Pronunciations, Misunderstandings and Lost in Translations

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Even though I am from the UK you'll be pleased to know that this post is not about the weather. 

It is based though on UK/AU words, expressions and sayings that are either hard to pronounce in a way that's easily understood, or that have a completely different meaning in our slightly different cultures.

I'll kick off with a few of my favourites...

- When we arrived in 2000 - I genuinely thought that Woop Woop was a suburb of Brisbane.

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- In a large meeting in my early days at Incitec - I had to explain what I meant when I told the group that Dawn and I had been 'rooting around in the cupboard'. In the UK that word means looking for something. I found out later what it means here in AU! 

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- On my first day at Incitec during my induction (this was 2002) I was asked if I wanted to join the fat bastards club. Now I am fairly broad minded but the culture here required a little stretch here and there!

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- In a post office in Woodend, Victoria I asked for a first class stamp. 'No bloody class here mate - we're all the bloody same'.

I knew this was going to our sorta place :-)

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In the UK we lived at the following address...

Ellan Vannin, 49 Wybunbury Road, Walgherton, Near Wybunbury, Nantwich CW5 7NE.

I honestly used to dread having to read it out over the phone.

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At Top Nosh lots of customers place orders over the phone and Lisa (from the UK too) and I often have problems getting customers to hear any order final value in the $50 range.

For some reason lots of people think we are saying 60 something. Karina (NZ) and Amber (Australian) don't seem to have the same issue.

But - we solider on and of course we welcome phone calls with open arms.

Whilst we have a website that can take orders 24/7, we know that many customers still like to place an order over the phone so, as long as you want to keep calling us - we'll enjoy having a yarn with you - after we've pulled up one of those stumps - that is!