Observations on the world, language, music, technology, communication, culture, and life.
Australians are a relaxed, friendly nation and the most famous Australian greeting is G’day (short for Good day).
G’Day, G,Day is a song by Australian country music legend, Slim Dusty. Here is a video of the song and the lyrics which contain some great Australian slang and language.
Continue reading “G’day G’day How ya goin? Aussie Greetings”
How to speak Australian? Abbreviate everything! In this video I share the video by hijosh with a transcription of all the words.
I often show this video to my students. The word list and following questions can be used in an ESL lesson.
Continue reading “How to speak Australian – abbreviate everything!”
Slim Dusty was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and recorded many songs about Australia.
The Pub With No Beer song is based on a poem written during World War 2. Beer was rationed during the war and American serviceman had drunk all the beer in the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham, Queensland.
Dan Sheahan, a local farmer, had ridden 20 miiles to town for a beer and discovered there was none. He later wrote a poem based on this experience. In 1956 songwriter Gordon Parsons reworked this into a song and presented it to Slim Dusty.
I included a vocabulary list at the end of this article – useful for ESL students.
Watch Slim Dusty sing the song, and follow along with the lyrics.
In this article I explain the language and slang of Australian table wine, ranging from grape varieties, bottles and casks, paying corkage at restaurants, and playing goon of fortune in the backyard.
In a previous article I wrote about beer and drinking and many of these words apply to wine. You can read that article here.
Drinking beer is a big part of Australian life.
In this article I explain the language of beer and drinking in Australia. You will learn some slang as well. I discuss wine in a later article which you can read here.
So grab a coldie, and enjoy this article. Cheers mate!
Continue reading “Australian Beer and Drinking Language (Slang)”
This is the story of my life of music-listening and the evolution of technology. I thought of calling this article “From Transistor Radio to CDs, iPhone, MP3s, streaming audio. and YouTube” but that title is a bit long.
The technology of listening to music has changed enormously in my lifetime of over half a century.
In my childhood I had to wait for my favourite song on the radio or hear the record in a shop or at a friend’s house. Now I can find almost any song easily on YouTube or play the media file on my computer or phone.
Continue reading “Music listening – Transistor radio to Internet jukebox”
As an Australian born English teacher I am often asked by my students to teach them about Australian English and slang. This document explains the main features of Australian English (AusA) and compares to British English (BrE) and North American English (NAmE).
The differences between all three varieties of English can be found in four main categories:
Continue reading “British, Australian and North American English. What’s the difference?”
