How Australian are you?

[The Monaghans]

Hubby is watching Euro 2012 on the telly and I'm bored so I thought I'd try and get a debate going. My question is this: How Australian are you? Whether you've been here five minutes, five years or fifteen years, how much of an Aussie have you become? Have you started saying things are "heaps good"? Have you started calling yoghurt "yoegut" and Melbourne "Melbun"? Do you get excited about the Adelaide Crows or are you still firmly in the "English football is the best" camp? Personally, I think I've still got a foot on both sides of the world. I appreciate my current home and have no wish to return to the UK, but I'm still mindful of my Englishness. Our kids have quite pronounced accents after five years here and we're about to apply for citizenship but I don't think I'll ever shake off my heritage. If I'm honest, I don't think I want to either, I may not want to live in the UK anymore but that doesn't mean I'll stop being "English" if that makes sense. Not trying to start a fight, just wondered about other peoples outlook.

---

[Guest Guest75]

......................and then the fight started................LOL

 

 

I'm from Yorkshire and you know I cannot lose the accent. A guest last week said I had an Aussie twang???

 

I'll never forget my roots but look forward and home is where I drop my hat .

[Guest moonraker1959]

I have a very aussie accent,and feel split between the two when it comes to being aussie/british.Sometimes I feel a little out of place here(UK),can't put my finger on it,just some mannerisms poms have,I don't!lol Yep torn between two......countries!

[Guest Barney Rubble]

......................and then the fight started................LOL

 

 

I'm from Yorkshire and you know I cannot lose the accent. A guest last week said I had an Aussie twang???

 

I'll never forget my roots but look forward and home is where I drop my hat .

 

Paul Young - 'Where ever i lay my hat . . . . . . that's my home.'

Love it Tyke owe you a beer for that one.

 

 

Been here over 20 years, fiercly English and proud, love Australia, not nationalised (or neutralised as other may put it)

 

Cheer for England at everything

 

Cheer for Australia at everything

 

Both boys are Australian and very proud of it but show respect for England too

 

 

When England play Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . and then the fights start !

[bergkamp10]

i embrace everything Australian.love it here.but i was born in England so im English

[Guest Guest75]

Paul Young - 'Where ever i lay my hat . . . . . . that's my home.'

Love it Tyke owe you a beer for that one.

 

 

Been here over 20 years, fiercly English and proud, love Australia, not nationalised (or neutralised as other may put it)

 

Cheer for England at everything

 

Cheer for Australia at everything

 

Both boys are Australian and very proud of it but show respect for England too

 

 

When England play Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . and then the fights start !

 

 

I'll claim that beer one day, I am from Yorkshire, got long pockets and a long memory!!

 

Not got your citizenship?????

 

I have........................... ger on with it man!!!

It does not hurt ( losing half a brain - snigger), plus ya can have two passports.

 

 

 

..............and the fight keeps going....................................................

[Guest Sachertorte]

I like to think of myself as "Britalian"- an Italian with an English "graft".

I have UK citizenship as well as Italian. I certainly have enjoyed the more egalitarian spirit here, although Adelaide is really, really British (and European!) so hardly a tangible shift in many aspects of the day-to-day life for me.

I am warming to "Advance Australia Fair" after attending to my daughter school's assemblies... I am starting to feel a resonance to that.

[The Monaghans]

PMSL Tyke, I've never heard the slightest bit of Aussie twang from you! Sachertorte, I get sooooo emotional at school assemblies when they sing the national anthem! Our son has started using the word "heaps" in front of everything which is driving us all insane and my mum finds it quite hard to understand the kids now on skype as their accents become more and more pronounced. Still, we'd much rather they sounded like Aussies than Brummies loike us!

[keldaz]

Only been here a touch under 10 months, so no chance of an accent, we are both proud to be English but we just don't want to live there anymore. Since we've been here many Aussie's have commented on our accents, ' don't ever loose your accents' and 'your accents are absolutely fabulous' being among comments. In fact we've had half hour conversations with total strangers just because they've caught our accent as we've spoken. If over time our accents change so be it, you'd never pick us out as Poms unless we speak anyway.

[AussieRob]

Great Question.... I have to say I'm English.. Always have been and always will be... Even with my Aussie citizenship, Aussie wife and kids.... I may say words like Heaps, No drama's, and have even been known to say marrone (instead of maroon), but I can't go swimming in boardies with underpants underneath or wear my slippers to do the shopping.

