I do not dislike Americans and i have some US friends that I correspond with regularly. However the US entertainment industry is very strong and we are, or our volcabuary is, constantly under presure to change to US words, spellings and phrases.

I try to avoid ones that I know about but probably use some I am not aware of.

Tonight the channel 7 news reader,NSW, used the word military and it irritated me because in our pronounciation the 'a' is silent so the word is said as mil-i-try. The US over emphasise the 'a'. Not a world changing thing but an inroad into our culture and it is not the first time I have noticed this.

A word I will not use is 'guys' and I can't understand how both genders can be guys. The females in the US used to be dolls and ours was Blokes and Sheilas. Somehow the word sheila became disliked for some unknown reason and is never used today. I see nothing wrong with it. Guys is in common use today.

So I was wondering if others have some dislikes about the influence of US language on us. What do you feel when a shop assistant says 'Have a nice day' for example.

Maybe we made a mistake in calling our decimal currency 'Dollars'.

Interested to see what others think.

'We'll be back momentarily' induces me to a fit of Mutley style cursing at the TV.

Momentarily means for a moment not in a moment. Stupid yanks.

Then again if you're ever unfortunate enough to catch any commercial (ie Bogan) radio in Aus, the phrase 'as you do' seems to litter every third sentence.

Geez I love being a grumpy old man.

There are potentially so many… though often it is difficult to be certain the fault is with Americanisation (is that one?) of the English language and not the natural churn and adaptation over time.

I'm more or less past being unnecessarily concerned about whether to use 's' or 'z' or include 'u' in some words though I insist on using 'gh' and not the advertising industry's 't', period. And by period, I don't mean full-stop. Well, I sort of do but not as far as punctuation is concerned.

It is more annoying that the citizens of one country – the USA – have 'burglarised' the descriptor from the two continents of North and South America and all the other countries they contain, for themselves. They should be known as USAsians.

Should anyone use the terms 'fanny pack' and 'touch base' in one sentence, though it does make me giggle.

With the Olympics imminent I fear commentators regaling us with 'to medal' rather than 'to win a medal' – which really is meddling with the language, innit?

I too am annoyed with 'we'll be back momentarily' however given the frequency and lengths of commercial breaks these days, it is more likely a statement of fact.

Ahhh yes Banjo agree totally.
Dates like 12/26/2012 annoy intensely. Worse 10/9/2011 is meaningless
if used by US companies and people. They are the only country to use
such nonsense.

TV people imitating American "anchors" July one ! etc etc instead of
1st July.

Agree "Guys" annoys my wife intensely and she refuses to accept it.
It is just a stupid usage.
Likewise the misuse of the word "Gays". Very annoying to people with
the surname Gay. A direct contradiction of the meaning of the word.

Also when are the US and Europe going to change back to driving on the
left of the road ? Don't they realise Napoleon was stupid ?

Their lack of understanding the difference between Austria and Australia.

That will do for now.

I am an American who lives in Australia. I was disconcerted when I walked into a shop, and the sales girl questioned my politics. She asked me if I was right. Then I read in the headlines of Courier-Mail, "Rug up, Colder is tipped." I didn't buy the paper since I was unfamiliar with Colder and didn't particularly care if the rug was pulled out from under her or him, and she or he was tipped. On the road were occasional signs, 'refuse tip'. Apparently unlike US restaurants Australian restaurants don't have tipping. I didn't see why they had to have signs to point it out. Pies are advertised, but they are not real pies. Real pies contain apples, blueberries, lemon or other fruits not meat.

Not only linguistic definitions but functional definitions are different. In the United States public schools are for the public and are financed by taxes while private schools are financed by the parents or organisation the parents belong to. In Australia taxpayers finance non-public schools.

Nevertheless, I still like it here.

Sometimes it's entertaining. I remember a class breaking up in laughter after an American lecturer, talking about blood circulation, mentioned Kapil Larries - at least, after they worked out what he meant. Well, he was Texan.

