In this Aussie English episode of WWP I tell you about the upcoming Ned Kelly episode and the FREE ebook & audio course you get for email subscription. I also teach you several different Australian expression!
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WWP: Ned Kelly & The Free Ebook & Audio Course
Hey guys. Welcome to this episode of Walking With Pete.
I just thought I’d share with you a funny BLONDE MOMENT I had, and BLONDE MOMENT is a phrase that we use in English where someone… I mean I guess I should start from the start. Women who have blonde hair are often considered to be ditsy or sort of less than intelligent. It’s obviously not the case, but it’s one of those stereotypes that goes around. And so, we have those sayings in English like A BLONDE MOMENT where you’re effectively likening whatever it is that that moment was to something that someone blonde would do when they forgot something or they didn’t understand something or, you know, they were just stupid. So, it’s sort of hard to explain without sounding mean, but when you say “Oh, I had A BLONDE MOMENT” it’s like you’re saying you did something dumb, you did something stupid, you forgot something. And my BLONDE MOMENT for today was walking outside of my house, having the video on, playing around, and thinking for a second, touching my pocket, and being like “Oh my god! Where’s my phone?!”. Meanwhile, it’s right here. I was holding it. So, that was my BLONDE MOMENT for the day. I hate when that happens. It happens a few times a year. Anyway.
What did I want to talk to you guys about today on this episode of Walking With Pete? There’s a few birds around man. You’ll probably be able to see. This guy, these guys, are some of my favourite Australian birds, magpies. (They’re) absolutely beautiful. Hopefully, they don’t swoop down and attack me. I think we’re out of breeding season. But you probably saw that video that I posted a while back on the Facebook page where the guy on the cycle, the guy on the bike, got attacked by that magpie. I think he got swooped. It came down and swooped and attacked his head like 13 times. But, yeah, most of the time these guys are actually really nice birds, and they have a really beautiful call that they say at… that the say? That they use* at sunset and sunrise. So, you guys might actually get to hear it in the background if we’re lucky. If we are lucky, but all at the moment that I can hear, and I’m not sure, you might be able to hear, are lorikeets, those parrots. Those really really annoying loud parrots.
Anyway. So, today I wanted to give you guys a bit of an announcement, I guess, partially an update as well. I’m working on a Ned Kelly episode for the first month of that subscription course that I’m trying to come up with online. So, the first month is going to be Ned Kelly. And, I’m partially telling you so that it holds me to it now and I have to deliver, I have to actually do what I say, I have to go and make this episode on Ned Kelly. I can’t just keep procrastinating and… what do we say in English? We say, well my dad used to always say, PISS FARTING AROUND. If you PISS FART AROUND, literally the word PISS, to, you know, take a pee. To go to the toilet and do number 1s, to piss. And to fart, obviously, to fart. If you PISS FART AROUND it doesn’t mean literally you’re pissing and farting. It means that you’re procrastinating, you’re wasting time, you’re fluffing about, you’re not doing anything substantial. So, “Stop PISS FARTING AROUND dude!” would be like “Stop being lazy! Stop wasting time and be productive! Go and do something. Stop procrastinating!”. So, I’m telling you that I want to do the Ned Kelly episode so that it forces me to go do it and deliver. So, that I can’t just keep PISS FARTING AROUND with ideas, I have to…
Hey guys, sorry the audio cut out here while I was doing this video. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but as you would’ve heard I was talking about the Ned Kelly episode and wanting to hold myself accountable by mentioning that to you guys. And then, I also lead into the fact that I recently put together and uploaded a free ebook and audio course on the most common contractions in Aussie English, and that all you have to do to get that course is enter your email and subscribe to the email list on the Aussie English website. So, go check that out and we’ll continue with the episode. Sorry again about that guys.
On some really really common contractions in English. So, an audio course that will be accompanied with an audio book (ebook*) and I’m going to give this away for free when people sign up for the email subscription to the website. So, I’ve set up an email subscription. If you’ve noticed or haven’t noticed that’s at the top of the page. You can chuck your email and your first name in and give me your email, effectively, and if and when I have something of import, when I have something interesting to tell you, which isn’t going to be very often, I might add. I am not going to spam you. I promise you. I friggen hate that, I fucking hate that, when people just spam spam spam spam spam after you give them your email. I do not plan to do that to you guys. I only ever plan to send you something that I think is either going to be useful or that I’ve just released on the website and, yeah. There’s… I really do not plan at all to spam you guys. So, feel safe knowing that your emails are safe with me.
I’m just going to check…(the path in front of me).
