Words that only Australians know

So as it stands, there are a lot of places about which I haven't blogged. I've visited a LOT of amazing places this last year, and would love to be able to write a post about them all. Unfortunately, I think I left it a bit late to do so (plus we all know I'm super lazy), and I think most of the posts would turn into 'and then we did x, and then we did y, and then we did z, and then we went home and went to sleep', and that is not a riveting read at all.

Instead, I will talk about a word that until yesterday, I didn't realise was just an Australian word: bludge.

Some of the more common uses are:
- a bludge subject: a subject not requiring much work to get a good mark. Deutsch in Filmen was such a bludge subject; I did hardly any work but got a 1,0! (true story, by the way ;) ; that class is such a bludge.
- dole bludger: a person who instead of looking for work, relies on government unemployment benefits. Many residents of the northern suburbs are dole bludgers.

Another word in this 'Australians (and sometimes New Zealanders) only' category is bogan. This is a lot harder to explain, and so I will take it from Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge:

'The term bogan is... for an individual who is recognised to be from a lower class background or someone whose limited education, speech, clothing, attitude, and behaviour exemplifies such a background.'

'Certain types of clothing are stereotypically associated with bogans, including flannelette shirts, monkey hoodies (what on earth are monkey hoodies?!), Stubbies shorts, ugg boots, jeans, and black leggings. Vehicles such as Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon utes have similar associations.'

However, until you have encountered a one, or lived in Australia for a while, I don't think you can quite understand what a bogan is. Though this video will probably give you a bit more of an idea...


A third word that we commonly use is prank, meaning to call someone's mobile for a short amount of time (maximum is probably three rings?) without them picking up (and therefore costing you money) to let them know that you're outside their house to pick them up, or to get them to call you back because they have free minutes, or so that your horrible sounding German doorbell doesn't need to be rung. I'll prank you when I get there. I think it's sad that more English speakers don't know this term, because let me tell you, it is mighty handy, and super inconvenient to not be able to say it to people here without having to explain what it means.

I suspect if our film and television exports were bigger than Crocodile Dundee and Neighbours, these terms would be more widespread.

I'm just going to leave this here...
(taken on my way to church sometime earlier this year)