Mum's gone 2 Aus

The first time I heard the term bindis in Australia we were at the birthday party of one of my son’s preschool friends. The party was the ubiquitous Aussie sausage sizzle at a public BBQ next to a children’s playground. It was towards the end of last year so Spring/Summer in Australia.

As the party got going and kids took shoes off to run around the playground and adjacent grassed area one of the parents shouted,… Read more

We’re enjoying some warm weather in Sydney during the final days of winter and the thongs are most definitely on! In Aussie English Embrace or Resist I suggested that I may never be able to call flip flops (slops \ jandals) thongs but I eat my words, I can and I do. I accept that it’s easier to use the word that people you’re talking to will understand, so thongs it is.

It’s actually not the… Read more

We’ve written several articles about the differences between UK and Australian English, such as; Aussie English – Embrace or resist? and Does Billy want to be a Firey, a Postie, a Techo, a Garbo, or a Polly?

One verb that we keep hearing, because we have a son who loves hanging out at the skate park, is “scooter”. For a while I’ve been wondering if this is Australian English, or if there’s a US influence. Or maybe we’re wrong… Read more

Choosing our children’s names was an enjoyable process for Mum. I liked the excitement and anticipation. I also had a lot of fun suggesting slightly wacky names to Mr Mum’s gone 2 Aus, who fell for it each time.

Believe it or not, when we discussed our children’s names we did so with Australia in mind. Although our boys were born in the UK we knew we’d be raising them in Australia. One of the tests… Read more

You’d think, for a Brit moving to Australia, there’d be little or no language barrier, but that’s far from the truth. There are many differences between British and Aussie English, some Mum wasn’t too keen to embrace when we first arrived: Aussie English – Embrace or resist?.

Sometimes Aussie English is influenced by American English (garbage = rubbish), but more often than not the differences between… Read more

Several months ago I talked about the differences between British and Australian English for the names of everyday items, and asked whether and when new residents should adopt local vocabulary. On a similar vein I’d like to highlight the Australian tendency to shorten words. This is particularly prevalent in job titles.

When I first met an Australian fireman, he told me he was a Firey. I was imagining all sorts of occupations that required a short… Read more

My children must be seriously confused about their footwear, and probably several other things…

When they head to the beach with me my children hunt out their flip flops. When we get to the beach their Aussie mates tell them to take off their thongs, and my South African husband tells them to put their slops on to head home. That they manage to decipher that we all mean the same thing is a wonder to… Read more