Episode 8: Australia

Rozhovor s Australankou Annie, která už mnoho let žije a pracuje v Londýně. O tom, jak se jí vyrůstalo v zemi, kde se vám doslova za domem plazí nejjedovatější hadi světa; o tom, které australské osobnosti bychom měli znát; o tom, co to znamená, když vám Australan řekne "I'm not here to fuck spiders". 

Chapters

• 0:07 Australia's Wildlife and Outdoor Activities
• 11:11 Australian Culture, Travel, and Language

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the English-speaking group with Kudrunat Holko. My name is Pavlina and every week I will talk to my parents from all over the English-speaking world about various interesting topics. I would also like to mention one thing If you really want to practice and improve your English, on my page on patreonpatrioncom you will find a complete list of the following conversations, with meanings, phrases and everything else that is worth knowing. And that's all from me at the beginning. Thank you very much for watching this channel, and we can start. And well, today we're going to be talking about your breathtaking country.

Speaker 2: 1:14

I can't wait my favourite topic.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Of course. So you come from Melbourne. That used to be the capital back in the days.

Speaker 2: 1:23

I actually didn't know this, so you're teaching me.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Well, I found this on the internet that, like it, used to be the capital around 1904.

Speaker 2: 1:34

I think that's right. I do kind of remember now that you said it, but it was a surprising fact.

Speaker 1: 1:40

A little history lesson for you as well, okay, well, so what do you like about your town?

Speaker 2: 1:45

What do I like about Melbourne? I think it's just such a great place to live. I think the quality of life I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but you've lived in London so you can appreciate this but the quality of life is just so much higher. The pay, the cost of living, the weather and everything has such a big impact on my happiness, getting sun and all of that. But that aside, I think there's just a lot going on. It's a really cultural city. There's always some great cinemas, theatres and things like that Kind of like a little London. And food, everything. It's close to the beach. You've got green spaces, animals, everything.

Speaker 1: 2:32

That's all I miss, and that's what I like. Now that you mentioned animals, the first thing that definitely comes to my mind when I think of Australia is that it's just full of creatures that can quite literally kill you in a second that's true. And I've actually found another fun fact that 21 of the world's 25 most venomous snakes actually are in Australia.

Speaker 2: 2:58

That is super wild. I agree with you, there are a lot of scary animals. I think there are a lot of cute animals too that sometimes people forget about when they're thinking of all the scary ones. But no, that's definitely true. I have a lot of scary memories when I was little, going out in the backyard to play and there would be a big poisonous snake. You'd have to just come inside and camping and stuff. There would be spiders and snakes and even wherever it's ever been a primary school, and sometimes they'd have to send you Send you inside, because they'd be a snake out in the playground and they'd be like right, everyone get inside.

Speaker 2: 3:38

No way, just giant spiders and Sharks. Sharks, that's a big one, oh my it is there's a lot. It's a real eye-opener. Um, every time I go home, because my parents they kind of they moved and they live kind of out in the countryside now, which is like animal central, and every time I go there it's just such a like I'm constantly on edge when I go outside because they get snakes and they get everything and it's it's fun, but it's it's scary.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Can you sleep at night in peace?

Speaker 2: 4:12

Side. Yes, outside, if we were to go like camping or something, though.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Yeah, because also there's so many stories on the internet being, like you know, a snake in total's room just swinging.

Speaker 2: 4:26

Or like in the toilet, like sometimes from the toilet, yeah. Or snake in the bathroom, yeah. Snake in the bathroom, yeah, a classic one, I'm. No, we're lucky where we are. They're not, they're not. There's not that many. I think it's more like in the tropical areas of the country up north they get. They get the snakes in the toilets. Um, we've never had that thing is crossed.

Speaker 1: 4:46

Oh, wow. And well, now we also mentioned sharks. So that crazy cage diving, oh yeah, cage diving, yeah, cage diving with sharks, that's like also a pretty mad thing to do. Is that just a touristy thing, or do you know anyone who would actually do that in australia?

