Word: australian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Anyone who goes to Australia thinking he speaks the Queen's English is in for a shock called "Strine," meaning Australian-the cockney-like vernacular that most Aussies spout. Through the mysterious medium of Strine, magic comes out mare chick, a terrace house is a terror souse, house-proud is assprad, and sacks of potatoes are sex apertaters. Such metamorphoses particularly baffle Australia's many visiting Asian students, who arrive Down Under speaking textbook Hong Kong or Pakistani English, only to confront linguistic anarchy on their very first gloria sty (glorious day) in the country...
...Asians' plight has long concerned Ronald Bates, 57, a fourth-generation Australian who has managed to avoid speaking Strine himself, but knows just how confusing it can be. As a Sydney court stenographer, Bates has to decipher the lingo and convert it into shorthand symbols at the rate of 200 words a minute. "Thank God I'm a professional phoneticist," he says. "Otherwise, I wouldn't know what the hell half the witnesses and lawyers I have to record were talking about most of the time...
...several years Bates has given free, informal lessons in his spare time to help immigrants understand Strine. Now he and Psychologist Robert Hay, 33, have started a six-week crash course in Australian usage and pronunciation for Asian students at the University of New South Wales. Students are given isolated bits of Strine to cover all sorts of contingencies-envy is usually a case of sag rapes, and summer nights can be hell when the egg ni '-ner (air conditioner) is on the blink. Students often use a handbook on Strine that sets up little dramatic situations larded with...
...will also find tips in Rags on where to buy surplus U.S. Navy nurses' uniforms, French navy underwear, Australian army shorts, handmade American Indian buckskin boots, T shirts appliqued with a Flash Gordon thunderbolt, sheets imprinted with "acts of love," and the "perfect confrontation accessory"-imitation police truncheons "in gentle pastel shades...
Though Rogers tried to offset the impression created by these announcements by emphasizing that the U.S. was determined to remain a Pacific power, many Asian governments were uneasy. Philippine, Australian and New Zealand officials expressed concern to Rogers over possible U.S. withdrawals from Asia. South Korea and even Japan did not. try to conceal their fears that "readjustments" in the U.S. military presence might turn into a dangerous thinning out of U.S. forces...