Wm Trevor, I find it worse than that. I want to know how one can "win" third place or win bronze. To win is to win & surely that is to come first.

Then one which may or may not be from the yanks, but is most annoying, is when some twit, often the birds, [like that old one], on the ABC tell us "the car lost control". I raced cars for many years, & although I lost control of the car a couple of times, I have never been in a car that was in control.

Today I contribute to an international forum dedicated to the maintenance & restoration of one sports car model of a no longer existent British car manufacturer. The knowledge of some of the contributors, & the help they offer is outstanding, but made up as it is by about 35% UK, 30% US, 20% Oz/NZ, with the remainder from Europe & the rest of the world, one often has to look to the contributors nationality to be sure what they are talking about.

Add in the odd occasion when some younger folk start to use "text" talk, & you can have many people separated by a common language.

When an Ozzie recently suggested that he "must have killed a China man" one pommy bloke, [not chap fellow or guy], wanted to know what the Chinese had to do with a blown head gasket.

Yes Cossomby, I can remember my mother taking some time to realise what out pommy baker, [bred van man], was talking about when he told her he was working on his "weir doer" on the week end.

It was only when he told her it was to keep the flies out of the house, she got the picture.

Banjo, I used to be very sensitive to Americanisms, especially after my wife ran off with some Yank and killed our marriage after only 8 months!

But I became less and less concerned about it and now more than 20 years later, Americanisms and American ‘pollution’ of our Australian dialect doesn’t worry me at all.

There is a continuum from blatant Americanisms that are not at all Australian right through to words and phrases that are now thoroughly Australian but are of American origin.

It is just part of our constantly evolving language. And it’s not unidirectional – the USA has adopted Australian words and phrases, and there is this sort of exchange happening all over the world.

david f, in Scotland, England and Ireland, pies have meat in them.
Are they wrong too?
Also in those countries, cars are saloons and estates, not sedans and wagons (Americanism = Australianism in this case).
There's also the tattie pie (potato pie). When I first saw a pizza, it was called a pizza pie.
And a drunk man can be pie-eyed.
Don't forget that if you divide 22 by 7 the answer is pi.

Dear Austin Powerless,

Scotland, England, Australia and Ireland are all foreign countries.

If you divide 22 by 7 the answer is not pi. 22/7 is an approximation to pi.

Pi is a transcendental number. A rational number can be expressed by the quotient of two integers. An irrational number is a number that cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers. Algebraic irrational numbers such as the square root of 2 are roots of algebraic equations with rational coefficients. Irrational numbers which are not roots of algebraic equations with rational coefficients are called transcendental.

Pi is an irrational transcendental number.

22/7 is a meat pie, an approximation to a real pie. Pi includes lemon pies. I find them transcendental.

The following few are ones that come to mind:

1) Close, but no cigar.

2) Bigger bang for your buck.

3) No-brainer.

4) SOB. - Very popular descriptive adjective in Los Angeles.

I'm sure though that we've got quite a few that other people
would find difficult to understand. Take the word "shout."
As in "my shout," (or treat) of drinks. Many outsiders would
find that a bit confusing. The same as "lets catch the lift,"
"lift," here meaning elevator, and so on.

Hasbeen,
I ignore anything written in text as not worth deciphering.

Saw a ute advertised recently as a 'pickup'. Wont be long before bonnet becomes hood and boot becomes trunk.

It is because so much of our entertainment comes from the US, films, TV, music and news, it has such an impact on us. By the way what happened to actresses, it seems now they are all one gender. Some actresses were good looking sheilas too.

Am told our kids all know the USA emergency number and many don't know ours is 000.

Nth Qld football team are the cowboys, they should be the Ringers.

There are quite a few 'Americanisms' that get on my nerves.

