Hooray for my Ausrtalianess!
As hard as I try I have not yet developed an Australian accent but, thankfully I've managed to pick up heaps of words that I now use as a part of my english conversations, and they are so natural to me that I dont fully understand why people here dont know what the hell Im trying to say.
However! I had an excellent situation happen to me the other day in my geology lecture. My professor is american but he seems to have a full grasp of more elegant english words, most of which I know thanks to my australiness. We were going on this field trip to an island nearby and he was giving out advice on how to dress appropiately and this is what he said:
"Listen everyone I dont think that wearing 'thongs' is the best of ideas, there is a lot of folliage and 'rooting' -no pun intended- that can get in your way along the trial"
Of course soon after this everyone started giggling stupidly , and I laughed just wondering what they were thinking. The professor looked ridiculously confused at this until I said: People he's talking about sandals... Of couse he was still confused so I tried to make him see what they were understanding as 'thongs' and he laughed and said.. no no no.. 'chancletas.. chancletas'*
Nobody really got the 'rooting -no pun intended-' commentary but I was still pretty satisfied I did which as lead me into deep search of other word unused by normal American english to use on a regular basis. Considering that I probalby still dont even have a full grasp of the english language as a whole its probably asking to much of my left brain but I dont care.:)
On a separate note; laste semester this same professor was takling about a time he went to a hospital and had to make teh biggest 'line' hes seen and I was genuinly confused by this story so I asked.. : A line?.. what do yo mean a line?.. And he said: I had to stand in line and wait.. and I said quietly to myself: 'aah a queue'... to which he replied: 'HOw do you know that word?!'
*Chancleta: colloquial panamanian term for sandal
However! I had an excellent situation happen to me the other day in my geology lecture. My professor is american but he seems to have a full grasp of more elegant english words, most of which I know thanks to my australiness. We were going on this field trip to an island nearby and he was giving out advice on how to dress appropiately and this is what he said:
"Listen everyone I dont think that wearing 'thongs' is the best of ideas, there is a lot of folliage and 'rooting' -no pun intended- that can get in your way along the trial"
Of course soon after this everyone started giggling stupidly , and I laughed just wondering what they were thinking. The professor looked ridiculously confused at this until I said: People he's talking about sandals... Of couse he was still confused so I tried to make him see what they were understanding as 'thongs' and he laughed and said.. no no no.. 'chancletas.. chancletas'*
Nobody really got the 'rooting -no pun intended-' commentary but I was still pretty satisfied I did which as lead me into deep search of other word unused by normal American english to use on a regular basis. Considering that I probalby still dont even have a full grasp of the english language as a whole its probably asking to much of my left brain but I dont care.:)
On a separate note; laste semester this same professor was takling about a time he went to a hospital and had to make teh biggest 'line' hes seen and I was genuinly confused by this story so I asked.. : A line?.. what do yo mean a line?.. And he said: I had to stand in line and wait.. and I said quietly to myself: 'aah a queue'... to which he replied: 'HOw do you know that word?!'
*Chancleta: colloquial panamanian term for sandal