Anyone available to do an "Ask the Aussie" thread?

In My Humble Opinion
41

As a North American who has been to Australia a few times, and seen The Castle, I’d have to agree. I found that Australians gave you a chance to prove that you were a decent sort; if you passed muster, you were welcomed, no matter whether you were a tow-truck operator or a QC (a highly-regarded and very experienced lawyer, to Americans).

You forgot WA. There, it is of course, Swan. And just as in the eastern states, in WA, nobody drinks Foster’s.

As for the “sports, sports, and more sports” question, I’ll say that nobody expected me (as a North American) to be up on the local AFL, cricket, or rugby standings. It was occasionally used as an opener by (say) somebody in a pub looking to pass the time talking to me, but once they realized I wasn’t Australian, they dropped the topic and we moved on to topics I could reasonably be expected to know about: weather, how I found Australia and Australians, and so on. Naturally, many were curious about Canada, and about the length of time it took me to get there (I generally went from Toronto to Perth WA–about halfway around the world). Overall, I found the Australians to be a warm, welcoming people; and Australia to be a place I’m looking forward to returning to someday.

42

I think this story involving my brother will hint at some of the differences between Australia and the US. One day he came home and saw a guy waving a riding crop at the neighbor’s dog which was trying to make acquaintances with the pedestrian’s German short haired pointer. As he walked in he said to his missus, “Gee, doesn’t that guy out their look like Paul Keating?” She replied, “It is Paul Keating you idiot. He lives up the road and walks the dog here all the time.”

My brother ran out the front and called out to ex Prime Minister Keating, “Hey, leave that dog alone or I’ll come over there and shove that thing up your ass.” Keating and dog trotted off down the street. Only in Australia.

43

I hereby nominate don’t ask to OP the “Ask The Aussie” thread.

44

Though this is more in legend than in reality. XXXX isn’t drunk by anyone I know and I’m in Qld. VB is the most common beer in North Queensland, strangely enough.

45

They’re pretty outspoken about their Cascade vs Boags (Sth vs Nth of the State) beers here in Taswegia, though I think it’s largely in jest … probably. :slight_smile:

Nobody’s taken us to task for being Boags’ drinkers in Hobart, although they do razz us about it occasionally - mostly with comments like “But what can you expect - they’re from South Australia, you know”. Maybe we just get extra leeway for being mainland transplants. :wink:

46

I’m in Australia right now, in fact. Australians are awesome. Very friendly, very chatty, very funny. Kiwis too.

Crap, Internet time running out – I’ll elaborate more on why Aussies are awesome next week, if said thread gets off the ground.

47

I’m an American who’s lived in Australia for the past 7 years. It’s all been pretty much covered here.

Although it will piss off the oi oi oi contingent, Australia is very much like the US, without the stupidity of excess religion and republicans.

48

I drink it.

Not exclusively - I also drink a variety of fancier beers as well. Granted there are better beers, but XXXX is cheap and serviceable. That big brewery in Milton isn’t going broke just yet. I suspect the brand was badly marketed in Europe.

At present, marketing of beers is done by lots of microlabels put out by the one brewery instead of the old monolithic one-brew-fits-all style of the past, but the flagship XXXX still sells well.

VB also sells well in the NT. There is a great story about a former Chief Minister of the NT a couple of decades ago who cultivated a bloky reputation. One day a bunch of American carpet baggers wandered into Darwin trying to do some deal where they figure their negotiating skills were more than a match for the local yokel politicians.

Chief Minister gets a whiff of this and invites the Americans in to his office to talk business. As an opening gesture of hospitality, he says with great gusto “Have a green can, boys” ( a “green can” is a can of VB). He then pushes a bunch of cans of beer and a bunch of those individual styrofoam beer coolers across the table at them and watches with a big shiteating grin.

Americans are not sure what they are supposed to do with the beer and the coolers. What you are supposed to do is put the whole can inside the cooler, then drink from the can.

What the puzzled Americans do is try to pour the beer into the coolers like you were supposed to use the coolers as a glass or cup or something. What they didn’t realise was that styrofoam coolers have a hole in the bottom so the snug-fitting can doesn’t create an airlock when you use it like you are supposed to.

As a result, said Americans all get laps full of beer on their flash Armani suits. Chief Minister roars with laughter. Nothing ruins your bargaining position like having a damp crotch.

Is the story true? Probably not - it’s too good not to be apocryphal. I still love it, though.

49

We’ve had those foam cooler things here for well over twenty years so I doubt it.

50

wave G’day and welcome! I hope you have an awesome trip! :smiley:

Are you heading to Tassie by any chance? I have become an excellent tour guide in the year since we moved here. (Successive visits by family and friends’ll do that to ya.) :cool:

Word of advice: wherever you go, try the pizza. We do *awesome *pizza toppings in Australia. I think the only place that has more of a no-holds-barred approach to pizza might be Singapore.

51

When the plebiscite for the national anthem was held in 1977, the most popular choice, by a significant margin, was Advance Australia Fair.

52

Teasing: It’s already been mentioned before, but what kinds of taking the piss are done? Is it often reliant on physical flaws like calling a fat person “Skinny”?

