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Toss another shrimp on the barbie, crack open a tinny or pour yourself a chardy while you traverse Australia's vast expanse of true blue, fair dinkum Aussie lingo - from cosmopolitan communique to surf slang, outback jargon and some of the world's oldest indigenous languages.C'mon avagoyermug!

Features comprehensive section on Australia's impressive array of indigenous languages.

Lonely Planet's English Language & Culture series goes behind the scenes of languages you thought you knew.Get into the culture and humour behind common - and not so common - English expressions and learn about the local languages that inspired them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Crazy good book if you're going to Australia
Great book to understand what the Aussies are and what the heck they are saying, and they love, love, love to spend hours with you drinking beers going through the book laughing at themselves.Great book, I left it in Australia for them to continue the fun!

A marvellous bargain in every sense
This work surprised me enormously and completely exceeded my expectations. For students of varieties of English, or those specifically interested in Australia and things Australian, this is the absolute best than can be found and in a small, portable format. The addenda on Aboriginal languages are marvellous, and my only question is why there was not a reference to Aboriginals in Northern Queensland, while there were sections concerning New South Wales and Victoria, where I would have supposed their cultural presence less visible. Even so, I was absolutely delighted with this item and recommend it to one and all. It is by far the best Lonely Planet language guide I've seen up to now!

Good but not great!!
This is an interesting book for someone who has not been to Australia. Although there are variations between Aussie English and Standard Australian English, visitors will mostly encounter SAE. "Aussie" English is used in informal settings and is useful to know - but it is not as common as this book would suggest.The Australian accentmay be difficult for some visitors and the use of works describing local peculiarities (beer's, local areas, etc) may seem strange at first. The section on Aboriginal languages is extremely good and gives an accurate introduction to this unique field. However, again be aware that the majority of Australians have no knowledge of Aboriginal languages and very few white Australians actually speak an Aboriginal language.The Anangu languages of the central Australian Outback are spoken by people living in communities in areas that require a permit to visit. You will hear these languages in communities that are attached to visitor centers or by Aboriginal guides to these areas. But do not assume that because book devotes half its content to Aboriginal languages that you will hear these in every day speech. Overall a good introduction to Australian "culture" and speech, but too much emphasize for a book of this kind on Aboriginal languages.

This book is garbage
Just to cite a few of many mistakes: Bathers are NOT referrredto as togs in South Australia. Non alcholic drinks are most commonly referred to as cool drinks in South Australia, NOT soft drinks. In Tasmania, all non animal objects are commonly referred to as "him", NOT just trees. Terms such as idiot were NOT invented by Australian politicians! Relatives ARE often referred to as relies.

Speaking "Aussie"
This book is a lot of fun!Our Australian friends really do talk like this. ... Read more

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This book is an exciting collection of essays bringing together new perspectives on the nature and meaning of Australia's changing life. Authors represent a range of approaches, backgrounds and fields to explore subjects of wide interest. Chapters are devoted to: Vegemite; postage stamps; Australian Rules Football; the introduction of television; Crocodile Dundee; the Chamberlain Affair; Spycatcher and Postmodernism and Australian Culture. ... Read more

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This original ethnography brings indigenous people's stories into conversations around troubling questions of social justice and environmental care. Deborah Bird Rose lived for two years with the Yarralin community in the Northern Territory's remote Victoria River Valley. Her engagement with the people's stories and their action in the world leads her to this analysis of a multi-centred poetics of life and land. The book speaks to issues that are of immediate and broad concern today: traditional ecological knowledge, kinship between humans and other living things, colonising history, environmental history, and sacred geography. Now in paperback, this award-winning exploration of the Yarralin people is available to a whole new readership. The boldly direct and personal approach will be illuminating and accessible to general readers, while also of great value to experienced anthropologists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best of breed
There are very few writers who have been able to respectfully penetratethe aboriginal culture and still preserve what is sacred. Rose's bookimmerses the reader into another reality, and she does so withoutsuperficial glorification or gratuitous pandering. Much better known inAustralia than in the US (where the number of the books available aboutaboriginals is limited), this book is the best I've found. I recommend itto the reader who wants to get past the tour guide/New Age fare and into amuch more authentic point of view. ... Read more

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Australians are surrounded by beaches. But this enclosure is more than a geographical fact for the inhabitants of an island continent; the beach is an integral part of the cultural envelope. This work analyzes the history of the beach as an integral aspect of Australian culture. ... Read more

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Details the origin, history, traditional way of life, and religion of the aborigines of Australia, as well as their persecution, current status, and struggle to preserve their culture and identity. ... Read more

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This collection is designed to open up a new field of acadamic and general interest: Australian medievalism. That is, the heritage and continuing influence of medieval and gothic themes, ideas and narratives in Australian culture. Geographically removed from Europe, and distinguished by its eighteeth-century colonial settlement, Australia is a fascinating testing-ground on which to explore the cultural residues of medieval heritage and tradition. These traditions take distinctive form, once they have been 'transported' to a different topographical setting, and a cultural context whose relationship with Europe has always been dynamic and troubled. Early colonists attempted to make the unfamiliar landscape of Australia familiar by inscribing it with European traditions: in contrast, modern gothic and medievalist re-enactment groups celebrate their own modernity and their separation from tradition by consciously embracing the medieval and the gothic as an opportunity for postmodernist pastiche or simulation. The contributors represent a range of scholarly disciplines and traditions. Their subject matter includes the early narratives of Australian discovery, and the settlement of what was perceived as a hostile, gothic environment; exercises in medieval revivalism comtemporaneous with the British nineteenth-century rediscovery of chivalric ideals and aesthetic, spiritual and architectural practices and models; the conscious invocation of medieval and gothic tropes in Australian fiction and poetry, including some Aboriginal fiction and children's literature; the transformation of the medieval and the gothic fantasy literature, role-playing games and subcultural groups, and finally, the implications of medieval and gothic tropes for discussion of Australian nationalism. ... Read more

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Beasts of Suburbia explores the ways in which the ideas and actualities of suburban experience have circulated in Australia. The dream of an ideal life is conjured up in the garden suburbs of the early twentieth century and in the project homes of recent years. Bitter and ambivalent responses to the suburbs are recorded in the visual arts and cinema. The dramatic variety of suburban lifestyles are traced in studies of Aboriginal suburbs in Alice Springs and the gentrified inner-city suburbs of Melbourne. The complex ideological position of the suburb is examined when the outer regions of Sydney overtake a previously isolated nuclear reactor. ... Read more

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This timely and intelligent discussion focuses on the elusive nature of Australian nationalism as it is defined by visual images drawn from a vast variety of sources - some surprising and others regularly encountered in our daily lives. From high art to popular kitsch, the more than 100 plates support the author's feisty arguments which range from domestic issues related to the great Australian dream of suburban home ownership to the plight of those who have experienced difficulties in making a home here. As Allen declares, 'The nationalist discourse is a multifarious and contradictory matter', with many pitfalls, ambiguous stereotypes and questionable myth-ologies. This densely detailed text is essential reading for all who wish to better understand Australia's complex contemporary culture. ... Read more

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This collection of essays covers a wide spectrum of Australian culture - settlers' view of Aboriginal history, modern painting, women's writing, recent cinema and migrant cultures and poetry. The introduction examines the relevance of Australian culture to Britain's culture and outlook. ... Read more

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