Naughty Swear Words and Racist Insults

We have quite a lot of international students at the university and Darren and I have been wondering aloud why we didn't also think of going abroad for our degrees. The money would have been the biggest factor, but there's also a lack of aspiration in comprehensive schools, or there was back then. Perhaps they're reaching for the stars now, but if I'd said I wanted to study in Sydney back in 1991 I suspect they'd have laughed me out of the sixth form common room.

Nobody studied abroad, not unless is was part of the degree. You went to a red brick university because Oxbridge was a bit fancy and you studied a subject that would lead to a job. In my case I studied French, which was fast leading me into being a french teacher and as I never could conjugate the subjunctive tense, the french degree soon began to feel like a road to nowhere, which is part of the reason I jumped ship, or jumped cross-channel ferry, depending on how you look at it.

Anyway, this evening I dropped into the library to look for some travel books. We're going back up north in a few weeks time and the library saves us a fortune in Lonely Planet guides. And then I spotted this (2003) book called Understanding Australia; A Guide for International Students and thought it might provide some more insight into the subtleties of Australian culture that have so far passed me by. I opened it after dinner this evening and thought I'd share it with you, starting with this.

Page 38

WARNING
The following passages contain offensive language. However, to save you from the embarrassment of asking an Australian to explain, the words are written in full here so that you can learn about them in private and avoid using them in public.

Some visitors say that Australians swear a lot and use casual blasphemies. Certainly, conversations often contain words like bugger, wanker, shit and fuck and exclamations of God and Jesus. Such language is never appropriate in public places.

(So just on the radio then)

On the radio and television, the words are covered with a bleep sound or the audience is warned by an announcement at the beginning of the programme.

(er, not strictly true)

RACIST INSULTS

Australians can use racist insults either negatively or positively. Pom and Pommy are old terms for English people. These words were negative but can now be used positively. Some negative terms have been given positive meaning by the people they refer to. Wog, which is used for Italians, Greeks and Arabic-speaking people, is an example. These ethnic groups sometimes now refer to themselves humourously as wogs and this has taken much of the offence out of the term.

The once offensive black, meaning an aboriginal, is now mostly used in a neutral way. The word abo is negative if used by a non-aboriginee but positive if used by an aboriginal speaker. Blackfella and whitefella used by aboriginals is not offensive.

The word ethnic used as a noun is insulting, as in she's an ethnic but the adjective ethnic is the preferred way to describe immigrant cultures.

Sadly, international students can be the target of racist insults.

(though judging from this it's hard to know whether you're being insulted, not unless the potential insulter is an aboriginal, who seem to have the right to say anything they please. Sorry, I digress).

Sometimes your fellow students may call you a slope (Asian), a noggy (any dark-skinned person), wog or similar insulting term. Men in particular test any new person to see whether they can fit into the group.

Another type of insult can happen when you are driving a car. If your driving causes another driver to swear at you or yell "Why don't you go home, you wog", don't feel you are being singled out because of your race. A female driver would be abused as a "bloody woman driver" and an elderly man might be called a "stupid old bastard".

WORDS TO AVOID
As a rule, it is better not to use any offensive words, but sometimes that is impossible, especially if you are trying to speak like an Aussie. The following words may be used without causing much offence, but use them rarely and not to strangers: bloody, bullshit, bugger, crap, dickhead, piss and shit.

The next category contains the confusing words. To be on the safe side, don't use them. They include arse, balls, bastard, bitch, dago, fuck, pom, wank, wanker and wog. The insulting terms for Australians are Skip and Skippy.

(So that'll be the last time I tut "what's up skip?" at the CEO then).

Never use the following words as they are always offensive. Abo, boong (dark-skinned), ching-chong, chink (all chinese), coon, grease-ball (Greek), kike (jew), nigger, nip (Japanese), slant, slant-eye, slope, slope-head (all Asian).



This is the best read I've had all year. I can almost imagine the mirth of the proofreaders, can't you?