So, aside from that, so I’ve put the emails up there, or the email subscription service, because apparently any successful online business needs one of these. So, I worked out how to do it. Genius! And, yeah, I want to give you something in return if you trust me with your email and your name, obviously, I want to give you guys…
There you go. (A) little magpie. This one’s actually just a baby. So, it’s still brown and its parents are actually all around me in the background here looking for food. And this guy’s just chilling out waiting for his parents to run back over and put the food in his mouth, literally. (They’re) very lazy the little ones.
I just lost my train of thought. (I) just lost my train of thought. OK, so yeah, anyway. In return for giving me your email I plan to give you guys a free course where I’m going to cover the contractions GONNA, WANNA, HAFTA, NEEDA, and I think I’ve also got in there… what else? A bonus section with DUNNO and DONCHA. So, I’ve put that together today. I recorded all of that. I have to go through and fiddle with that, and tinker away as we went over recently. I’ve got to go and tinker with, well, hopefully be actually productive though not just waste time and do it “unskillfully”, but I need to go and put together the ebook once I’ve edited down all of the audio files.
And so, yeah, if you guys want a copy of that just put your email in, subscribe to the website. If you’ve already subscribed and you still want a copy then just send me an email and I’ll send it to you guys. It’s not an issue at all.
So, yeah, aside from that, I spent most of today just re-cleaning up my room. So, (I) actually moved everything around and WORKED UP A SWEAT. And, WORKING UP A SWEAT is when you end up a sweating a lot from work. So, you’re doing work whether it’s exercise or physical, you know, actual work for a company or something. So, that’s the phrase TO WORK UP A SWEAT. So, sort of like work it up, to get a sweat going, to be exercising, to be working hard, and to get sweaty. To get sweat. So, I was working up a sweat. I was working like crazy in my room moving all this stuff around, vacuuming, cleaning the house. So, that was my Sunday BUMMING AROUND as we say in Australian English. TO BUM AROUND’s to be lazy, doing very little of anything aside from obviously working on the podcast. (I) thought I would come out and go for a walk ‘cause I’d been inside all day. So, I felt pretty lazy. So, I’m just sort of wandering around in this field here as you can probably see in the background, and looking at the city behind me. You can probably just see the city here. So, these are some of the big buildings in Melbourne.
So, I love this park. This is Royal Park for those of you who live in Melbourne, this is Royal Park. Beautiful. Beautiful park. You can bring your dogs here, you can walk your dogs, you can run, you can use your bikes, and it’s actually a really good place to see nice gum trees. So, I mean there’s gum trees all throughout Melbourne, but there’s a lot of actual… I mean, eh, bush land I want to say, kind of, it’s not really thick bush, but it’s probably about as thick as it’s going to get in the city here. So, definitely come and check it out if you live in Melbourne or are visiting Melbourne. It’s pretty nice.
Anyway, aside from that, (I’ve) just been working all weekend at the restaurant, smashing that out, trying to be productive. I got this new microphone and I’m obviously walking around. And one thing that you guys probably have noticed, with me making the assumption that the microphone protector is actually working, is the lack of wind. Finally, huh? So, I took the liberty, I ordered a microphone and its protector, and it’s actually worked out really well. I was expecting it to be pretty average, but this one seems to be good. This is the directional mic that I think I showed you guys in a previous video. And I’ve chucked it on the side here so that you can, well I can* walk around and just use it when I’m out and about doing stuff.
So, yeah, anyway. That’s probably long enough for this episode guys. Let me know what you think of the new mic, and I’ll see you soon!
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Check out all the other recent episodes of Walking With Pete below!
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Pronouncing The States & Territories In An Aussie Accent
Learn Australian English in this episode of Aussie English where we go over pronouncing the states & territories in an Aussie accent.
G’day guys.
Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.
Today we’re going to learn how to pronounce the different states and territories in an Australian accent.
Let’s go!
So, not only are we going to learn how to pronounce the different states and territories in an Australian accent today guys,
but I also want to continue to practice contracting “Going to” to “Goin’ah”,
which you would’ve seen in the city pronunciation video,
but also, I want to teach you the phrasal verb “To check out”, which means to examine, to look at, to go and see.
So, we’re going to practice “Goin’ah check out”, “Goin’ah check out”.
I’m going to go see it. I’m going to go examine it. I’m going to go look at it.
Listen and repeat after me, guys.
This is a list of all of the Australian states and territories said with an Australian accent ranked from highest to lowest by population.
Listen and repeat:
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
Western Australia
And this often gets reduced down to just “WA”,
“We’re going to WA.”
WA
South Australia
Tasmania
And this often gets reduced to “Tassy”.
Tassy
The Australian Capital Territory
And this often gets reduced down to just, “ACT”.
