bid to get my point across.  The funniest part (apart from my terrible accent) is that this approach usually works, but I fear those times when D is out and about unaccompanied by his translator, because sometimes I really do have to translate, and I am perfecting the art of doing so, often ventriloquist-style.

We recently discovered two words in particular that hold very different meanings for each of us.  These words are fanny and root/ing.  Outside Australia (and I think the UK), the word "fanny" seems to get thrown about with wild abandon - fanny pack, sitting around on one's fanny all day etc - for outside these areas, "fanny" simply means, you know, butt.  But here, it kind of means ... lady parts (incidentally, I remember being younger and wondering (a) how on earth someone could sit on their fanny, unless they were maybe straddling something, and (b) what the hell was the deal with a fanny pack??).  Along a somewhat similar theme, "rooting" is a crude Australian term for sex, whereas in the US, it is apparently quite common to be rooting for sporting teams etc because over there, it just means barracking for a particular team (for example).  This particular discrepancy came to light when we were watching The Voice one night, and D said "I'm rooting for that guy," which I found a little amusing and he couldn't understand why.

So anyway, D and I were at a carpet store of all places when he decided to share his new-found knowledge with the sales lady, with whom we had struck up a bit of a rapport.  She was an older lady, and very chatty and friendly.  D looked at something, and she commented "now that one is a bit dearer than what you were looking at before."  D stared at me helplessly, which I now know is my Prompt to Translate.  I said "she means it is more expensive" (dear = pricey).  D said to the lady "oh, I'm American, so I am learning all these new words ..."  He paused and gave me a mischievous look, which is never, ever a good sign, and then continued on "... like 'fanny.'  In America it means 'butt.'  We have fanny packs and everything.  Or you could say 'I'm going to smack you on the fanny.'  Except here it means something different, right?"  The sales lady's eyes widened, and I just wanted to hide behind the floorboard display, but D kept firm hold of my hand.  "And 'rooting'!" he carried on, steadfastly ignoring my ever-growing horror.  "In America it just means that you are cheering for someone, but here ..."  "Sex," said the wide-eyed sales lady, and then we all burst out laughing.  "Wait here!" she said, and ran over to her colleague.  We caught snippets of her conversation.  "That boy over there is American" ... "all these words have different meanings" ... "over there they call a 'bum bag' [she lowered her voice dramatically for the Avoidance of Shame and paused for effect] a 'fanny pack.'"  D and I practically fell to the floor in hysterics, and the grinning sales lady came back to say that she had just told her colleague all about it.  I guess you really do learn something new every day.

Despite it all, every now and then I notice a little bit of Australian vernacular creeping into D's vocabulary, and think aw, he is adjusting!  I do hope that he never loses his accent, though, 'cause it's super cute :)  And incidentally, we both really like this Olympics ad (and not just because it features kids from my old school, and despite the Australia-US Olympic rivalry in our household), now with revised riff after Men at Work lost that copyright infringement case against them for apparently plagiarising Kookaburra ... (speaking of which, I love that D pronounces it koo-ka-boo-ra!  We have one that hangs out in our yard sometimes, which always causes much excitement for both D and the cat).