by Scott
We've gotten used to most of the idiosyncrasies between Australian and American English. For example, without feeling like posers, we can now say, "how are you going?" instead of "how are you doing?". We say "g'day", "no worries", and "cheers" like we were born down under. In almost two years, the one thing we can't do is ask where to find a bag of ice in the grocery store. Inevitably, we get a blank stare. Sometimes, they think we want cigarettes. Sometimes, we have to spell it. Sometimes, they will repeat, "a bag of ice"? We'll excitedly say, "yes, a bag of ice." With a puzzled look on their faces, they will reply, "sorry, I don't think we have that". When we express amazement that they don't have bags of frozen water in cubic form, they say, "oh, ICE!" How many different ways can you pronounce a 3-letter, 1-syllable word? We only have 3 more months to figure it out. Maybe we'll have better luck in New Zealand, the home of "fush and chups".
2 comments:
Love it. For some reason I keep imagining the Australian accent "Bag of Ice" sounding like a very quick "B'g'vass"
By the way, I'm so jealous that you get Scott to make posts. Juliana actually said she'd consider it once recently, but she was just teasing.
We try to practice how to say "ice" in Australian and it just never seems right. Most people seem to say it kinda like "oyce". We asked one girl at the grocery store what we were saying wrong and she said we had to put more emphasis on the "eye" part. Like EYEce -- that doesn't seem to work though. Maybe we should try "B'g'vass" and see what happens. :)
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