The most recent is the use of the word 'swag'. I don't even know what it means, really - I can't see many common elements in pictures of people who are endowed with this mysterious quality. Looking at pictures, though (a Google image search is helpful here), I can't work out why having 'swag' is desirable. It would appear that 'swag' is a combination of anaemia, an inability to dress oneself and a tic that forces one to sneer and wreck a perfectly good photo.

Then there are the vacuous uses of the word 'like' to fill spaces in sentences (at least 'um' implies that you're trying to think of the right word), 'I know, right?' as a response to anything with which the speaker agrees (how am I to know if you are right or not when you say 'I know'?).

Finally, there's the rethinking of the word 'awkward'. I recently wrote on a student's work that her sentence structure was awkward. She got quite fired up and told me that I clearly didn't know what the word meant. 'Awkward', to her, means embarrassing - usually in a sexual way or in a way that makes a fool of the speaker/doer. These days, it appears that only abstract nouns can suffer from awkwardness. 'That awkward moment when ...' is acceptable, but 'he is an awkward boy' is not. I'm not sure if that's an Americanism: when it comes from young people, I tend to assume that it is.

I'm all for linguistic evolution and the acceptance of neologisms. I'm also for the development of new meanings for words. After all, Shakespeare (that hero of English literature) was among the guiltiest where such things are concerned. It would, however, be nice if we were a little discerning.

I agree with you Hasbeen on 'the car lost control'. That's an abrogation of responsibility. The car didn't do anything, the driver lost control. That one bothers me because it fundamentally changes the nature of the meaning of the sentence.

I find that creeping passive kind of language creeps into a lot of news reports and I won't have a bar of it.

Another one is 'dammit'. Damn has an 'n' damnit. Using an 'n' somehow seems more potent for some reason. Dammit feels like something a spoilt kid would say.

While we need to take on board we look very different to other cultures like most, I dislike us following America.
The use of terms inferring a male is a female dog.
That some one has sex with their mother is in use with some.
And as low as it gets.
I point out the failure to understand our culture, and maybe ours to understand theirs.
In the offensive reaction, over the top, ugly, to our fried chicken cricket adds.
We should walk in each others shoes first, but the above filth comes via the lower end of the gene pool.

Less an 'ism' .... but Halloween. Drives me nuts that we celebrate this in Australia.

Banjo, the use of "sir" by retail staff when addressing a client who has purchased a six dollar take away meal seems un Australian to me. I look at American society where the word sir is used if you buy a packet of chewing gum. it seems a bit hypocritical to me. There are no sirs or madams in Australia, we have a casual social circumstance that has fostered an egalitarian form of address that keeps us mindfull that we are all the same.

Being a baby boomer I smile when an 18yo kid says "thanks mate" as they hand me the change. It is a reinforcement of our casual society that does not place prominence on social position, rather it engenders a oneness that I personally appreciate as one trait that divides Australia from the bullsheiser accolades and meningless panderings.

The use of "You know," I find annoying as well as
"OK," and "sorta," (sort of) and "Like."
How many of you have recently eaten at "TGI's
Friday," recently? Being greeted with -
"How are you Guys?" or "You Guys ready to order yet?"
There's that word "Guys," again.

Hi guys,

Personally, I can't stand the word "sheila".

Poirot,
Can you tell me why you do not like the word sheila?

Does it conjure up thoughts of 'common', 'cheap','uncouth' or 'nasty'?

To me it just the female equivilant of bloke.

Lexi, What does TGIs mean?

Interesting question, Banjo....yes, all of the above. And it speaks of a certain lackadaisical Aussieness that somehow irks me.

But I wonder why I see the word "bloke" as more innocuous, and more of an uncomplicated description of an ordinary salt-of-the -earth type man.

(Still, "sheila" is better than "wench" : )

Dear Banjo,

"TGI's" - is a chain of American family restaurants
that have been extremely popular. It stands for
"Thank God It's Friday." And as I stated in my earlier
post the staff there are trained to use the word, "Guys,"
by way of beginning a sentence. Gets a bit annoying
after a while.

