Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I have been named a tall poppy

...and the 101st National Living Treasure of Australia by Carol in Cairns (here’s proof) but as a new adopted Australian I am not supposed to revel in the fact.

Unaccustomed as I am am am to public speaking speaking speaking (can’t someone do something about that reverb? -erb? -erb?), I do want to say a great big “Thank you” to Carol -- did I mention that she is in Cairns? -- and, by extension, to all those wonderful people out there in the dark of the Great Land Down Under. I shall try to be worthy of your trust.

*takes seat, waving to Helsie in Brisbane*

I suppose now I will have to try to work words like “billabong” and “Great Barrier Reef” and “dingo” and “Tasmania” and “koala” and “skivvies” into my everyday vocabulary.

If you click on that link up there in the first paragraph, you can see the names of all 100 of Australia’s National Living Treasures. I recognized eleven. How many do you recognize?

Shame on us.



7 comments:

  1. G'day mate! If you visit YouTube you will find several instructional videos which will enable you to "Talk Australian". So that you can be understood, I advise that you practise your Australian before you jet off to Sydney to collect your prestigious award. Please accept my hearty congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lord Pudding, Sir: thank you ever so much, but I beg to differ regarding the instructional videos! When I jet off to Sydney to collect my prestigious award, I plan to spend all of my free time in church, and the first eight "How to Speak Australian" videos I watched would get me escorted out of, not accepted in, a church. Either that or Australian society has degenerated far more than anyone suspected. I do note that Helsie does not use such language on her blog, so perhaps there is still hope.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can barely talk English much less Australian.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Snowbrush, g'dye, myte (translation: good day, mate).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sir Robert, thank you for the cross post. I blogged about how to do an Australian accent earlier this month http://backtothechalkface.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/sounds-of-aus.html

    Please come and visit Cairns some time, and bring Lady RWP with you. I will hold onto your statuette safely until you visit. And besides Cairns is much nicer than Sydney. Not so many New South Welshmen up here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My son lives in Australia and yet it seems he's kept his Canadian accent and is raising a little girl who seems to also speak like we do. I am sure it will change once she goes to school.
    lol

    ReplyDelete
  7. Carol (in Cairns), the link in your comment is truly fascinating! Thanks for sharing it.

    A Lady's Life, you should click on the link in the comment above yours and then listen to both video clips in that post of Carol's. They contain information about the very subject you mentioned -- children's accents in Australia.

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...