In Indonesia, bahasa gaul is usually only used by young people in cities. In contrast, in Australia slang is used by both young and older people to create a sense of closeness and informality. Some slang is quite easy to understand because it still has a connection with the real meaning, like footy for football, ‘built like a brick shit house’ for a massively strong man, telly for television. I was totally confused however, when my friend said “Bob’s your uncle” because the fact is I don’t have an uncle named Bob. Later, I found out what he meant was “everything is A OK!, or “I agree with you”. Australians also really like saying ‘up and ‘down’. They often say things like ‘the bag is up here ...’ or ‘I live down here ...’ even though sometimes the thing they refer to is neither up or down but is in a flat place.

(Luh Sriasih, IALF teacher exchange in Australia)

Note: It’s interesting that you mention how Australians use up or down. It’s because in Australia we learn to see the location of things in terms of two-dimensional maps which have an ‘up’ and a ‘down’ side e.g. Queensland is ‘up’ and Tasmania is ‘down’. Australians rarely think of location in terms of cardinal position e.g. north, south, east or west, which is why we feel very confused when ask for directions in Indonesia!

A Doggy Bag

One day my friend and I invited a guest from Europe to have lunch in a famous seafood restaurant. We ordered plenty of food such as fish, shrimp, squid and traditional vegetables. The food was very tasty and my guest enjoyed it very much. Because we ordered too much food, we could not eat all the fish. After finishing our lunch, there was still one big fish that had just been eaten a little bit. So, my friend asked the waiter to wrap the fish and put it in the bag while thinking that this fish could be served again for our next meal. Suddenly, my guest said, ”yes, it is a good idea, we also do it in our country for giving food to our dog, we call it a doggy bag”. My friend and I looked at each other. We spontaneously said, ”yes, we do that too”. We just realised that people are not accustomed in his country to serve the remains of food at home.

(Erick, an ADS student currently studying in Australia)

Note: Don’t you believe it Erick! It certainly is common in Australia to take the leftovers home to eat later especially if they have hardly been touched. Some people might ask for a ‘doggy bag’ but they certainly don’t intend wasting that delicious food on their dog! It might be that they are embarrassed to ask for the leftovers directly.

Harmony Day in Australia

Each year in Australia there is a special series of activities called 'Living in Harmony' activities. They are fully supported by the Australian Government. The idea behind Living in Harmony is to promote community harmony and peace. National research in Australia has confirmed that the majority of Australians really enjoy and respect the multi-cultural nature of Australian communities. They like having people from different cultures in their communities. The Living Harmony initiative, or series of activities, is designed to ask all Australians to take a stand, a positive stand against racism, prejudice and intolerance.

This means that all Australians should not have racist and prejudiced feelings towards other people. The activities are designed to help build a peaceful and productive future for their children. In Aussie schools, for example, activities may include planting special Harmony Trees or making a Harmony Garden, organising a Harmony Day Lunch and inviting parents and friends to hold a Harmony painting, essay and speaking competitions.

Harmony Day is held on March 21st each year and has become very popular. It is a wonderful example of Different Pond Different Fish for sure.

Now something for you to think about. Are there people of different cultures in your community? How do you feel about people in your community who are from another culture or country? Are there any cross-cultural problems that you can see in your area? What do you think should be, or could be, done about those problem? Why not write to KGRE and tell us how you feel about these questions. We'd love to hear from you by letter or by email.