Not meaning to offend!

We have had some funny conversations while we are here in Oz, mainly due to words that we commonly use can be offensive to Aussies and vice versa. It is good that we can laugh about it, because it has been quite the education learning what is offensive and what is not.

I went to a girls night dinner the other night and we had one British, 3 Americans and 4 Aussies around the table and the subject came up of words and meanings...so here we go...

While in the US, the curse words damn, hell, and sh#t are considered offensive to some, they are not considered curse words at all to the Aussies. They did clarify that it can depend on how they are said, like bloody hell would be considered a curse word/phrase but bloody depends on the context...where I believe in England it is considered a curse word. Case and point, we were at church the other day and the Sunday School Teacher was talking about something with the lesson and said "What the Hell does that mean?". Aaron and I thought it was hilarious, no one else even blinked an eye!

Crap is a bad curse word in England...not so in Oz or the US.

Fanny or Fannie is not a curse word in the US, in fact it is a name...however in Oz, it is the name they use for a female's body part and can be offensive...you just don't use it in every day talk...so when my husband mentioned he needed to go get his fanny pack to his friend the other day, you can understand why his friend was totally dumbfounded! Here they can it a bum bag. I can see why the Aussies think it is hilarious that the government housing program, Fannie May, has that name!

My husband was helping out on a renovation project the other day and was using caulk or gap filler as they call it here. He said to the other guy there, I need to go get some more caulk, and the guy thought he said cock and was again, totally offended....and yet it is hilarious...it is called GAP FILLER here...lesson learned!

There are other differences as well, like where the Americans would say "I learned how to play the piano today." The Aussies would say "I learnt how to play the piano today." Which most US people would think is a back woods way to say it but it is just the way they spell it here in Oz. There are also words that have a 'z' in them in the US and an 's' here, like analyse and organisation. My spell check tends to drive me a little crazy at times with these subtle differences.

So, the moral of the story is to laugh it off and try to explain when people have that deer in the headlights look after you say something that you think is totally innocent!

I have learnt a lot!

Heather