G’day mate. Wasssssaaaaaap. This phrase was used much more frequently by Australians before it was co-opted in 1988 by the writers of Crocodile Dundee II. G’day is making a slow comeback but I intend to overuse it so much that no self-respecting Australian will ever use it again.
Mate. Wide applications. Friend. Good friend. VERY good friend (wink wink nudge nudge). Person that bumped into you on the bus. I have never heard this used as a verb in Australia.
Be there in a tic. Stop being so impatient. What are you … American?
Are you Canadian? I think you’re American because you’re loud and ordered the large latte but I don’t want to offend you by asking in case you’re Canadian.
Power point. Electrical outlet. Not a computer program.
Arvo. Afternoon (e.g. let’s meet in the arvo). You will get strange looks if you ask someone to direct you to the arvo.
How ya going. Wassssaaap.
No worries. Possibly the most versatile phrase in any language, no worries can be used to convey forgiveness, welcome, good humor, indifference, and an adaptable, easy going personality – all at the same time! It can mean ‘you’re welcome,’ ‘any time,’ ‘no problemo,’ ‘sure,’ and ‘hell yeah.’ No worries can also mean ‘don’t worry about that. I’ll tell you when you should worry and then you should REALLY WORRY.”
It is difficult to misuse the phrase, but you should be wary of a few inappropriate situations …
when you hurt someone
when you are being threatened by someone
when you are threatening someone
when reassuring an anxious person
when you are American
It’s not clear how this phrase came into being and the two Australians I asked weren’t able to give a consistent picture. Certainly early on in Australia’s history, there was a lot to worry about; your fellow countrymen were either convicts or security personnel unable to land a better gig and you were traveling to a place where everything is deadly. This hasn’t improved in modern times; pick anything in the states and there’s a good chance that there’s an Australian version that can kill you.
Taken. I’m not talking about the latest Liam Neeson fiasco. ‘Taken’ is the relaxed Australian way of letting you know that a person of interest has been bitten, chomped or devoured by an aquatic creature, as in, ‘a few years ago, this foolish American tourist was taken by a 15 foot whitepointah down at Glenelg.” Or, “a few years ago, these foolish American tourists were camping by the rivah when a huge croc took the smallest of ‘em. It was a rippah!” An alternate form of taken (led gently away) is now used primarily in discussing the taking of small children and German tourists. Apparently, there are so many awful ways to die in Australia that being eaten by a Great White Shark is nothing to get worked up about. Note: A good way to confuse an Australian is to use taken in the Victorian sense (i.e. he was quite taken with her) or the Henry Miller sense (he took her on the divan).
That’ll be 10 dollars, thanks. The Australians are efficient in monetary transactions. Rather than wasting an unnecessary syllable on ‘please,’ they simply skip to the end, assuming total compliance. This can also be used to deter overly quizzical foreigners; for example, an American tourist wasting time by asking "Does this calling card actually have 1300 minutes as advertised instead of the last one I bought which only had … "Yes. That’ll be 10 dollars, thanks."
I reckon. This is an efficient way of saying ‘I have calculated the likelihood of various possibilities and settled on this as the most likely. You may disagree if you wish, but that will simply expose you as the intellectual fraud that you are.’ It implies that you have carefully thought about this in the past and that you have already moved on to other, more interesting topics.