The ACT
The Northern Territory
So, before we get into the next exercise, guys, where I teach you “Goin’ah” and “Check out”,
let’s just go over the fact that we contract “Aus-tra-li-a” down to “Aus-tra-lia”.
So, that’s “Aus-tra-li-a”, four syllables, that turns in to “Aus-tra-lia”.
And we often do the same thing for “Ter-ri-tor-y”.
So, instead of saying four syllables there in “Ter-ri-tor-y”, we contract it down to just “Ter-ri-tory”, “Ter-ri-tory”.
“Aus-tra-lia”, “Ter-ri-tory”.
So, those are just a few things to note there pronunciation wise.
“Aus-tra-li-a”, “Aus-tra-lia”.
“Ter-ri-tor-y”, “Ter-ri-tory”.
So, listen and repeat after me guys.
We’ll practice “Going to” getting contracted to “Goin’ah” and the phrasal verb “To check out”,
which means to look at, to examine, to go and see a place.
Let’s go.
Listen and repeat:
New South Wales
I’m goin’ah check out New South Wales.
Victoria
You’re goin’ah check out Victoria.
Queensland
He’s goin’ah check out Queensland.
Western Australia or WA
She’s goin’ah check out Western Australia.
She’s goin’ah check out WA.
South Australia
We’re goin’ah check out South Australia.
Tasmania or Tassy
They’re goin’ah check out Tasmania.
They’re goin’ah check out Tassy.
The Australian Capital Territory or The ACT
I’m goin’ah check out The Australian Capital Territory.
I’m goin’ah check out The ACT.
The Northern Territory
You’re goin’ah check out The Northern Territory.
Note: “Goin’ah” is only spoken. “Going to” is how it’s written.
So, I hope you liked this episode guys.
See you in the next one. Peace out!
Check out the other recent Australian pronunciation videos below:
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The Alphabet In An Aussie Accent
Here’s a short video, The Alphabet In An Aussie Accent, that I put together today guys teaching you how to pronounce the alphabet in Aussie English.
You can listen to it as a podcast episode of watch it on YouTube too.
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Ep046: Expression – Like Water Off A Duck’s Back
In today’s episode I cover the expression “Like water off a duck’s back”, what it means as well as how and when to use it.I also briefly touch on the differences between how Americans and Australians pronounce the word “water”, as well as the pronunciation shift from a “T” sound in the word “water” to more of a “D” sound when speaking quickly.
Download the full PDF transcript here.
Ep046: Expression – Like Water Off A Duck’s Back
G’day guys and welcome to this episode of Aussie English.
Today we’re going to do some more expression stuff. We’re going to do an expression that involves an animal. So, I’ve got a whole bunch of these that I’m looking forward to doing for you guys because anything involving animals is awesome, and when it’s combined with something used in English such as an idiom it’s even better.
So, today’s expression is going to be “Like water off a duck’s back”. “Like water off a duck’s back.” “Like water off a duck’s back.”
What does this mean? To be um… without any apparent effect. So to have no effect on you, on someone, and I’ll go through um… each of the words in this expression and then I’ll give you some examples of when you might hear this kind of expression, and when you can use this kind of expression, and then we can practice some exercises in order to… in order to really nail your pronunciation, intonation, cadence, all of that related to how you speak English.
So, let’s get started.
“Like water off a duck’s back”.
The first word is “Like”. I’m sure many of you will know this word already. When you say it in this sense it means “in the same way”, “similar to”, “as if” or “as”. So, “like water off a duck’s back” means it’s similar to, “it’s the same as, it’s as if it was water of a duck’s back. So that’s the word “like”.
“Water” I’m sure most of you will know this one as well. It’s essential to all living organisms. It’s a liquid. We drink it. We all depend on it. If you want to stay hydrated you need to drink water. If you get dehydrated it means that you haven’t been able to drink enough water. If you rehydrate you’ve just drunk some water when you were dehydrated in order to become hydrated.
“Off” is the opposite of the word “on” and it can mean, in this sort of sense, “To move away from,” and often, “To move down from something”. So like water off a duck’s back it means that that water is coming off of a duck’s back. It’s moving down off a duck’s back.
“A duck”, a duck is a kind of water bird. I think it’s a fowl. So, you’ll see them on farms with chickens, with geese, with other kinds of birds. It has a broad blunt bill, and the bill is the part of its face that it eats with. So, it’s like… it’s a beak. It has short legs. It has webbed feet. Webbed feet means that its toes are connected to one another with skin. So, they’re webbed. Um… and they have like a waddling kind of gait. So they kind of walk in a bit of a strange way where they waddle. So that’s a duck, and you’ll hear them… you’ll know the sound *quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack*. That’s the sound that a duck makes *quack, quack, quack*.
