What do you think is the greatest Aussie slang word or phrase?
Various local ABC radio stations have been asking this question. If you would like to look at some of the results, here are the links:
Adelaide
Melbourne
Perth
Western Plains
Broken Hill
Tropical North
How to win friends (and Australian Research Council funding)
How did Kate Burridge and her team convince the federal government that slang is capable of illuminating truths about our collective identity as a result of slang being so unfiltered, and therefore “tied so much closer to the social and cultural aspects of people”?
With what Education Minister Dan Tehan, who announced the grants, says has got to be the most profanity-ridden project proposal the federal government has ever granted money to.
“It probably is,” says Mr Tehan with a laugh, when asked about the first line of the Monash University project’s description, which read, “I thought I was kissed on the d— by a fairy … I thought, ‘Shit this is f—ing fair dinkum.’ ” (The quote, which Mr Tehan says he had possibly not seen before the grant was given, came from a rural firefighter who was commenting about surviving a blaze during the fires that ravaged the NSW South Coast last summer.)
“But, I must say I’ve used all that terminology in that quote at some stage in my life, and I understand exactly where that firefighter was coming from,” says Mr Tehan, adding that he’s “incredibly excited” about the project for its chance to “illuminate the rest of the world as to how important slang is to who we are”.
(Minister Tehan was interviewed by Samantha Selenger-Morris for the Sydney Morning Herald. This post is a small part of her story – thank you Samantha!)