More Amlish

Here are some new words for you:

bangs = fringe

bathing suit = swimming costume

Here are some new pronounications:

oregano is pronounced oreg-a-no not ore-gano

baton is pronounced ba-ton not bat-on

basil is pronounced bay-sil not bas-il

herbs is pronounced erbs

Barossa was pronounced Ba-row-sa not Ba-ross-a (I corrected this at the wine shop!)



And in other news when we were at Subway Andrew said 'tomaytoes' not tomatoes. I was so embarrassed! He claimed it was so that the person could understand him more easily. I quickly countered with the fact that I said tomatoes and was perfectly understood. However I had to say oreg-a-no after saying oreg-ano twice did not work. Aaaahhhhhh! I thought flashing lights would turn on and someone would jump out and say 'You're on candid camera' but the reality was far more tame and no one else noticed my mortification.

We don't use those sorts of words in our house!

1. Andrew came home from work the other day, I was doing something in the kitchen and he asked me to put something in the trash! In the trash! Don't you mean the garbage bin or the rubbish?


2. We were sitting at the dining table and Andrew asked if we had any napkins. I said NO. And we don't have any serviettes either!

More Amlish

I thought as we spent more time here we would blend more into American culture and not notice any more differences. Wrong! Here are some more words that require translation:


every other week = fortnight

fall = autumn

snaps = press studs

mums = chysanthemums

take out = take away

I can't stop saying nappy, jumper and dummy. These words are so ingrained in my mind that I can't convert on the fly and offer no translation to my listeners. One day I may say pacifier and sweater but I think I have changed too many nappies to say diapers!

Go the Hawks!

Given all the strange American things we are encountering sometimes I forget that Australian things can be weird too. Take for example this funky tshirt I bought at Genki in Melbourne. It says 'I love footy'. In Australia I used to get the question 'what kind of footy do you like?' but when I wear it here everyone asks me 'what is footy?' And sadly no one much cares when I tell them it means football. Thanks to mum and dad I have been able to keep up with the latest footy news and even watch a Hawthorn game on DVD.

Would you live at Mount Misery?

There are some kooky street naming philosophies around here. Try spelling these beauties over the phone - Whippporwill Lane and Okeechobee Road. When looking at houses I rejected a house on Seabuoy Court because I couldn't bring myself to say 'sea-boo-ey' instead of the Australian way of 'sea-boy'. Most 'suburb' street names have a theme for example US presidents, birds, flowers, trees, English and Scottish towns. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

• Beatles related words including Lennon Drive, Ringo Drive and Abbey Lane


• Geographical names like Lullwater Street


• Country themes for example The Netherlands has inspired a set of streets like Windmill Way, Antilles Ct, Old Dairy Rd, Netherlands Drive, Rembrandt Ct and Vandyke Drive


• Literary themes for example Wolfe Lane, Fitzgerald Road, Byron Drive, and Dickens Drive


• US Civil war including Robert E Lee Drive, Beauregard Drive and Merrimac Drive


• Native Indian terms including the following trails Cherokee, Mohawk, Seminole, Mohican, Navaho and Crosswinds

Americanisms

Here are some more quirky American things:

• '2007' is pronounced 'two thousand seven' not 'two thousand and seven'
• 'how y'all doin?' works for the singular. A little offputting when you're on your own
• 'I'm sorry' is the sweet response when you tell of something bad happening
• checkbooks have pictures and you can choose which picture you want to have
• '00' is pronounced 'zero zero' and never 'double zero'
• 'a couple times' instead of 'a couple of times'

Moulah

I was waiting in line at the post office for a while (as you do) and then finally it was my turn to be served. I wanted to send a parcel so I had to fill in a customs form so I was sent away to do that before waiting again to get served. The postal worker (Gene) weighed the parcel and asked me to pay. I looked in my handbag and discovered that my purse was not there! I had left it at home.

Fiona: I've left my purse at home
Gene: (laughing) Well what's that in your hand? (pointing at my handbag)
Fiona: That's my handbag!
Gene: No that's your purse
Fiona: No its my handbag...Anyway I forgot my money I'll have to come back another day
Gene: Ok! Bye!

In other amlish news, baking paper = parchment paper

Royalty (sort of)

Those of you who followed my previous blog will remember the many instances where I was 'discovered' to look like Princess Mary of Denmark. It's been relatively quiet on that front lately but I did have the following conversation with the lady sitting next to me on the plane over to LA.

lady: has anybody told you that you look like...
f: yes they have
lady: you look just like her, especially when you were looking down ...blah blah blah

Given American ignorance of all things outside of the US there should be no more look-alike sightings. But I am encountering lots of problems with the name Fiona. I spelled it out over the phone to someone the other day and they came up with Siona. Must be the accent!

I have resorted to another princess in trying to describe my name. Conversations go like this.
American: Hi my name is (Hank)
f: Hi I'm Fiona
A: Ona? (or variations Iona? Siona? etc)
f: Have you seen the movie Shrek?
A: yes
f: Do you remember the princess Fiona
A: Aaaaahhhh! Fiona!

Fiona is pretty average compared to some of the names over here. My real estate agent asked her doctor if any of the babies he had delivered lately had been given strange names. He said that it was funny that she had asked as he had delivered a baby girl that morning and she had a very strange name. The mother, after giving birth looked around the room and saw a box of Kleenex (pronouned klen-ex). She then proceeded to dub her child Kleenexia. And they think Fiona is weird!

John Cleese's letter to America

Thanks Kel for pointing this out. A very funny letter!

Check it out at http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrevocation_cleese.htm

Don't call me mom

Just wanted to let you know that Andrew and I have decided to speak American English (Amlish). This doesn't mean that we will be speaking with a Southern drawl, more that we will modify the words that we use. Already Andrew has been speaking in miles and I asked for cookies on the plane. Obviously we will still know about kilometres and biscuits but to ease assimilation we are going to use the American version of words. Though I'm not sure what we are going to do about spelling whether we will drop the silent 'u' in lots of words and whether kilometres is kilometers. We are looking forward to having a bi-lingual child. As long as she calls me mum!

American = Australian
backing = reversing
traffic circle = roundabout
squash = pumpkin
trunk = boot

Lost in translation

There are lots of new words to (re)learn now that we are moving to the USA. Here are a few of the ones I have needed already.

American = Australian
diaper = nappy
pacifier = dummy
jumper = tunic
cantaloupe = rock melon
sweet peppers = capsicum
mailbox = post box
baby carriage = pram
biscuit = scone
gas = petrol

Thank goodness we don't have to learn second declension spellings! Here is a handy translation site in case you can't understand what I'm saying http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron/amlish.html