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Old 02-12-2014, 08:37 PM
 
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I've been using the word "queue" for ~20 years and not because I wanted to sound British. I picked it up in the corporate world . . . waiting for my jobs to print.

When a bunch of humans are assembled in something resembling a line then I say "they're in line" If I'm waiting for something in a virtual space then I say "queue". Even when it comes to people I will often use "queue" as a verb just never as a noun.

Having grown up in the NYC suburbs I would use "on line" and "in line" interchangeably but on line disappeared from my speech with the advent of the interwebs.

I live in Australia and have no desire to start saying pram (half the people here say stroller anyway), lift, bloke, rubbish, etc. OTOH, I now use "arvo" while texting and will sometimes use the shortened forms of local words that either don't exist or used very infrequently in the US. Otherwise I just sound dumb (at least to me anyway).

I have found that my resistance to using a lot of Aussie slang has also forced me to stop using the american shortened forms lest no one understand what I mean . . . if I was going to stay here permanently it would be really exhausting in the long run to completely resist the local slang and even some pronunciations.
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Old 02-12-2014, 09:07 PM
 
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Originally Posted by drive carephilly View Post

I live in Australia..I now use "arvo" while texting..

Had to look that one up. Would've never guessed it meant afternoon.
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Old 02-12-2014, 09:23 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Dport7674 View Post
Had to look that one up. Would've never guessed it meant afternoon.
Yeah, me neither.

Chuckles all around the first time someone said "oh, you can just put that on the bench."
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Old 02-12-2014, 10:13 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
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Originally Posted by drive carephilly View Post
Yeah, me neither.

Chuckles all around the first time someone said "oh, you can just put that on the bench."
Translation?
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Old 02-12-2014, 11:00 PM
 
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Originally Posted by drive carephilly View Post
Yeah, me neither.

Chuckles all around the first time someone said "oh, you can just put that on the bench."

Counter top?
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Old 02-18-2014, 08:20 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Dport7674 View Post
Counter top?
Yeah, the woman was asking me to put a book on the counter but gestured vaguely towards the kitchen so I just put it on a chair.
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Old 02-21-2014, 02:52 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
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Originally Posted by drive carephilly View Post
Yeah, the woman was asking me to put a book on the counter but gestured vaguely towards the kitchen so I just put it on a chair.
So a "counter top" is called a "bench?" And a "bench" is not a chair??????
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Old 02-21-2014, 03:12 PM
 
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Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
So a "counter top" is called a "bench?" And a "bench" is not a chair??????
We definitely have "park benches" and "work benches" which are of course different, along counters and counter tops. But a chair is not a "bench" to the vast majority here.

I found this thread interesting: Aussies are far less likely to see words as "British" or "American" than folk in the UK and US it seems, seeing the alternative words often as synonyms perhaps with different connotations.

"Bloke" is a a pretty old fashioned term, and by using it you're risking being viewed as a bit uneducated and old fashioned. Similarly "pram" as apposed to the more common "stroller".

"Lift" is more common than "elevator", but both are used. But then the "pants" we wear are the North American kind, not the British interpretation, while using the British term for rooster would certainly result in a situation.
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