Ask an Australian

[JohannaK]

How else would you pronounce it?

Something like Au-sea.

 

[Camikaze]

And how else would you pronounce Au-sea...?

 

[JohannaK]

With an s... I suppose then its a matter of accents...

Just like once I listened to a speech by Julia Gillard and I heard "labour" or "layder" every time she said "leader".

Edit: I just noticed that today the Ad I have seen the most today on CFC says "Australian Tax Returns"... I wonder if this thread has anything to do with it...

 

[Arwon]

Have you had a barbie on the beach on Christmas Day?

Growing up, we generally did a combo barbie and cold lunch at a family member's house, usually out in the back yard. Backyard cricket followed.

 

[Arwon]

Oh, man, if the crisis is still going on once I finish my studies, moving to the antipodes suddenly became much more appealing...

Good luck. Meeting the entry requirements for skilled migration is very difficult depending on your field of employment/education.

Edit: oh civil engineer is probably on the priority list

 

[Arwon]

What is Australia's most popular sport. How big is cricket there?. How do you guys manage to consistently turn up great sportsperson in lot of varied disciplines ?

Australian Rules Football is way ahead in terms of attendance, money and TV viewing but it is not dominant in Sydney or Brisbane. Cricket we consider our national sport. The other major sports are the two Rugby codes and soccer is a distant fifth.

I would say we have success because our culture exposes everyone to sport, so kids with talent get identified. They then get developed because money and good administration help a lot too. If you are good at cricket or swimming or running you state going to get sucked into the structures of those sports and the best talent us going to filter through.

Basically compared to most countries we are very very good at harnessing all the available raw talent present among the population. We really don't waste or miss any human capital.

 

[classical_hero]

How do you cope with celebrating the winter solstice in the summer?

We don't celebrate the winter solstate, no one does.

Are spiders have health bar in Australia?

seriously, are they really too big?

Some are, but the more poisonous ones are not that big.

Have you ever noticed how many Australian men are fantastic story-tellers? I don't know anyone who can give an anecdote like an Aussie.

We are great BS artists.

How many pairs of thongs do you own?

Just 1.

Also, how many pairs of sandals?

What is a sandal?

Do you frequently throw shrimp on the barbie?

What does Australia do for celebrities now that Steve Irwin is dead?

Are you going to mention Wilfred?

We don't throw anything on the barbie, we place it on so that it cooks properly.

We mainly celebrate our sports stars.

I don't have a clue about this one.

They tell us here that Foster's is Austrailian for beer. Does this mean that beer is Austrailian for piss?

Well our beer is better than your beer, since American beer is like having sex in a canoe.

How strong is Australian national identity?

If you do something against common understanding it is considered as being un-Australian.

Speaking of coping, how have you learned to cope with the knowledge that any day might be the day you are killed by one of the countless examples of lethal fauna present on your continent?

Have you ever run away in terror from a koala?

I am more worried about my fellow humans than the animals, since more people die from humans than rom animal attacks.

Oi. Cities = over 30 000. We have like 40.

Or more realistically, we've got the eight capital... yes even Hobart, Canberra and Darwin. Plus there's about a half dozen other reasonably sized cities (ie Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast-Tweed, Townsville, Cairns, Geelong, Sunshine Coast and Auckland).

I see what you did there, stealing stuff from NZ.

How good is the economy in Australia?

It is one of the best performing countries, but I believe we could be in a far better situation since we just went through a boom n the mining sector like never before and yet instead of being in a surplus during those years, we were actually in massive deficit. While our deficit isn't as bad as others, it is not in the shape it could be considering Labor was left with a surplus and hasn't even given us one deficit free year. Considering that we have had massive spending increases way over gains in revenue. They said temporary, but two terms of government isn't temporary to me.

Serious question: What is the general opinion of Julia Gillard over there? The one Aussie I know in person has an intense dislike of her (I tried to show him the clip of her talking about the end of the world but he refused to watch it because he hates her so much and the carbon tax). While he is crazy what is the general opinion of her?

Well Howard wasn't popular as opposition leader before he brought Australia forward. Popularity isn't an issue.

Have you had a barbie on the beach on Christmas Day?

No, but we did play cricket at the local oval, which was fun.

If you pull the plug in your sink, does the water flow out clockwise or counter-clockwise?

That is a myth. The main factor in the way the water flows is the shape of the basin.

Damn you! I was quite happily curled up in bed and not even contemplating moving. Now I want to know too.

