KING @hitchco-blog - Tumblr Blog

You have so much more time. There are so many moments ahead of you, moments that will change everything; incredible moments that will make you forget all the bad seconds, hours, days, years.

beeftea78-deactivated20200113

Throwback to the time my poor German teacher had to explain the concept of formal and informal pronouns to a class full of Australians and everyone was scandalised and loudly complained “why can’t I treat everyone the same?” “I don’t want to be a Sie!” “but being friendly is respectful!” “wouldn’t using ‘du’ just show I like them?” until one guy conceded “I suppose maybe I’d use Sie with someone like the prime minister, if he weren’t such a cunt” and my teacher ended up with her head in her hands saying “you are all banned from using du until I can trust you”

deflare

God help Japanese teachers in Australia.

languageoclock

if this isnt an accurate representation of australia idk what is

derinthescarletpescatarian

Australia’s reverse-formality respect culture is fascinating. We don’t even really think about it until we try to communicate or learn about another culture and the rules that are pretty standard for most of the world just feel so wrong. I went to America this one time and I kept automatically thinking that strangers using ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ were sassing me.

Australians could not be trusted with a language with ingrained tiers of formal address. The most formal forms would immediately become synonyms for ‘go fuck yourself’ and if you weren’t using the most informal version possible within three sentences of meeting someone they’d take it to mean you hated them.

hollowedskin

100% true.

the difference between “‘scuse me” and “excuse me” is a fistfight

fozmeadows

See also: the Australian habit of insulting people by way of showing affection, which other English-speakers also do, but not in a context where deescalating the spoken invective actively increases the degree of offence intended, particularly if you’ve just been affectionately-insulting with someone else.

By which I mean: if you’ve just called your best mate an absolute dickhead, you can’t then call a hated politician something that’s (technically) worse, like a total fuckwit, because that would imply either that you were really insulting your mate or that you like the politician. Instead, you have to use a milder epithet, like bastard, to convey your seething hatred for the second person. But if your opening conversational gambit is slagging someone off, then it’s acceptable to go big (”The PM’s a total cockstain!”) at the outset.

Also note that different modifiers radically change the meaning of particular insults. Case in point: calling someone a fuckin’ cunt is a deadly insult, calling someone a mad cunt is a compliment, and calling someone a fuckin’ mad cunt means you’re literally in awe of them. Because STRAYA.

mirrorfalls

@themyskira can you confirm?

themyskira

It’s true!

I suppose it’s no surprise when you consider how heavily our national mythology is steeped in mateship and larrikinism and distrust of authority. Trusting to your mates because you sure as hell can’t trust those fuckers in charge. Our country glorifies convicts and bushrangers, thumbing their nose at the law; the Eureka rebels making their stand against an unfair system; the Anzacs in the trenches at Gallipoli, sent to their deaths by their commanders in a disaster campaign.

Australian culture is aggressively egalitarian. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… so get off your bloody high horse, princess, you’re not so fuckin’ special.”