1750 Back To The Past.

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Did you know that in Australia Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s? That’s weird, but also really seems to fit Australia. Also, they call breakfast brekky. Like, even on the signs. I find those kind of cultural idiosyncrasies really interesting. One of the things that I enjoy about Australia in particular is their fuck you attitude about words in general. They will call things whatever they like no matter how silly it sounds, but treat it with the same level of seriousness as a word that doesn’t sound ridiculous to other English speakers. Australia is like that really interesting cousin you don’t get to see that often but when you do it’s a fucking party. I really wish more Australian things would end up over here because I feel like a little more cultural exchange coming from them would make things more interesting in media in general.

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Yeah, we tend to shorten just about everything ’round here. Breakfast to “brekky”, afternoon to “arvo”, God’s truth to “strewth” (yes, that is actually the origin of the term), politician to “idiot”…

Burger King is called Hungry Jacks because when the franchise tried to move into Australia, there already was a local restaurant called Burger King in Adelaide, so they had to pick a different name.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Jack's

And if the American Wendy’s tries to set up shop in Australia, they will have to rename their restaurant as we already have a Wendy’s which sells ice-creams and hotdogs down here.

Or they can pull what they did here in Canada to Tim Horton’s and just buy them out and infect them with the American Corporate Ethic…..

I dunno. We have both the icecream Wendys and the Hamburger one in New Zealand. I think they get away with it because they’re completely different products.

We can also ‘thank’ Australia for the word Selfie.

Funnily enough, just across the ocean in New Zealand, Burger King is called Burger King. Because we’re not as ostentatious as our Australian cousins.

Never mind the ketchup. Do you use pickles down under? In the Netherlands, only the McDonalds at the airport had pickles. Everywhere else they used cucumber slices. Gack!

So you got to have a bigger pickle, and you’re still complaining.

Anyhow, you should’ve gone for the local fast food instead. Really, the US is the world’s bread basket, awash in food, and what do you do with it? ‘Burgers and donuts. And you expect ’em to be exactly the same the world over! Sheesh.

And the donuts are not all that good to begin with – then there is Crispy Cream ….. Lard, sugar and just enough flour to hold everything together.

There’s pickles down here too, but if you want a really good burger, it must have fried egg and beetroot.

The best burger I’ve had was in a pub just east of and across the street from the Oosterpark in Amsterdam. It was slathered with sate sauce. (I need an an acute accent on the e in sate)

Eating fried eggs is the breakfast equivalent of eating a popped zit. I don’t need popped zits on my hamburgers, thank you.

Let’s see what other Aussie slang and terminology I can add. Godzone – short for God’s own country. Something that many Australians called the land here in the past. When other nations took offense, we politely kept it to ourselves.

Next is smoko – what we call a smoker’s break and has also become synonymous with taking a morning tea or afternoon tea break. This is a trans-Tasman term since both Australia and New Zealand use it quite freely, whether they smoke or not.

We call TV Telly, after the Sesame Street Muppet. Then there’s ‘chucking a sickie’ – to take a sick day. Also, one thing worthy of note – if we call someone a complete bastard, were just delivering a somewhat crude compliment. But if we call them a bit of a dick, we are really insulting them quite harshly.

Other common things are that religion, politics and philosophy are safe discussions since Aussies don’t really believe much in any of them. Talk sport, however, and you’re in a minefield.

Thanks for the info.
As far as I know: In the 1990s, when talking to australians, it was risky, as in you’d get threatened with a pounding, if-you were a non-Australian, criticizing Australia.
Is that still true?
[In the 1990s, Australians could criticize Australia, as much as they liked, however]. Just a trivia question, that’s all.

Rrrrr! Always capitalize, “Australia”. Dang computer.

Yeah, most Aussie’s don’t get patriotic until foreigners start runnin’ their mouths about us. Then we get very patriotic. Depending on the person and the degree of insult, fists may become involved

Thanks!
I hope my question didn’t sound offensive. I have a bad habit of staying up too late, + then typing on the web- It’s sort of like drinking + typing…it’s not a good combination. :)

That’s kind of what I thought was happening, such as: I have a friend from the state of Texas- If he wants to criticize Texas, that’s OK.

However- if I start criticizing Texas, me being a non-Texas guy, I risk getting beat up + tossed in an alley! :D

I think you might need less violent friends …

Hee hee! Less violent? And here I thought I was supposed to go for people who are less vermilion!

I’m not sure how that confusion rose up, but I worry it may have colored your expectations adversely …

The Burger King being called Hungry Jack’s in Australia makes some sense. Make it a more interesting name and to be different when it is all the way on the other side of the world where everything wants to kill you. Here in America, it makes less sense for there to be 2 freakin different names for the same damn fast food place depending on what side of the country you’re on. More to the west Carls Jr’s are called by the normal name, more to the east and they are called Hardee’s. IT MAKES NO SENSE>

@Omininous that’s because Hardeee’s existed to the east long before Carl’s JR bought them out and it’s all about the name recognition. That said Hardeee’s is more comparable to Wendy’s now, they used to be more comparable to McD’s or BK in terms of menu offerings.

In Queensland I would often hear McDonalds colloquially called “Maccas” by the locals, though up in Brisbane the store fronts were still “McDonalds”. Went down to Melbourne, and what do you know, the stores actually have the name Maccas on them.

When I met Australians on my first trip to Europe in 1989, I learned the phrases ‘nah worries’ and ‘nah wuckers, mate’. Wucker is short for wuckin’ furries (fuckin’ worries). I still use the phrase when appropriate, though I’m pretty sure it’s never appropriate.

My mother-in-law was Aussie and I picked up ‘nah worries’ from her. Use it all the time. Aussie sayings are like a hilarious contagion! However the biz rep from Australia was more than just a bit of a dick, probably more like all three inches of it…

So…

Australian things like Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Rod Taylor, Errol Flynn, and (dare I say it?) Paul Hogan?

or Australian things like Vegemite?

And, if you really want a beating, confuse New Zealanders (or Kiwis) with Australians (either way round). Kind of like the Canadian vs American thing, but with people who are likely to really take offence.

Oh, and Godzone is New Zealand, not Aussie.

And in terms of local phraseology – my favourite is the NZ “Sucked a kumara” for very broken. (Kumara being a native (and quite ugly) sweet potato type root vegetable).

In my experience Auzzie’s just think you’re an idiot if you mistake them for Kiwi’s, but lads from the “Wrong White Crowd” can be somewhat prickly …

I’m surprised that no one here mentioned that there are certain portions of Australia’s population, our bogans, comparable to American ‘red-necks’, I suppose, who consider calling each other ‘cunt’ to be a sign of affection. No, I’m not shitting you, it’s actually true.

Chunks of England are like Australia in that way. Britain was very culturally divided a couple of centuries ago, so much so that the Australian accent apparently comes from a *part* of London; Whitehall if I don’t remember wrong. And when I was little, in my part of the country, the old folk who grew up without TV used what we’d call American slang. I’m not sure it was just the old folk; what’s called British slang now was definitely part of the marks of being a “toff”, a characteristic which would get you bullied at my school.

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