The most annoying (to me) cultural language import originating in America is the use of ‘like’ instead of ‘said’;
And he’s like, “get in the car, we’re leaving”, and I’m like, “noooo way”, so he’s like, “just do it” and I’m like “Duh!, I said noooo way!”
You’re really overthinking this. When I was in the UK, if I said soccer (generally to annoy my British friends) everyone knew what I meant. But generally, I just said American football when I referred to our version and football when referring to the other version. But, generally, people are going to know what you’re talking about from the context of the conversation.
And, Mangetout, you should get with my parents and have a fogey party where you sit around and complain about how these kids don’t talk right. 
Any Bostonians around here? I’m in NC right now, myself, but I’m desperately missing my Boston people and their quirky little way of talking. I’ve picked up the whole “wicked” thing along the way (as in, “damn, that’s a wicked awesome caah that just drove by!”) Also, I know a couple of die-hard Bostonians who will SWEAR that soda, pop, soft drinks, etc. should be refered to as “Tonic”. Tonic. Goodness.
I also work at an ice cream shop, and you’ll be amazed at how passionate people get over their frozen treats. We don’t serve classic milkshakes (as in milk + flavor = shake!), only frappes( ice cream + milk = frappe), but we refer to a small frappe as a milkshake and that gets the oldies riled up. Plus, I’ve had to learn that an “egg cream” has neither egg nor cream in its ingredients, but is just another term for a chocolate shake. Er, frappe. Shake? Don’t get me started on the jimmies. (Jimmies = sprinkles, for those of you who don’t know.)
Wow. Now I’m feeling homesick. 
:rolleyes:
On my brief sojourn to MA, I had one encounter with a true Bostonian accent that I had great trouble understanding - and given that all I was doing was ordering a steak, I felt quite embarassed
Hehe, don’t worry. With a mother from Virginia and a father from Nebraska, even I have a hard time understanding Bostonians sometimes. I do, however, get to be the only one among my Boston friends who uses the midwestern “dang-nabbit!” when I’m peeved.
I tend to agree with gex gex that being Australian doesn’t mean you have to use outdated 1940s slang in an outrageously twangy accent. And herein lies the problem with those lists of Aussie slang that googling will bring you. People using those will end up sounding very odd. It’d be like me getting into a NYC taxi and greeting the driver with “Howdy Pardner!”.
Nevertheless, I’m in total agreement with the OP. Some other words I don’t think have been mentioned yet:
The above words are safe to use for tourists, but the ones below are not:
It’s not that they’re offensive, it’s just that you’d sound like a dickhead. 
Then there are a few guilty pleasure Americanisms I like:
Oh please, please, please, before I forget…
Oz might not be Kansas, but it also isn’t Australia. The only Ozzie is an ageing rocker. My countryfolk and I are Australians or Aussies. And although I don’t want to see a ‘z’ (that’s ‘zed’), I want you to pronounce it as if it were there instead of the double ‘s’. There is no ‘s’ sound in “Aussie”, although there is in “Australia”.
Good, I’m glad we’ve got that worked out. 
If you like that one you might also want to try out “couple-few”. As in “I went to the commitee meeting and a couple-few concerns were raised”.
okay, looks like the gap across the Tasman is wider than I’d thought. I have no idea what these words mean - - hills hoist, (brown) bomber, tallie, u-ie – little help, please?
TLD You are a bloody dag! (down this end of the world we know that is a good thing.)
Who is this funny foreign bloke. He talks funny ;). Aussies and Kiwis feel the urge to shorten lots of words, that may make our “English” different from the rest of you lot. We have a fair bit of tv from those Aussie foreigners.I’m just glad no one thinks they are cool so we can ignore the funny way they speak. Teenagers have no urge to say “too bloody right mate”. The day Kiwi kids start finishing every word with an “o” I go ballistic on their arses. (TLD knows I’m joking )
We shall stick faithfully to “fush and chups” too and never be swayed by the "feeeeeeeeeeesh and cheeeeeeeeeeps lot.
Keep your coolers and eskies, it is ChUlly BUns all the way
A Hills Hoist is a plain old clothes line. other then that it’s all foreign muck to me
Well where would you include Florida in that list? We’re in the south, and on the east coast, and we say soda. I personally hate pop. It’s a word that makes me cringe, along with panties and cream (referring to moisturizing lotion for the body, not the stuff that comes from milk. In that instance, it’s ok)
And is dodgy not in use outside of the UK? I mean, I don’t hear it all the time, but I know what it means.
My personal favorite Americanism is “Let’s get the heck/hell/fuck outta Dodge.” My favorite Britishism (it’s a word now) is “taking the mickey.”
So what do you call that paper thing you use to wipe your nose? I think the marketing folks at Puffs would be very disheartened to hear you call it Kleenex, but chances are good that if you’re American, you do. Very few people call it by a generic name like tissue.
When you need to copy your tax forms, do you make a photocopy or do you make a Xerox?
Linguistic levelling is a byproduct of intermingling cultures. Mass media causes faster intermingling of cultures. You should read some of the stuff that came out of post-WWI France about dialectical levelling. Panicky “We’re losing our language!” because soldiers from different regions fought together, and picked up each other’s (and the radio guy’s) colloquialisms and then brought them home after the war. I still have cites somewhere in the boxes of books in the garage, and they’re kinda funny. But then again, the French are pretty funny about language stuff in general.
Though I think it’d be a damn shame if we all talked like Channel 9 news here in southern California.
It is a funny old world. I would never blow my nose in anything but a tissue or photocopy anthing that wasn’t a photocopy. I do wrap things in Gladwrap, use my cashflow card (first bank with ATM cards) and wear jandals though.
See? It’s all about mass media. Here, it was Saran wrap for a while, but that faded out in the '80’s. If y’all had all the movies made there à la Lord of the Rings we’d all be saying jandals.
On the hunt to find that we bloody invented jandals I did find this dictionary, pretty groovy really. International | Victoria University of Wellington. I couldn’t find proof but i will be bloody minded and know we did anyway
“Soccer” did originate in England. You could always try “footy”.
As mentioned, a Hills Hoist is a rotary clothesline. A brown bomber is, according to the Macquarie, a parking cop (though I’ve never heard it used). a u-ie is a U-turn. No idea what a tallie is.
Ah! Yeah, we call U-turns u-ies here, too. I didn’t recognize it written out that way.
(on Americans using fortnight)
Try “at least not by anyone under 140”. I have never, ever heard my parents or grandparents or anyone else use the word, and I’m over 40 myself. I don’t think I have ever even seen the word in American writing.