 

In sport I want Australia to do well, but in my heart of hearts I really don't care that much, but I can watch England at any sport till the cows come home, including indoor bowls.

[Guest Django]

I'm certainly not in the embrace everything Oz camp. I'm British, always have been always will be. As in the past, when it comes to sport I want the Brits to win:jiggy: and the Aussies to lose:tongue:. Just because I now live here that hasn't changed. I'm here for the lifestyle and the weather, not to cheer on the green and gold. Besides its much more fun to give it large at work after an ashes test series.

[Guest leeannekays]

I embrace the Australian way of life, I love it here and it feels like home. I have started saying 'no worries' but that's about it. I am British but want to live here. My Sons accent is changing rapidly and I think it sounds great. My daughter has picked up some phrases so won't be long before her accent changes. This is one of the best things we did moving to the otherside of the world! Leeanne xx

[Diane]

Well apparently I still sound English after nearly eight years here, but the kids have certainly picked up some Aussie intonations. They went through a stage of saying "LIKE' every other word in a sentence, but have grown out of that now, and in fact speak very clearly now - I don't even notice an aussie accent when they speak to me! Like most kids (and apparently this is particulalry so if kids have a musical bent, which mine both do) they adapt their way of speaking to their audience, so to me they probably sound as English as I do, but when with their mates they probably sound Aussie!

 

I still support England in most things, and try hard to support Aussies in international sport, although I have to say the arroagnce of, for instance, the aussie cricket team, means I could never support them. Go Cadel though!

[Sallyh]

Been married to an Aussie for 12 years so was very much influenced by his laid back attitude and some Australianisms before we moved.

 

I am afraid I have fallen now into the trap of only driving to see someone over 20 mins away if I have 3 other things to fit in on that side of town and take the PJs for the children!!!!

nah only joking but seriously do think that that particular mentality doesn't take too long before it sets in!!

[Anne B]

The Olympics will be interesting. I'm hoping that the 8 dedicated channels on Foxtel will show more than just the Australians, otherwise you are left wondering who won, cos if there isn't an Aussie in it, it doesn't get shown. I find it hard to automatically cheer on the Green and Gold, but I'll always support the Socceroos.

[Misplaced]

Although I have lived in the UK for 34 years I have always considered myself an Aussie. I have found the banter between work and sport colleagues great fun and in good taste.

 

Have always supported Australia but when England are playing I will support them but not if playing Australia ?

[Seipeal1]

Am Irish and have been here 3 years. Youngest is 5 now and as a very strange accent. Eldest is 14 and although still a broad Irish accent is definitely mellowed since we got here.

 

Distance has dulled my love of the Premiership and Arsenal. I have been a season ticket holder with the crows since I got here as it reminds me a bit of my other great love, Gaelic Football.

 

Everybody to their own. Just feel great living in a place I love with people we like and a lifestyle better than home!

[Guest Barney Rubble]

I'm certainly not in the embrace everything Oz camp. I'm British, always have been always will be. As in the past, when it comes to sport I want the Brits to win:jiggy: and the Aussies to lose:tongue:. Just because I now live here that hasn't changed. I'm here for the lifestyle and the weather, not to cheer on the green and gold. Besides its much more fun to give it large at work after an ashes test series.

 

 

Says someone who was not here in 88 (when England had the ashes) until a few years ago when they got them back

 

For me it was a long time between drinks and my black book was overflowing of all the crap i took about being a pom.

 

Still slowly ticking off the rebukes and put downs, gotta love it .

 

Just wish we could get a World Cup or a European Championship under our belts:idea:

[Royd]

It's a really interesting question for sure. I arrived in Whyalla with my family on my 15th birthday, I'm now 62. I am naturalised. I cherish my birthright but I know where I grew up and where I have made my life. After many years of struggle I can finally support the Australian cricket team. I couldn't do that during the Lillee Thompson Chappell years, the arrogance was far too much for me. I feel Australian of British birth. I know for some overly nationalistic Australians that doesn't count but I'm not fussed by that view. The question I would ask is "who do you feel you are when you are back in England?" I don't feel "English" when I am there because I can see and feel the differences and my accent gathers the odd comment.

 

Because my mother was Irish I am also a Plastic Paddy, though not the east coast US variety (I mean I did actually live in Ireland a child for a while).

 

Okay I know what I am. Totally confused!