Two nations divided by a Common Language

For those who have not heard the quote before it is actually referring to England and America but I definitely believe it applies to England and Australia. After all both nations speak English but upon first impressions when touching down on Australian soil I noticed subtle difference between the ways we and our Australian cousins use language and how certain things can get very lost in translation. i.e. “thongs” – in England an article of underwear, in Australia…shoes!!

Thanks to the free guidebook we picked up at the airport we now no longer had to live in the ignorance that “dunny” meant toilet! Not sure how that could be misconstrued to be anything else – “dunny” brings about all kinds of unsavoury connotations, think we could have worked that one out for ourselves.

A lot of our British colloquialisms translate across to Australia (although I will not argue who laid claim to them first) i.e. “bloke”, “bangers and mash” – (this one confused my American co-worker no end!), “scrub up” to name a few. I forget who said it but I refer to a quote by one much wiser than I to describe the initial feeling of landing in Oz – “Our Similarities bring us to a common ground; Our Differences allow us to be fascinated by each other”

The reason I am in Australia; this breath taking country, is due to my husband and I emigrating and following in the footsteps of so many of our “pommie” ancestors to the Promised Land of sun, sea, sand, surf..what more could a girl from the North East of England want. So we have embarked on this adventure pretty much blind having never even visited Australia before! Is that daring of us? Or Bonkers?! Time will tell! But so far it seems to have been a wise decision.

Arriving in Sydney

It was 8am on a balmy Sydney January morning when we stepped out from the artificial strip lights of airports and planes that had been our home for the past 28 hours to a hustle that can only be experienced at airports. People, cars, luggage; it’s the same no matter which country you are in. So far there were no real noticeable differences.

Also no killer snakes or spiders as was promised by all the slightly ignorant people back home who thanks to TV shows hosted by the likes of the late, great Steve Urwin were convinced that stepping off the plane meant certain death by Australia’s native wildlife. But no, much to their shock and indiscreet disappointment we survived and have yet to see such critters here in Sydney.

We got to the hotel and so far nobody had uttered the words “G’day” or “Barbie” and I was feeling slightly hard done to albeit probably putting too much emphasis on Australian culture from influences from the likes of Crocodile Dundee! Forgive me! But I reckon most Australians visiting the UK want to see the Queen drinking Tea in London rather than actually realising there are towns and cities north of the Watford Gap! That being said Australians tend to be a lot better travelled then us Brits. We tend to live for stereotypes, for cliché!

Given that we are approx. 10,000 miles away from the backdrop of the River Tees that I grew up with Sydney certainly feels a bit of a home away from home. After all the links in history between my “small town in Europe” where I grew up and this thriving metropolitan city are well documented.

The Harbour Bridge – build by the company Dorman Long in 1930’s was designed and constructed in Teesside; Captain Cook was born in Middlesbrough, Teesside and in fact there is a museum and hospital named in his honour. However given that I grew up in the area of his birth I knew little about him until coming here and now let’s just say it is probably best to play the Captain Cook affiliation down a bit J

The only real difference is obviously the weather. Since arriving here we have found ourselves being typically British and mentioning the weather every 5 minutes! But I think that has been the biggest change. In terms of being on the other side of the world I actually feel quiet at home!