Let speak strain

The first piece of advice I received from an expat aussie after joining the US firm was that after a year or so of living here, all aussies sound like yobbos.

Having been in the US now for a little over 15 months, we're well and truly in the routine of doing the American thing in the American way with American people. Unfortunately, it hit home the other day that we really have become a little detatched from the Australian way of life when we made some calls home.

I've never, even for a second, supposed that the American accent is refined, or even a particularly civilised one, but hearing the Australian accent after a year without it, it certainly takes the cake. In the past couple of weeks, that aussie drawl caught Alicia and I by surprise.

We had to make a couple of calls back home; one for business and the other to David's work. The first one was a 20 or so minute call to the people 'managing' our house which had us in stitches the whole time. Everything they were saying was certainly professional, and was the right thing to say, but it sounded like they'd been living in the outback (or in Far Far North Qld) for their whole life. Every vowel was drawn out and most words ending in 'ing' actually ended in 'un'. Pretty amusing.

We also had to call David at work to wish him happy birthday. Some other guy picked up the phone. Once we asked to speak with Dave, his reply was "ah yeah, ang on. He's round ere somewhere." Again, we were in stitches.

Around the same time, I started getting podcasts of the morning show from Nova FM in Brisbane. Again, we were amazed at their incredibly broad accent; and this was from people who are paid a lot of money to annunciate with dignity and clarity (well maybe not dignity).

What was best about the phone calls is that we could speak at a normal paced voice and be properly understood. The sheer terror set in when we realised that we actually sound like that too. The advice that guy gave me when I had arrived in the US had rung true; we have turned into "one of them".

I also had the pleasure of having Christmas drinks at the Australian Consulate a few nights ago. It was an absolute joy to be in a room full of aussies who had the same background, the same values, and most importantly, the same accent. It was a great function with around 250 expats in attendance. My favourite memory of the night would have to be the way the guests (who had been quite civilised all night) literally jumped over each other when the tray of lamingtons was brought out. It's amazing what you miss when you've no longer got it; but I digress.

Never be ashamed of your heritage, but you can perhaps cringe a little. This would probably be hard for people who haven't lived overseas for a while (especially other English speaking countries) to understand, but if you've done it, you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong; I'm one of the proudest aussies around, but to hear how we talk (when it's not what I'm hearing every day) makes you sit back and think "do we really talk like that?" I'm proud to say we do.