Speaker 2: 5:05

I think it's a. I think it's a touristy thing. I have not known anyone that would be willing to do that especially growing up here, I think you're so scared of sharks, um, I don't know why you'd willingly put yourself through that. Would you do it? I mean you, you come out to australia. Are you going into a shark cage?

Speaker 1: 5:20

if you gave me like one million I don't know British pounds, I would not do that ever in my life. No me either. I mean, maybe it's just me. I'm terrified of these animals.

Speaker 2: 5:31

No, and I like, I like to think of myself as an animal lover, but I just don't get why you'd want to be up close to something like that.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Yeah, I agree. So you just said that you would not go camping in australia, because I mean that's a pretty common thing for Check and I guess Swedish as well to do. Yeah, I mean, you know, just to pack your bag, go for a little hike, and Sounds nice. Here in Sweden you can sleep outside in the forest.

Speaker 2: 5:58

They're like these oh really, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Yeah, so yeah, but I just can't think of doing that in australia because like I would just be really terrified that I would be Instantly killed.

Speaker 2: 6:10

Yeah, it's a tricky one, it's really popular, like everyone does it. It's a really popular thing to do, I think. Yeah, I guess kind of like in Sweden, in the Czech Republic I, there are like camping grounds. I would definitely feel safer Going somewhere like that. But I do remember like times when we've been young and we'd go down to like beach or something and camp there and it's just a scary time Snakes and animals and I'm not that much of an outdoor person, so it's not always that enjoyable, but I mean, the natural beauty is great.

Speaker 2: 6:41

I remember there was this one time I was carefully with my dad and my little sister and we were in like a I went swimming and like a Like a creek, and we were like having fun and there was this European family just down in the river, like down with us, and Next thing we know, these two like giant snakes came into the river and it was like it was one of those rivers where it's it was like so slippery and like kind of dangerous you couldn't really move around that much except to Like we couldn't run out, essentially, and when you see a snake You're supposed to say perfectly so. And I think that was what really put me off camping, because here I am with my little sister and this snake just crosses like slides down into the river and crosses like just crosses the river, and we just had to like stay like this and wait for it to pass.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Oh, wow, a snake. It's like super poisonous oh wow so that's why. That's why I was scared. I just I was like, oh, it's not gonna swim, it's not gonna come into the river, but it just went straight on in and it was so scary and because the water's clear, like you can see everything and it was it was very scary, very traumatic. I still think of it, my brush with death.

Speaker 1: 7:50

I was kind of hoping that you would come here and be like oh, it's actually, it's, it's fine, this is, it's all exaggerated. But now that you I think.

Speaker 2: 8:03

No, it is fine. I think If you're in the city and you're sticking to main kind of touristy areas, you'll be fine. Different parts of the country are like it depends where you are to. The more remote you go, obviously, the more likely you are to kind of experience these kind of animals If you're in desert areas and stuff too. But I went home recently for a bigger month and I didn't see a single scary snake or any animal like that. You're not going to see them all the time.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Yeah, and I mean also, that's what's making Australia so special as well.

Speaker 2: 8:37

It's very neat. Yeah, yeah, no, but no one else can see. I agree, and I think I definitely appreciate it more. You know when you go away and you know, like I don't see any animals here, even when I go, like, out to the countryside, and not that I want to see snakes, but Kangaroos, yeah, kangaroos, and things like that.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Definitely, and I suppose that us Europeans maybe we do picture Australian guys as the Hemsworth brothers, chris and Liam. Is it Liam or Liam Hemsworth? Liam, liam, hemsworth? Well, they're tent and ripped and they're like always running on the beach with a surfboard under their arm. So I mean, I suppose that's not how older men in Australia look like.

Speaker 2: 9:20

I mean, my picture of a Australian man is people like my dad and brother who have the biggest, like beer guts and obviously yeah, you go down to the beach, you're going to see some guys that look like the Hemsworths. It's not totally untrue, I think they're actually. I mean, they're better looking than the British, I can tell you that. But yeah, it's definitely overdone. I don't know. Tell me what a Czech stereotype is.

