Screwy Aussie Slang

by Neil Woodburn on

Although George Bernard Shaw once said that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language,” it is the Australians who have truly butchered the English language into a cacophony of indecipherable slang.

An Australian friend, for example, once called me a septic. This was because I was American and therefore a Yankee. Yank is short for Yankee and Yank rhymes with tank–as in septic tank. Get it?

Every society and culture develops their own set of slang and the Australians are quite rich with theirs. Throw in that heavy Down Under accent and it’s often very difficult to understand what the Hell a typical Aussie (above) is actually saying any time one opens their yapper.

Although there are numerous Aussie Slang Dictionaries out there, I was still amused with a recent Reuters article which covers some of the more common slang one might hear while traveling through Australia. Like my septic example above, the article also contains the etymology of some of the more colorful expressions, such as the very humorous, chunder.

I advise you give it a read if you are planning on heading Down Under any time soon.

Potts on America’s Top Ten Travel Spots

by Erik Olsen on

I get very wary of most Top Ten lists of places to travel. It is my unproven suspicion that most of these lists are put together by interns at magazines who browse the web and compile them for their bosses. Most, I would guess, have never actually been to all the places on their Top Ten lists.

But if there’s a writer I do trust out there to come up with a viable to ten list, it would be Rolf Potts. Potts now writes an excellent travel column for Yahoo, which I try to read as often as I can. But usually he writes about more international-based stuff. But today he’s got a piece on, yes, the top ten places to travel in America. And what I like about the list is that it’s eclectic. No Disneyland. No Hollywood and Vine. These are lesser-known, off beat spots where you can savor the flavor of American history and the American outdoors. For example, rather than suggest the old stand-by road trip like Route 66, Rolf suggests driving U.S. Highway 50, Between Maryland and California. And what about Pike National Forest,, Colorado? I’ll bet most folks have never heard of it, but Rolf says it’s where he “learned how to sleep under the stars, build campfires, read topographical maps, and rock climb”. And his favorite is probably my favorite as well. He recommends the epic Olympic National Park, in Washington, which I agree is one of the loveliest places around.

That’s only three of the ten. For the rest, check out the peice.

Kayaking in Vietnam

by Erik Olsen on

Well, that’s just one of the adventuresome activities that this article at the Age, an Australian newspaper recommends. The list is actually quite impressive given that it was complied for people on are on cruises…something, I have to admit, I am rather loathesome of. But hey, whatever (heh heh) floats your boat.

The activities in this article by Caroline Gladstone include jumping ship to take a glacier helicopter flight and dog sled adventure in Alaska (presuming, of course, you ARE in Alaska. Then, she recommends circling Bora Bora by power-ski. Damn, I wish I’d thought of that. Also, she says you should check out the land divers of Vanuatu, about whom we’ve written on a few occasions. Definitely adventuresome stuff, definitely for the well-heeled. But it beats the lamer type of recommendations you usually get from these types of articles like “try to meet some of the natives” or “buy some local gew gaws for your living room wall” and so on.

Foreign Travelers Eye the US

by Erik Olsen on

I have long been fascinated by what foreigners think of the United States and its people. I think a very neat documentary could be done following people from other nations who have never been here and recording their observations and thoughts (assuming I possessed a mind-recording device). According to this piece in the UK’s Telegraph, it seems that the opportunity to do this type of project may be greater than ever. The story says that with the declining value of the dollar ,more and more people, particularly those from Britain, to whom the story is aimed, are coming to the United States for vacation (aka holiday). I guess that’s really not such a big surprise, although I have heard that Visa regs lately have been kind harsh and some people have had gnarly hassles at the airport. But that does not stop them from coming. On a side note, I did learn one interesting factoid from the article. It discusses the best cities to visit, putting Boston and Philadelphia on the list, as well as NY and LA…but it drops in a lovely way the fact that New York City and Los Angeles are about 2,800 miles apart – that’s two and a half times the distance from London to Rome. Who knew! Anyway, they also give props to Washington DC, California and (woo hoo!) the National Parks.

So keep your eyes out for foreign-speaking visitors in your city today. And please, be nice to them. America’s image is having a hard enough time as it is in the world today.

Santiago Chile – in the LA Times

by Erik Olsen on

The Los Angeles Times runs a piece on one of my favorite cities in the world, Santiago, Chile. I lived in Santiago in the mid-90s and came to really appreciate it’s hidden charms. It’s not the most physically attractive city in the world, and when I was there it has a definite pollution problem when there was a low-pressure system holding in the smog against the Andes, but the lovely parks, the vibrant social scene there, and many other qualities make it an great place to visit in South America.

The LA Times piece here also discusses how much things have changed since I was there. The music scene, led somewhat by the band Los Tres, who were HUGE when I lived there (I still listen to their TV Unplugged album), is taking on a life of its own ad really spreading beyond Chile’s borders. The coffee houses and bars are also becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. The piece makes Santiago sound so appealing, in fact, that I have to say I’ ready to go back for a trip…which I’ve been wanting to do anyway.