This image just would not resize to a smaller size. Really!
Posted on 10/29/2015 1:04:44 PM PDT by sparklite2
In an opinion piece in The Age newspaper, public speaking expert Dean Frenkel claims the "Australian alphabet cocktail was spiked by alcohol."
"Our forefathers regularly got drunk together and through their frequent interactions unknowingly added an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns," he wrote. "For the past two centuries, from generation to generation, drunken Aussie-speak continues to be taught by sober parents to their children."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“He went onto claim that poor communication was akin to an epidemic and was costing the country’s economy billions of dollars. His solution – introducing rhetoric into the schools.”
Another academic advancing his own specialization as a cure for what ails the public. That’s the real epidemic.
Sorry to see it’s made its way to Australia. What they actually could use is a BS detector that goes off when the American Left is trying to sell them on some hair-brained idea— like “speak proper English using all of your facial muscles and the economy will generate billions more dollars(!)”. How convenient that he puts forth this idea on the cusp of an economic downturn in Australia.
Their pundit class (particularly in the ABC) can get a bit enamored of things American, not recognizing the high levels of intellectual pollution Americans endure. But they have a strong independent streak that will see them through.
I love the Aussies and could listen to them talk all day.
Just giving some background to folks who hadn’t. As an aside, I knew more about what was going on in the US while there than I did when I was home. Says something for the US MSM doesn’t it?
That explains it! The Australian national anthem is a two minutes and forty-five second rondo of smashing beer bottles.
Heh .. Put an Aussie, a Cockney, a New Yorker, a Redneck, a Nigerian, and a Valley Girl in the same room. See how well they understand each other.
Technically, they all speak English
It took me a minute to figure that out.
The I realized there was beer and two
faces in it.
Do they even sell Foster’s beer in Australia? I never saw any the whole time I was down there ...
You were not looking in the er.. right places.
I’m old enough to be her father. Almost old enough to be her grandfather.
You’ll pardon me, I hope, for actually noticing the beer.
The accent of the original pronunciation Shakespeare movement sounds like pirates.
Guess Oz has their own version of self hating aholes pseudo intellectuals Richards like we have here it the State
you should see the chick in the ad for the keg!
The Aussies were a fine ally through two World Wars and on through Viet Nam. This Aussie anti-war but pro-patriotism song comes to mind.
“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
- Eric Bogle
Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack, and I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback, well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said son, It’s time you stopped rambling, there’s work to be done.
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, and they marched me away to the war.
And the band played Waltzing Matilda, as the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears, we sailed off for Gallipoli
And how well I remember that terrible day, how our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was waiting, he’d primed himself well. He shower’d us with bullets,And he rained us with shell.
And in five minutes flat, he’d blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
But the band played Waltzing Matilda, when we stopped to bury our slain.
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs, then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well we tried to survive, in that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive, though around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head, and when I woke up in my hospital bed,
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead. Never knew there was worse things than dyin’.
For I’ll go no more waltzing Matilda, all around the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs-no more waltzing Matilda for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed, and they shipped us back home to Australia.
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane, those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay, I looked at the place where me legs used to be.
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me, to grieve, to mourn, and to pity.
But the band played Waltzing Matilda, as they carried us down the gangway.
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared, then they turned all their faces away
And so now every April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. They’re tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.
But the band plays Waltzing Matilda, and the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one will march there at all.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by that billabong, who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
***********************************************************************************************
NOTES:
Matilda - the backpack and associated gear used by livestock drovers and prospecters
In remote areas of the Australian outback.
Swag - canvas sleeping bag
Billabong - creek or estuary, generally with an outlet to the sea and containing more or less brackish water.
Historical Note:
The Gallipoli Campaign (April 25, 1915-January 8, 1916),
A major land and sea operation of World War I, in which
British, French, Australian, and New Zealand forces invaded Turkey.
I have that song on a CD by John McDermott.
It is very long so it must have more verses than that.
I suppose that could also explain south Boston accents.
Correct. If you want to hear what they sounded like 200 years, go to Tangier Island, Virginia.
They do. But it's not among the most popular choices. Not even in the top ten. It's not hard to get if you want it - most large bottle shops will have it - but you'll most often see XXXX (Four X), VB (Victoria Bitter) or one of the Tooheys' or Carlton's, especially on tap (apparently there's only about ten Pubs in the entire country that have Fosters on tap, and they largely do it for the nostalgia value.
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