Speaker 1: 9:46

I've just turned to the conversation, but Maybe also, like you know, with a glass of beer. That's like well I can think of Pretty sad, but nothing really else comes to mind because we're not. You know, you would picture a Swedish guy or woman with long blonde hair yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Blue eyes, yeah, but I don't know if I were to say like one girl here. She told me oh, you look Czech. And I was like what is that? What does that mean? Yeah, I don't even know. So. And so could you give us some names, maybe just a few of Aussies Aussies is how you call Australian people right?

Speaker 2: 10:27

It is yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Do you call yourself Aussies or do other people call you Aussies?

Speaker 2: 10:31

Yeah, no reason. We say yeah, we're Aussies, we say it definitely.

Speaker 1: 10:35

Cool. So can you give us some names of Aussies that we should definitely know about, apart from the Hemsworths?

Speaker 2: 10:41

Apart from the Hemsworths, very important to know. Well, we both worked in film. So I was going to say, obviously, kate Blanchett is one of my favourite Australian experts and in Australia too she does a lot of this, a lot of good for like film and the arts scene. And I just wanted to single out a little a direct to call Jennifer Kent, who's making a lot of good films. I was really recently check her out what was, what was your name? Again, jennifer Kent, she did, she does like horror films. Okay, she's just cool.

Speaker 2: 11:11

Who else? An Australian hero, steve see verwin, he people in America that I think really like him. He had an animal TV show and he was quite, quite a hero here when we were little growing up. He sadly was killed by a stingray, I don't know he just he loved animals, an Australian animals, and he did a lot for, I guess, just teaching people about them and conservation. And One other quick one I wanted to point out was a guy named Adam Goods. He's an indigenous Australian and he plays like football professional in Australia where he this was just recently to you where he experienced a lot of racism for being indigenous, which was just horrible, and he became quite a you know an anti-racist indigenous advocate and and he's just, I guess, an important person to know in Australian landscape- absolutely so, and Any Aussie that we should follow on social media perhaps?

Speaker 2: 12:12

I I'm off social media now. I don't know. You've noticed I'm not. I didn't want to recommend an influencer, I was just gonna say that's the just generic. It's called Australia, like Instagram, facebook, whatever page. It's kind of a tourism page but it has like millions of followers and all they do is just post like animal videos and stuff and Low like Australian pictures of Australia. I find it really pretty and informative and it's a nice break from Just influences and stuff when you're scrolling through your feed. So that would be my recommendation.

Speaker 1: 12:41

Cute animals. That's all we need right at this point.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Oh my god.

Speaker 1: 12:45

And Well, you know, australia is a vast country and continent as well, and it's almost the same size as the US, if I'm not mistaken. No, that's correct, and but most of Australian people, you don't live far from the beach right or from the coast because there's desert in the middle. That's true, yeah. So where do people usually go for holidays, like, do you travel around or do you usually fly over to you know some place else?

Speaker 2: 13:14

I think when you travel, like as a family when I was younger, a lot of people Would stick to Australia. You would kind of just go. If you don't go, so you don't live in the cities, you probably go visit Melbourne or Sydney or something being. From where I am, like Melbourne, a lot of people would travel up north because it's tropical and it's just really pretty up there and so like Queensland, yeah, you, normally just it's so, it's so far there, like even everything is just so far apart. So you, yeah, you'd probably just say locally, within somewhere you could drive to. But otherwise Australians a lot of them travel Asia, bali, japan, places like that are quite quick to get to, and I Mean if you live in the north of Australia, it's, it's fast. If you to get to like Bali, for example, then it is for you to fly to Melbourne and like we're really close to New Zealand. That's popular, and even just like London. Everyone comes to London, everyone comes to Europe.

Speaker 1: 14:14

It was really popular basis. And now that you mentioned New Zealand, I'm wondering what's the relationship between Aussie and Kiwis, people from Australia and people from New Zealand?

