info for foreign people!

[deird1]

If, for some reason, you ever decide to write a story set in Australia, here are three useless facts to help you:

1) Our powerpoints have switches. You don't just plug an appliance in - you plug it in, switch the powerpoint on, and then you can turn on the appliance.

2) When catching a taxi, it is customary to sit in the front passenger seat, not in the back.

3) The phrase "yeah, nah..." is beloved by all Australians, and is used as follows:

"How was the footy?"
"Yeah, nah, it was fine."

"Do you think it's going to rain today?"
"Yeah, nah, it'll be okay."

"Are you driving yourself there?"
"Yeah, nah, I'm taking my car."

"Are you driving yourself there?"
"Yeah, nah, some friends are giving me a lift."

It can be used to express agreement or disagreement, with no indication of which one you're going to mean. It's the perfect "I acknowledge that you have just said something, and I am about to reply" phrase.

And we use it all the time.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Kinda like "fuhgeddaboutit."


Gabrielle

[deird1]

Is that used like that?

[velvetwhip]

Not exactly, but it's used in a wide variety of ways, so the analogy still holds.


Gabrielle

[nimthiriel]

I always thought the "yeah" was the "Yeah, I heard you ask me that question" and the "nah" was the disagreement. I've never heard it used to agree with anything...

[deird1]

So how about this:
"How was the footy?"
"Yeah, nah, it was fine."

Because there's nothing to agree or disagree with there. And I hear that one constantly.

[nimthiriel]

Fair enough on the neither.

I'm still disagreeing with you on it being used to agree with something :-p

[deird1]

Well I use it to agree with people...

(In fact, I think I've even agreed with you by saying it, at some point.)

[jl_in_the_lane.livejournal.com]

(See my reply to this with links about 'yeah/nah' if you're interested.)

[snickfic]

In the States, powerpoints are called electrical outlets. Which is why I'd read half your paragraph before I was certain you weren't talking about Microsoft copyrighted presentation software. *g*

[deird1]

Hee! I didn't think of that.

[fenchurch]

The switches on the powerpoints were a bit of a surprise when we visited Australia... I ended up taking a photo of them to show people!

[deird1]

I find it really weird watching shows in other countries, when they plug something into live powerpoints. When we're kids, we're told very sternly that you don't do that, ever, you always plug it into an off powerpoint, and then turn it on.

The idea of not having an off switch is freaky and weird.

[jesuswasbatman]

In the UK there are both switched and always-on power sockets in buildings depending on people's personal preferences.

[watchingtheaeroplanes.blogspot.com]

Agreed. My first response to your post was "wait, you mean they don't do that in other countries?"

Also on the "yeah, nah" thing, I think it's more or less an "um", a noncommittal placeholder while you decide what to say. There was an episode of SeaChange on which David Wenham went for about three minutes doing that. The hilarious part: you could tell what each individual "yeah" and "nah" meant as he was weighing up his response.

[swellen.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have never in my life sat in the front seat of a cab. This is probably because I used to catch them late at night on my own, and I thought being in the back was a bit more rape-proof than the front. Still, now I wonder if I've been doing it wrong all this time...

(Of course, the perfect answer here is "Yeah, nah, it's fine... sit wherever you want, mate.")

[swellen.livejournal.com]

Actually not 'rape-proof' so much as 'wandering-hand-on-the-knee-proof'.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah... i freaked out at least one taxi driver in the states when i went to get in the front seat...

Yeah, nah

[iosef.livejournal.com]

I think this one is generational also: I've never heard it from anyone over 30, and it is prevalent in the under 25s.

[jl_in_the_lane.livejournal.com]

Here are a bunch of links on 'Yeah, nah / no'. There's tremendous debate on its speech function.

It's been around for awhile, and there's debate on whether it's actually from New Zealand and/or other places as well as Australia.

It can be used to express subtleties involving politeness, agreement, disagreement, subject change, and it can also be filler. Pretty much anything you want, really.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/10/1086749839972.html

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001395.php

http://noncompositional.com/2008/04/yeah-no-and-no-yeah-again/

(Hope those work.)

[deird1]

Interesting...

[thedivinegoat]

So do power points in the state not have switches?

How do they switch the electricity off?

[vass]

Some more factoids:

1. We don't do Halloween or St Patrick's Day. The shops try to push them on us, and a lot of children wish we did Halloween, but we don't really. Certainly not to the degree that the US does.

2. A 'pot plant' is a potted plant, not a marijuana plant.

3. A 'sausage sizzle' is a fundraising activity like a bake sale, but with barbecued sausages. For about $1.50 or $2, you can buy a sausage wrapped up in a piece of white sliced bread folded in half diagonally, with a squirt of tomato sauce and, if you're lucky, some grilled onions.

4. On election day, which is always Saturday (yes, of course we have observant Jews too, and they send in a postal vote or vote early) you can vote in any polling place in the country, it doesn't have to be just the one designated polling place. Very frequently, the church hall or school being used as a polling place will have a sausage sizzle or bake sale outside to tempt the voters. The church official selling me a Mars Bar slice last federal election said "Cheer up, maybe none of them will win!" He was strangely prophetic.

5. Two of our regional delicacies: chocolate crackles and fairy bread. Fairy bread is white sliced bread with the crusts cut off, spread thickly with margarine, then sprinkled even thicker with the little round rainbow sprinkles that we call hundred and thousands, then cut in triangles. It's a children's party favourite. Chocolate crackles are equally popular at bake sales and children's parties. They are little clusters of Rice Bubbles (what Americans would call Rice Krispies) coated with a mixture of Copha (which is coconut fat) and cocoa powder, all spooned into a muffin cup. Australians can get quite sentimental about these food items.

[vass]

I forgot to add about fairy bread: some friends of mine came up with a variant I haven't seen anywhere else: instead of margarine, they use Nutella. We call it Evil Fairy Bread.

[deird1]

*applauds your list*

And I am quite horrified that other countries don't have fairy bread! Their poor deprived children...

[guy-who-reads.blogspot.com]

How do Americans turn off the electricity?

We don't. All our outlets/powerpoints are always live (unless we blow a fuse by running the kettle and the microwave and the toaster at the same time; the the electricity stops all over the place.) We can, of course, turn off the lights (although often people don't), but generally the whole central focus of life in North America is the idea of endless abundance. Thats true of electricity, of food, of water, of gasoline... This is probably exactly what's wrong with us.

Yeah, nah In Canada, "eh?," plays a similarly linguistically diverse role, although it is used entirely differently.

[alias_sqbr]

Re 1 and 2: Other countries are BIZARRE.

[(Anonymous)]

Re: outlet switches

So that's what those buttons are! The power to my bedroom has a tendency to switch itself off when I turn my humidifier on or off (I think it mistakes the sudden change in power usage for me being electrocuted). When it does that, there's a button on the outlet I have to press. There's a second button next to it, but I never dared press it to find out what it did. Presumably it's the "off" button.


~Brin

[(Anonymous)]

I cannot believe other countries have live powerpoints running constantly... Isn't that extremely dangerous for children???!?!?!???!???