Oh yes Lexi, I had an older mechanic, working for me in the 60s. One of those great blokes who would never let a car out of his hands unless it was spot on.

I loved his work, but he finished almost every sentence with "like, you know, like, [pause] you know".

david f, it's all a bit 'pi in the sky'.

scribbler, Halloween originated in Scotland, based on the Celtic festival of Samhain. For some reason, Aussies think it is an American idea, like pies.

The sad fact is that we are saturated by American TV because we can't produce anything to match as our own TV is still mostly amateurish. Therefore, our kisd are growing up with Americanisms.

How about politics? We have the Labor Party when it should be the Labour Party.

I think, perhaps, the thing that makes Halloween an 'American' thing is the way it is taken overboard. It's not the concept of Halloween (or St Valentine's Day, for that matter) that I find frustrating - it's the manner in which it is celebrated.

Perhaps as a consequence of decades of relative affluence, the Americans have had the luxury of making everything enormous, sensational, extravagant and so on. While many American people are humble, humility doesn't shine out as a part of the 'American way'.

I see no one seems to share my view about the truly filthy things we adopt.
But it is not all bad American Negro's give us the best too.
Jazz Rock and Roll, and music others try to copy.
I recently explained to a young relation, no one had ever tried before, why we mostly dislike base ball caps on back to front.
He said it was just what it is, rubbish he never wants to be other than Aussie.
But room exists to talk, surely,about trash talking, the words I spoke of are a weakness, unneeded attempts to put maleness out there that does the opposite.

Labor is good branding. If you want to be the commonors party, it helps to mis-spell words.

I would have gone with layba myself. Layba for Straya!

mmmm beer wenches. Had them at the cricket for 1 year before the femo PC police stepped in.

Craac open a cowodi! As you do..

Aussie beer adverts are ten times more stupid than yanks. Then again you never hear the word mum in any advert without 'busy' before it. Appealing to the martyr in women or the inner bogan in men never fails

We've been influenced greatly
by American-made films, television programmes,
fashions, cars, fads and gadgets that have flooded
into the country. As a result -
Market research has shown that
one of the most effective ways for advertisers to
reach a male audience is to associate a product,
however remotely, with a seductive or smiling female.

Advertising directed at women, on the other hand,
shows females delighted beyond measure at the discovery
of a new instant soup, or thrilled into ecstasy by
the blinding whiteness of their wash. In fact, the vast
majority of television adds that use women models are
for kitchen or bathroom products.

A barrage of adds still portray females as simple-minded
creatures, bickering enlessly over which toothpaste or
fabric softener is better. The American influence lives on.

Still who can blame America. As Walt Disney once proclaimed:

"Girls bored me - they still do.
I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman
I've ever known!"

Houellie,

"...Appealing to the martyr in women....."

Excuse me, kind sir, but I think you'll find the Strayan pronunciation is "mada".

...all Strayan sheilas are madas : )

cont'd ...

As for Aussie beer?

Is the Queensland "XXXX" brand an American idea?

or is the following true...

Q: Why do men from Queensland name their beer XXXX?

A: Because they can't spell beer.

OK, enough with the Queensland Jokes.

The name is actually XXXX Gold and it is a damm good beer.

I tried some of the beers at a bar on Sydney Harbour once, it was the worst beer I've ever tasted. The barman assured me that it was one of the most popular beers in that neck of the woods. Maybe he was
just trying to sell something he couldn't shift to an unsuspecting tourist.

I thought the word to refer to girls these days was Chicks as in Hot Chicks.

My husband insisted on asking the Melbourne taxi drivers, why they needed Daylight Saving in Melbourne, as they seem to have the same amount of light as we do up here in North Queensland. I thought Oh Dear! My husband should realize that whilst in Melbourne do as the Melbournites do. These subtletys are lost on my Queensland husband.