Speaker 2: 14:25

You spoke to a Kiwi on here, didn't you? I did. It's a. It's a rivalry. It's a friendly rivalry. We know we're better than them. Obviously we're very close for very similar. Like you said, they're like our little brother. I think it's kind of similar, I guess, in a way that American Canada have a rivalry and even like Sweden and Denmark. Did I get that right? They've got a bit of a thing going on.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Sweden and Norway, sweden and Denmark, sweden and Finland, they do with everyone everyone yeah, it's, they're, they're like, they're very much like us and we're slightly jealous of the moms who they're handling coronavirus very well and they've got a great leader at the moment and they, yeah, they're great. We love them, love hate.

Speaker 1: 15:11

Of course. Who's your?

Speaker 2: 15:12

equivalent with the Czech Republic. Do they have their rivals?

Speaker 1: 15:16

Slovakia would be our little brother, I would say. I think that's like the closest relationship with another country we have. That's cute, yeah. And what are some fun phrases or words you only say in Australia.

Speaker 2: 15:30

So one of my favourite ones that I it's an offensive one I hope I can share it with you. Of course, please do. One of my favourite ones is people don't really use this kind of unironically, but it's not unheard of and it's. We're not here to fuck spiders. Have you heard that one?

Speaker 1: 15:49

No.

Speaker 2: 15:50

It's kind of like I don't know how to explain it. It's kind of like we're not here to mess around. We're not here to. If someone points out the obvious, you might be like well, we're not here to fuck spiders. I just think it's so ridiculous, but so Australian, so that's my favourite.

Speaker 1: 16:05

Well, that's going to be my favourite too, when I go to Australia.

Speaker 2: 16:08

If you use it, I'll love you ever there.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Well, if I used it anywhere else, I think people would be like she's crazy, yeah, what on?

Speaker 2: 16:18

earth.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Oh wow, that's perfect.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Other than that they just kind of shorten every word. Like avocado would become like abber.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Ok, and when people hear your accent in London, do they, like incidentally, know you're Australian?

Speaker 2: 16:34

Yeah, I think people here are pretty good at, like, picking it up, and when I was in America they would always think I was English, which is obviously annoying. But yeah, over here they're pretty good. I think, too, we have. We have some word differences that I learned over here. And like we got you probably, you know, pants like trousers, so we call it pants here like in Australia, and apparently pants means like underwear.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Underwear.

Speaker 2: 17:00

So everyone, every time I'm like, oh, I like your pants, or like, oh, cool pants, they'll be like, sorry, why that one always gets me what a creep. What a creep. Exactly it can cause a fence.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Yeah, like worry in my room when I was dressing up.

Speaker 2: 17:17

How can you see?

Speaker 1: 17:18

And what?

Speaker 2: 17:19

always makes me laugh. I can't think about this, but that's yeah. That was one of my big ones when I came here was having to not say pants anymore.

Speaker 1: 17:27

Yeah, so that was the biggest shock when you. That was my big cultural shock. Yeah, because I suppose that you know Europe and Australia are pretty similar culturally and, I guess, linguistically, I mean, because you're in the UK anyways.

Speaker 2: 17:43

Well, that's hard for me to say, because I think the UK is quite like a little bit European, but maybe not super European. I guess it depends, Like I find in Australia I think they're super laid back, which I think doesn't really translate in the UK, but I find you know I could Spain, and that they're obviously very in Italy.

Speaker 2: 17:59

They're always been very laid back. The people are super friendly, Like I've never been to the Czech Republic but you're super friendly. So I imagine, yeah, I guess it depends where you are, because then obviously Germans can be quite like a broth Stern and Stern quite scary, but yeah it's, I guess. Yeah, we're definitely culturally very close to UK.

Speaker 1: 18:23

And I know you love travelling around Europe. So what was the place you liked the most? I mean, you just said that you've never been to Prague, so that's going to be your top one, obviously, when you go.

Speaker 2: 18:34

I was supposed to go this year and I'm so sad. Obviously, my fights got cancelled and I've got it. I really wanted to go, but my favourite probably I love Berlin. I really like Stockholm and Copenhagen, I think, and they're different, but I think they're both very cool and the quality of life over there, like I'm sure you're experiencing it, I think it's amazing and they're just such, yeah, such cool places. I really like Budapest. My sister used to live there. I imagine Hungary is kind of similar to the Czech Republic, or am I getting that wrong?

