I spent the majority of last week hanging with Mr Smaggle’s work buddies. He has an employee that lives in Canada and he and his girlfriend flew over to work on a project with us. Over the course of a week there were many things that confused our Canadians and in the interest of entertaining my lovely readers, I diligently noted down everything we said that confused them and came up with the top 10 really weird things that Australians say (to Canadians). Enjoy. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
1. Jetty
Maryse – ‘What’s this ‘jetty’ you keep talking aboot?‘
Mr Smaggle – ‘Like a long wooden bridge thing that boats go to?’
Maryse – ‘Ah! A pier!’ [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
2. Full Cream Milk
One morning we found both Canadians staring into the fridge looking horrified. When they were asked what the problem was they replied ‘Is Full Cream Milk like 100% cream???‘. In Canada, milk is in percentages so 2% milk has 2% cream. We couldn’t quite figure out what the equivalent was in Australia but we assured them that Full Cream Milk was definitely just regular milk and not 100% cream. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
3. Bush
Maryse – ‘Oh! Like forest!’
Me – ‘Yeah… but also pubic hair…’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
4. Pavlova
Adam – ‘What’s pav?’
Me – ‘It’s a meringue dessert with fresh fruit, cream and passionfruit.’
Adam – ‘That sounds amazing.’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
5. Flat White
‘Is that just coffee with milk?’
Pretty much.
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
6. Tram
‘We don’t have those in Montreal… so they’re like trains that go on the street?’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
7. Bludger
Maryse – ‘Qidditch ball in Harry Potter?’
Me – ‘No it’s more like someone who tries to get out of work or takes money from you and doesn’t pay it back.’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
8. Snag
Me – ‘They’re sausages.’
Maryse – ‘Why do you call them snags?’
Me – ‘No idea.’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
9. Cacking Yourself
Maryse – ‘Is it like shitting yourself?’
Me – ‘Yeah but with laughter.’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
10. Dag
Adam – ‘What’s this dag thing you’re talking aboot?’
Me – ‘Someone who’s unfashionable.’
Adam – ‘Like a loser?’
Me – ‘It’s a bit less harsh than that. You can almost call someone a dag to their face. It’s kind of good natured. If a kid is walking around wearing gumboots and a tutu you’d call them a dag or if you have a mate who wears the same shirt every day is also a dag.’
[divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Though none of our phrases were so bad as the time when I said ‘I’ve got the shits!‘ to a bar full of New Yorkers who thought that I had loudly declared that I had diarrhoea.