I think you better call the International Drainage Commission of Springfield.

What is Australia's most popular sport. How big is cricket there?. How do you guys manage to consistently turn up great sportsperson in lot of varied disciplines ?

AFL is by far the biggest sport here.

We turn up lots of sports stars because our climate is good for exercise all year round, making more people play and thus more chances of someone becoming very good at their chosen sport

 

[cardgame]

What's it like living upside down?

 

[emzie]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rise-...azor-Blades-in-Australian-Accent/416107288168

True?

 

[otago]

Politics in Aus, one has to remember that both political parties are far far to the left of the US republicans.
Abbott is a bloody fool for going on about religion even if he is Catholic, if you are a Aus+NZ politicians you keep your yap shut about your religion unless you want to be hammered.

Here is a Aus themed restaurant in the USA, walkabout soup, spare me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv-xI9tT_8M

 

[Smellincoffee]

We don't celebrate the winter solstate, no one does.

Oh, I'm sorry. "Jesus' Birthday". On the winter solstice.

(You celebrate it in fact whether you do so in spirit or not.. )

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rise-...azor-Blades-in-Australian-Accent/416107288168

True?

Very! Haha, classic "strayan"

Politics in Aus, one has to remember that both political parties are far far to the left of the US republicans.
Abbott is a bloody fool for going on about religion even if he is Catholic, if you are a Aus+NZ politicians you keep your yap shut about your religion unless you want to be hammered.

Here is a Aus themed restaurant in the USA, walkabout soup, spare me.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv-xI9tT_8M

Awesome. Love those guys.

 

[GenMarshall]

In most respects pretty damn good. Low unemployment, very little public debt, reasonably good wages, real incomes still rising even for the bottom quartile.

Compared to most other major world economies, it's going great. But that's not so much because we're going along fantastically, more because a lot of the other major economies are in the toilet.

Nationally, unemployment is low, but again, the national average hides the disparity between states. Youth unemployment hovers at around 20-25%, but I guess that's better than most other First World countries. Income equality is better than most of the world; definitely much better than the United States. My main worry at the moment is, like Rugby, unaffordability of housing.

Oh, man, if the crisis is still going on once I finish my studies, moving to the antipodes suddenly became much more appealing...

Same, if the unemployment and economic crisis is still marching on here in the States, moving to the anipodes has also became appealing to me. Though I'm not sure how Australian immigration policies are.

 

[otago]

Same, if the unemployment and economic crisis is still marching on here in the States, moving to the anipodes has also became appealing to me. Though I'm not sure how Australian immigration policies are.

Here, better read up on these, there may be a test
http://ebookbrowse.com/the-mcc-laws-of-cricket-2000-code-4th-edition-2010-key-changes-pdf-d64255278

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Do Australians have any equivalent to 'manifest destiny' or 'frontier spirit'?

Is my favorite rugby enthusiast Australian mad at me?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Kids, check out the Australian version of Wilfred. Just hilarious and oozing with Australianess

If that is "Australianess", you should bottle that and sell it in the US and the UK. Thanks again for turning me on to it.


Link to video.

 

[Camikaze]

Is my favorite rugby enthusiast Australian mad at me?

If you're calling him a rugby enthusiast, probably yes.

 

[ace99]

Why is your Liberal Party conservative? Highly misleading.

 

[Tee Kay]

Same, if the unemployment and economic crisis is still marching on here in the States, moving to the anipodes has also became appealing to me. Though I'm not sure how Australian immigration policies are.

In a word, draconian. Unless you marry an Australian or trained/employed in a "skilled" occupation (eg if you're a doctor or an engineer or certain types of tradesperson) your chances are very very low.

Personally I would encourage more immigration but the zeitgeist seems to be anti-immigration and not likely to change any time soon. If anything immigration will become more difficult in the future.

Do Australians have any equivalent to 'manifest destiny' or 'frontier spirit'?

Closest we have is probably something people call "battler spirit" but it's not the same thing; it describes personal responses to adversity rather than a drive to territorial expansion or any particularly insistance on personal "liberty".

 

[Tee Kay]

Why is your Liberal Party conservative? Highly misleading.

The Liberal Party is market-liberal, ie free market enthusiasts, ie traditional liberals before Americans start using the word differently in order to avoid calling themselves socialists.

Historically, Labor was probably more socially conservative than the Liberal Party. It was only from about 1970 onwards that the Labor Party overall really became identifiable as socially progressive, coinciding with a shift economically to the right.