Speaker 1: 19:07

Well, I don't know, depends on how you look at it. I suppose the language is completely different. They say that Hungarian is pretty similar to Finnish. Oh really, yeah, because Swedish, norwegian and Danish are a little similar, and then Finnish is a completely different linguistic branch, which is the same one as Hungarian. Oh wow, I didn't know that. I mean, when I was in Budapest it kind of reminded me of Prague. So I guess you're right.

Speaker 2: 19:35

Well, I like Budapest, but yeah, I can't wait to go to Prague. It'll be on my list for next year if things open Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 19:41

I'll host you and well, I'm wondering not speaking about COVID now, obviously, but under normal circumstances how often would you go back home, because I know it must be pretty hard. You know, it's just so far.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Yeah, yeah, it's so far and it's quite expensive. I try lately I've been going, like the last few Christmases, just because it's obviously nice to go see a family at Christmas and I get to hit up summer there again and I get to take quite a bit of time off. So, yeah, I try and go once a year, but sometimes it's every like two years, which is fine for me. I mean, it's easy with social media and everything to stay in touch with your family these days and I've been lucky that a lot of my siblings have, you know, been living in Europe or traveling through Europe since I've been here. So I don't feel totally disconnected.

Speaker 1: 20:33

That's good and well. You also mentioned Christmas, which must be a very interesting period of the year because it's in the middle of summer right.

Speaker 2: 20:43

It is, yes, for me, totally normal. What's interesting is coming over here where it's freezing. Yeah, people always ask me this. They're always like, oh, it must be so weird having a warm Christmas. And again, that's what I've always experienced, I guess, because everything we see in film and stuff is like a white Christmas. So I can understand. Like that to me feels like Christmas as well For us. I don't know, it's weird. It's hot, you don't really eat like, you have like a barbecue or you go to we generally go to the beach and stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:14

I saw pictures of Santa Claus on the beach.

Speaker 2: 21:17

It's very common. Yeah, it's weird. I think what I do miss is like, generally it's like too hot to like eat, you know like traditional kind of warm Christmas foods like turkey and stuff, because you just don't want to eat that when it's like 30, 40 degrees, but it's still nice, it's still Christmas, I guess.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Yeah, it's just completely different vibe, but I guess still cool.

Speaker 2: 21:39

I think, if you can try and experience it for once because it's yeah a completely different vibe, but I do love a winter Christmas I think there's something just yeah very cozy about it.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yeah, it's magical and well. Can you ever see yourself going back home and settling down over there?

Speaker 2: 21:58

I think so. Yeah, I don't generally like think too far forward in the future, but I definitely think I can see myself ending up back there one day. I think just the things I miss most to kind of draw me back mainly the weather. It sounds a little lame, but it does have such a big impact, I guess, on what you're able to do and your mood my mood at least.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Doesn't sound lame at all. I live in Scandinavia. Our winters are usually four months when, like you, don't see the sunshine. I mean you do sometimes.

Speaker 2: 22:31

Yeah, your days are really short, aren't they?

Speaker 1: 22:33

Yeah, the days are very short, there's no sunshine, so I do know that. You know the weather does have an impact, so it's not lame at all what you're saying.

Speaker 2: 22:43

Okay, that's good. I think I just miss like the nature, like how pretty it is, I guess, and how much green space there is. The people are just so laid back and yeah, just the quality of living and the pay and everything. I think those kind of things would draw me back, obviously my family too, but not leave them out.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Of course. Well, that's a great way to end this. Thank you so much for being our guide around Down Under.

Speaker 2: 23:11

We actually say that Down Under Kind of but I think it's more like an American thing.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Okay.

Speaker 2: 23:16

I'll take it, you can take it.

Speaker 1: 23:19

Okay, well, thank you so much. This has been great fun, and.

Speaker 2: 23:22

No, thank you, Pav, so good to talk to you.

Speaker 1: 23:25

And thank you to everyone who's listened to this episode as well, and I hope to see you next week. Bye.