As you all know, I am currently living and working in Sydney, Australia. I spend a lot of my time working with, socialising with and serving shoes to the friendly Australian public. However, it seems that though we all speak the same language, there are still "communication problems" now and then. Having spent my first eleven years of life in South Africa and the next eleven in England, I have picked up a magnitude of vocabulary and slang words (and a not so flattering essex accent, much to my mom's dislike) and would've thought that this could have helped me along in Aussie life. Difficult as this may seem...this is not the case! Even just in general conversation with the girls I work with, its easy to notice that Australia has a whole different vocabulary range! I've experienced customers at work saying words I don't know, customers asking about things I've never heard of and after one too many times experiencing a friend from work saying "awww, you're so cute/funny/silly" after I've asked what a certain word or phrase means, I've now decided that I need to learn as much "Aussie stuff" as possible to avoid future embarrassment or confusion.

Let me just set the scene of embarrassment, as I can imagine you're thinking "well, everyone has different words for stuff, how awful can it be?". WELL, here are two examples. I once was speaking to an Aussie friend about how I'd never dream of leaving the house in my "joggers" as I am no longer at university and am not a 14 year old chav. I then continued to rant on about how, though joggers are comfy and acceptable at home, wearing them out in public is just something I cannot bring myself to do as a 22 year old! Little did I know I had pretty much insulted her to her face. Turns out "joggers" are Aussie slang for trainers/running shoes/comfy day shoes, and seeing as most of the general Australian public over the age of 25 wear said shoes when not wearing flipflops (thongs), I not only insulted my friend but probably a lot of Australian people. I watched her frown deepen as I tried to dig myself out of that hole, and I still don't think she believes me when I say I don't think her shoe choice ressembles a chavvy British teenager. Another example...a female customer at work spent a considerable amount of time trying on shoes and asking my opinion, then finally finished it off with asking whether I thought they looked "daggy". I have never heard such a word in my life and was unsure if it had positive or negative connotations, and so struggled to come up with a response that covered all bases without insulting her too. I side stepped the problem completely by ignoring her question and simply responding with something along the lines of "ermm...I...well...I...ermm...it's a pretty good colour match for your dress" yep...smooth! Hopefully she didn't think I was slightly crazy for stuttering and replying with something utterly irrelvent to her question. She did buy the shoes though, and I thought I'd gotten away with it till she picked up the receipt, grinned and asked "where are you from?". Turns out not only did she notice I ignored her question, she also picked up on how I confused I looked when she mentioned the word "daggy". She was very polite about it, told me she thought it was hilarious, and left me with my cheeks burning a little red knowing she'd probably tell her friends about her funny shopping trip.

And so, here is my list of words/phrases. I know there are words here that people say in other parts of the world and a lot are actually pretty easy to figure out but some, when said fast or in an ambigous context, are literally impossible to figure out when you've never heard it before. Most are here because they are words I've started using since being in Australia or words that just make me laugh. Enjoy :)

Arvo - Afternoon. As in "Yeah, I'll do it later this arvo". I already knew this one but they do actually say it and does catch me off guard when said quickly.

Bathers - Swimming costume. As in "I want to go to the beach, grab your bathers". Pretty easy actually but when you've caught the end of that particular sentence, you're not sure what kind of conversation you've just walked in on.

Bluey - A bluebottle jellyfish. As in "G'day guys, please watch out for blueys on the beach today, and if you do get stung, come see us at the lifeguard stand". Such friendly lifeguards at our beach!

Daggy - Uncool/unfashionable. As in "Do these shoes make me look daggy?" Example already explained.

Docket - A receipt. As in "Would you like the docket in your bag?" or "Can we get the docket please?We've finished our meal". Bet my face was a picture of confusion the first time someone asked me at work for two copies of their "docket".

Doona - A duvet/quilt. As in "I was so cold this morning, I just wanted to stay wrapped in my doona". Just a different word for duvet, and I don't think its always used?

Esky - A picnic cool box/cooler. As in "For Australia day, we're probably just gonna fill an esky with drinks and hit the beach". A customer at work asked where they could buy an esky...I wasn't sure if it was some kinda dog or maybe even a car!

Goon - A box of wine. As in "Tonight, I'm going out and predrinking on goon!". More of a travelling word than an Aussie one, but one that I hear all the time in hostels and liquor stores. Another sentence often heard - "Goon me" which roughly translates to "pour some dirty cheap boxed wine into my cup please".

Lebo - A Lebonese person. Bit awkward when someone is described as a Lebo and you think that it's short for lesbian the first 15 mins of the conversation..!

Lollies - any form of sweet/chocolate. As in "I'm really craving sugar, who wants a lolly?". I thought this was either an ice lolly or lolly pop, but it is actually the aussie word for everything from jellybeans to chocolate honeycomb to fizzy sweets.

Maccas - McDonalds. As in "Im going to Maccas for a 30c ice cream!". My favourite Aussie word so far! Even the adverts say Maccas. Brilliant. And yes, their soft serve ice creams in a cone are just 30cents..seriously.

Scratchy - A scratch card. As in "Awh yeaaah I just won $2 on a scratchy!". Pretty easy actually but when someone said "I'm addicted to scratchies" I wasn't sure if I'd just made friends with a drug abuser or not!

Singlet - A vest top. As in "I'm wearing a singlet under my top tonight because it's a bit see-through". Yep, no idea how this is better than vest top, first time I heard it my friend said she was wearing shorts and a singlet to drinks that night..what the hell?!

Thongs- flipflops (or slipslops if you're South African). As in "My thongs gave me massive blisters yesterday". Funny when said in a certain context, hard not to laugh at sometimes!

Veg-o - A vegeterian. As in "We can't really have steak Wednesdays anymore, Natalie is a veg-o". Aussies add "-o" to a lot of their words. Easy to get, funny to laugh at.

And I've left my absolute favourite till last, and it's a phrase often used as a greeting. I've even started saying myself to greet customers in my store.

"How you going?" - A greeting. As in "Hey girls, how you going?". Now, I realise this sounds like a pretty standard greeting, but say it aloud to yourself. Sounds weird doesn't it. Anyone from England will probably sympathise with me when I say it's like being greeted with a "Hey, you alright?" phrase. There's the awkward moment where you're not sure whether someone is just greeting you or are actually asking if you are alright. Then you start to think "Wait, do I look like I'm not alright?!" and so starts the internal fear of being greeted with the ambigous "Hey, you alright?". Do you smile and say "Hey" back whilst carrying on or do you stop and respond and ask how they are? Feel that panic? Yep, thats how "how you going?" feels too. How am I going? Do you mean how am I? Do you mean where am I going? Do you mean how am I whilst going somewhere? Yep...the Aussie version of "Hey, you alright?" for sure.

That's all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure there's loads more though!