Gender: I’ve heard that men with a broad accent do ok but that women with a broad accent catch some flak. What are the behaviors/traits that are frowned upon for men and women? Can a woman ask a man out?

53

Urine will be extracted in any way, shape or form available. Most groups will have one person with a particular aptitude for getting under thin skins, and things will usually default to this person handling the job for everyone.

Importantly, women are typically not immune from this the way that they are in most Western cultures, and if handled with a degree of skill, it can dawn on a visiting woman that for the last twenty minutes the entire group’s been mocking her physical features, manner of speech and proclivities both stated and un-.

In general, if things are stilted, formal or polite it’s because a group doesn’t like or trust you enough to embrace you. If this happens suddenly, it’s because excrement is getting real quite quickly and you’re best to extricate yourself immediately from the situation.

If you’re talking about a broad Australian accent, it’ll generally mark you as a sort of outer-suburban provincial (a “Westie” or “bogan”), who’s not to be treated as serious, cultured or in posession of a functioning brain.

If you’re talking about a broad international accent, it’ll depend on the accent. Don’t expect to pull too easily if you sound American.

Women can certainly ask men out - there’s no problem there - but most “asking out” occurs with people on the fringes of established social groups (essentially your friends vouch for someone by proxy). This also means that “it” is more likely to be gotten the first time a couple goes out than is the case internationally, because by the time you’re going out together you probably know a bit about each other.

Oh, and I’ve said it elsewhere, but if you haven’t spent most of your life in Australia, don’t use the term “mate”. It’s a word with a lot of nuance in how it’s used and at best, it’ll come off as forced. At worst, I’ve seen it get people into fights because they don’t realise that they’re challenging someone.

54

Personally I think taking the piss reaches greatest heights with the Brits, but we think we’ve got a valid claim to a spot on the podium.

Taking the piss, IMO, targets attitude or character as much or more than physical attributes.

When taking the piss you probably go harder at the person who is good at something, or more particularly if they think they are good. On the other hand, having a go at somebody who isn’t good at it, and isn’t blowing their own trumpet becomes slinging off or sledging and is on the way to abuse. Taken too far and somebody will step in to tell the protagonist to “knock it off”. Taking the piss off some who is competent, or overestimates their competence has no upper limit.

Australia; where your best mate is a total bastard and your worst enemy a bit of a bastard.

55

Singapore Pizza is a crime against humanity. Prawn…apricot chicken…banana…it SUCKS!!!

56

Well of course we could say that the only reason the brew did so well in the first place was because Australians couldn’t spell beer - so XXXX was just easier for them…:smiley:

But I guess now things must be moving up and they can spell a little and moved beyond 4x :cool:

Then of course we do know why thongs did so well in Australia, what with shoelaces being so hard for the typical Aussie to tie n all…

And for the trifecta…

The concept of foreplay was invented in Australia…you know…the standard “brace yourself Shirl, here it comes”

And by the way…guys, if your lady friends in Australia start calling you “JustIn” then its more of a put-down than an affectionate pet name…

57

Or in other words its about the same here as in pretty much every other Western country.

58

I’m kind of scared to ask but … do these turn up simultaneously? :eek:

59

A difference (I’m Australian, never been to the USA) I think is the influence of university / college. In Australia it is more “normal” for someone to go to university in their city and live at home for at least the initial year, if not the entire time they’re getting a degree.

College in the USA sounds like some fantasy world from what I’ve seen/read!!!

The whole phi-cappa thingie, whatever that is … is just not part of Australian society! I think it also links into loyalty across other areas - we’re not particularly defined by our education/locations (I find every mention of someone which then lists their USA state after their name odd!). Of course we do identify in some way about where we come from, but because the population is smaller, the differences between states seems less large compared to the USA.

Beach culture is very common - but there are large proportions of the Australian population for whom it is not a way of life. We have tall office buildings and cities (not as large as the big ones in the USA) with suburbs where people live out boring lives too!

60

University in Australia is a lot different to the US- degrees are generally three years (Undergraduate), students live at home or in a flat with other students (never “on-campus”) and usually hold down a part-time job at a cafe or a supermarket or a movie theatre or something like that to pay the bills.

We don’t have “Fraternities” and (generally) nobody cares where you got your degree- there are laws governing what places can call themselves a “University” so it’s not like the US where there are all sorts of places calling themselves “Universities” that really aren’t.

Speaking as someone who used to work in a liquor warehouse, I can confirm that lots of Queenslanders do actually drink Fourex (XXXX), but generally people drink “Whatever’s cheapest”. :smiley:

As has been mentioned, there are rather a lot of Aussies on the boards here, several of whom are “active” posters. Australia’s also a big place with lots of diverse people in it, and people from Tasmania are very different to people from Queensland, who are different to people from Sydney.

One other thing: If you are not an Australian (or living here, or a published academic on the subject), please don’t ask about, comment upon, or offer an opinion regarding the Aborigines. It’s too complicated to explain to foreigners properly, and lots of people (on both sides of the discussion) are going to get offended and pissed off about it.