I suspect Daylight Saving may work better in Melbourne because the climate is much milder than it is in North Queensland in the summer.

CHERFUL hang on! thought you said enough of the QLD jokes?

Apartment, bathroom and elevator.

But Belly, North Queenslanders are not the ones who feel compelled to forward the clocks one hour, instead of everybody simply starts an hour earlier without having to alter the clocks.

At 2.00pm in the Summer up here you could cook your dinner on the sidewalks. Things start to cool very slightly a bit after 3.00pm or rather as the time moves up to 4.00pm. With Daylight Saving the clocks say it is 3.00pm when it fact It is still only 2.00pm. Much too hot for the school kids coming out of school. The ultraviolet rays are intense and very dangerous in the North.

My Sister-In-Law did rather amuse us though, by saying, “that Daylight Saving would interfere with her husband’s bowel habits,” and of course we have the classic, “Daylight Saving will fade the curtains.” Maybe it is true what they say about people from the deep North.

Cherful,

I'll get in first:

"Sidewalks" !?

And as a former Sydney-sider, I don't begrudge Melbourne getting as much sun as it can - even just one extra hour, even if it might fade the curtains, and even if blokes have to get up an hour earlier and are be on the trams with embarrasing erections.

Or does that happen only in Queensland ? Hence, no daylight saving up there ?

Joe

Cherful,
Yeah, 'sidewalks'

I thought all Nth Queenslanders were dinky di Aussies.

You know elastic side boots and blue singlets, but 'sidewalks'.

Blow me down girl, I thought you were a ringers daughter.

Try 'footpath'

Hi Banjo,

Let the side down I'm afraid, I think I have been
listening to "Silver Bells" for too many Christmases.

"City sidewalks, pretty sidewalks,
Dressed in holiday style"

Also a touch of poetic license, given that cooking
your dinner on the footpath doesn't have the same
ring as cooking your dinner on the sidewalk.

Have you heard Kasey Chambers sing "Dinki Di Aussie"
She does a pretty good job on it.
The song she really does a fabulous job on though, is
"Better Be Home Soon”, originally sung by Crowded House,
Made me like the song all over again.

Sorry, should have typed Dinky-Di Aussie.

Hi Cherful,

But maybe that's the point, that Americanisms creep into our everyday language unawares. On the other hand, one could say 'so what'? Maybe somewhere in the US, the odd person is using terms like 'sheilas' and 'blokes' and maybe in the UK as well, as a consequence of the influences of Mel Gibson and Anthony laPaglia and the cultural magnificence of 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away'.

It would certainly serve the b@stards right.

One other that has bothered me for some time is the replacement of the 4x4, four-wheel drive of 'fourby' with 'SUV'. I suppose it's appropriate, given that even Land Rover now offers rear-wheel drive versions of the Range Rover, but it still bothers me. Perhaps it's a sign of another 'Americanism' that has annoyed me for some time - the 'need' for an SUV for the daily school run or weekly shop. There's no need to take it off road, but there is (apparently) a need for the extra height, width and boot space to accommodate ... well, whatever it is that the drivers need to accommodate.

Sadly, around these parts, it's beginning to look like I'll have to join the trend. It's nigh-on impossible to pull out of a parking space without taking my life into my hands, as I'm surrounded by the metal walls of these monsters on almost all occasions and can't see around them; turning left at a roundabout is also dangerous, as there is invariably a great big lump of metal to my right obscuring any view I might have of oncoming traffic. On the upside, if I wait for that car to go, I have a handy shield to ward off any surprises.

Don't get me wrong - I'm quite a fan of the four-wheel drive in the Australian sense: either as a work vehicle or as a means of opening up the great outdoors to those of us stuck in the bleakness of suburbia. I can even understand the need for those with large families who don't want to drive a minibus. Sadly, though, so many people seem to buy these vehicles as single-passenger cars, without intending to take them any further off road than the occasional trip over the nearest kerb.