Um… “Back”, a back, the back of something, is the opposite to the front of something. It’s the rear surface of something’s body. So, my back for example goes from my shoulders down to my hips. It’s behind me. So, a duck’s back is that top part where its wings are sitting. So, above its wings and between its wings is its back.
So, they’re the different words in the sentence, “Like water off a duck’s back”. I hope that makes that a little more clear.
When would you use this phrase? If… say, for example someone was insulting you. They were saying nasty things to you. They were trying to offend you. So, they were saying things in order to try and make you upset, to get a reaction from you. If these insults didn’t affect you, so, you didn’t care, you know, you were laughing at them effectively. It was sort of like “well… I don’t care what you say?” you know, “it doesn’t bother me”. You could say that, “Your insults are rolling off my back like water off a duck’s back.” So I’m saying it’s similar to the way that when water falls on a duck’s back it just rolls off back into the um… into the pond, into the water that it’s sitting on, onto the ground. It doesn’t soak in. it doesn’t get absorbed by the duck’s feathers. And I should add too this is because a duck actually has oil in its skin. Most animals… most birds, rather, that um… are associated with water will actually have water proof feathers. Um… so they have an oil that they secrete from their skin, I believe, that coats their feathers so that water doesn’t soak in to their feathers and make them heavy, and also make them cold. So, this is like any of those birds you see that dive under water, which is what ducks do, when they dive under water and they get whatever food they’re after they come back to the surface and you’ll… you’ll see like they’re completely dry. It’s almost like they didn’t get wet. and this is because the water just falls right off them. It comes off their back. It comes off their head. It doesn’t soak into their body because of the oil that their feathers are covered in, and this is why they’re constantly preening themselves. They’re constantly using their beak to sort of ruffle through their feathers, to move their feathers, to organise their feathers, and to spread that oil on their body so that they stay water proof. And that’s why the water flows straight off, or rolls straight off a duck’s back.
So, that example, someone’s saying insults to you. You don’t really care. So, the insults are bouncing off you, you know, they’re not having an effect. Or you could say they’re rolling off your back as if or similar to the water that rolls off a duck’s back. So it’s like water off a duck’s back. Those insults are behaving like water off a duck’s back.
Um… another example could be you’ve written an article, or you’ve written a book, or you’ve made a film or something. Something that is going to get reviewed by what we call a critic, someone who critique’s things. And, say, the reviews were really poor, they were really nasty, they were what we call “Scathing reviews”. So, they… they really didn’t like the book, the magazine, the article, the movie that you’ve made and they’ve given you a scathing review. If you didn’t really care what other people thought you could just say, “Pffft… well they were like water off a duck’s back to me”. So, the scathing reviews rolled off the writer’s back like water off a duck’s back. They rolled off the writer like water off a duck’s back.
So, let’s do some exercises guys. Um… the first one will be, “It was like water off a duck’s back”. So, just repeat this after me:
It was like water off a duck’s back.
It was like water off a duck’s back.
It was like water off a duck’s back.
It was like water off a duck’s back.
It was like water off a duck’s back.
And I might just add here that anyone who isn’t wanting to copy my accent with regards to an Australian accent, you might want to say “water” if it’s more of an American accent that you’re going for, you might want to pronounce the “R” in the word “water”. And you’ll notice how I say “AH” instead of “ER”. “Water”, “water”, that’s what Americans would say. Australians on the other hand pronounce the “ER” at the end of the word “water” as an “AH” sound. Just no “R” effectively it’s a “watah”, “watah”.
And the second exercise:
Like water off a duck’s back.
Like water off a duck’s back.
Like water off a duck’s back.
Like water off a duck’s back.
Like water off a duck’s back.
And you’ll notice there too that when I speak quickly the “T” in “water” is pronounced more like a “D”. So, instead of saying “water” or “water” if you’re American”. I think many people would just say “wader” or “wadah” for me in Australia. “wadah”, “wadah”, “wadah”. So, that’s one of those things you may have noticed already with previous episodes I’ve done. I talk about how “Ts” in words can often change into “Ds” when spoken really quickly. So, just one more thing to be aware of, play with, it’s not going to affect whether to not people will understand you but it’ll allow you to speak more fluidly if you start implementing that kind of technique when you speak quickly. So that’s the expression, that’s the phrase, the idiom, the term, “Like water off a duck’s back” or, “Like wadah off a duck’s back”.
See you next time guys.
If you liked this expression episode guys then please jump over here and check out all the other Aussie English expression episodes to help you improve your Aussie English.
Also be sure to come over to the Aussie English Facebook page and chat to the many other Aussie English learners. Practice a few of these words or phrases, ask any questions you may have, and be a part of the conversation! All the best guys!
