AUSTRALIAN Culture and Language Help!

[OliveOil_Med]

Thanks for the info! And have you put any thought into what an Australian school might be called? C'mon, you live in Australia, you must have thought about it at least once or twice.

Yes, OliveOil_Med is trying to map out the world with all her latest questions about schools.

[cirelondiel]

I know that Austrailia is a commonwealth of Britain. Given this fact, how similar do you think British and Austrailian wizarding education would be? Do you think they would have the house system, among other things? Do the ordinary educational systems of the two countries have very much in common?

Caitlin explained the school system, but I'd like to add my thoughts.

I generally think that wizarding education here would be very similar to that in Britain, as the school would have been started 200ish years ago by wizards who had been Hogwarts educated. But wait, the thought has just occurred to me that there wouldn't have been anywhere near a large enough population to support a school for quite some time... you know, maybe the school is only fifty years old? But I'd assume that only wizards who had a formal education would create a school, most likely.

Well, now that I'm thinking about it... my quick Googling tells me that Britain's population is around 60 million - three times larger than Australia's. So the Aussie wizarding pop. would be about a third as large as Britain's - not that we can be very sure of what that is

So the actual school would be a lot smaller, considering that the number of students is smaller and that we certainly don't have castles here. I imagine the school to be in the middle of nowhere, in the desert somewhere in the centre of Australia, with low-lying buildings (hey, it could even be underground!). But there're plenty of lovely forest-y locations too.

The school system (in WA at least) is similar to Hogwarts' (and Britain's, I believe) in that we must do core subjects and electives until year ten (fifth year - OWL year/GCSEs), then we can choose whatever subjects we like (as long as we include an English course) for the last two years (like NEWT subjects/A-levels). However, we don't do any exams at the end of year ten like the OWLs.

Most schools have houses or factions, typically with the colours red, green, blue and gold (yellow - I think we just try to make it sound fancier), and if the founders were Hogwarts students then yes, there probably would be a house sytem.

In my fic set in Australia, I have them use a train to travel home - a magical one that can go halfway across the country in a day =/ - and since my school's somewhere in the middle of the country, I had two trains, one for the west and one for the east.

And names - well, I've tentatively named mine Koomalong Academy... I just searched for Aboriginal words, came across "Coomalong" meaning "place of possums" or something like that , and changed it to a K because I felt like it. I also liked it because it sounds sort of like "come along", which is a very welcoming name, yeah? You're perfectly welcome to use this if you don't think it's lame , or of course there are plenty of other possibilities - I'd go for something Aboriginal to give it an Australian feel.

Rambling over.

-- Chelsea

[OliveOil_Med]

I have a long list of Australian culture questions for our lovely Aussies.

I need a basic idea of what Austrailian elementary (or primary) schools are like. Can someone describe them for me?

What are the major school breaks in Australia? I know the summer months are December, January, and February, but still am not sure when students are in school and when they aren't.

What are some snack foods that are popular with Australian children?

And lastly, I want the setting of my story to be a small coastal town. What states or particular places should I research?


Thank you!

P.S. I do recall a Common Room chat where the Aussies brag about their ability to give anything a nickname. I know that Hermione would never allow anyone to call her by one, but what are some nicknames you can think of for 'Hermione'? C'mon, this is the fun question!

[Black-Sand]

G'day

Understand that the holidays verry about a week or two depending on where in Australia you live. I live in NSW so this is my schooling. Also, QLD has resently changed it's school system (well changed it about three years ago) so that they have a kindergarten. Before that, if someone was in year one in NSW they would be in year two in QLD. That isstill the case for us students that attended school before the change though.

I need a basic idea of what Austrailian elementary (or primary) schools are like. Can someone describe them for me?

Primary starts in kindergarten at the age five-six (commonly five) and goes to year six. kindergarden, one, two, thee etc.

What are the major school breaks in Australia? I know the summer months are December, January, and February, but still am not sure when students are in school and when they aren't.

There's our major one. Summer holidays: starts three, four days before christmas (In NSW anyway) and finished 28th January. We also have term holidays. two weeks between each term. The terms go: term one- 11 weeks; term two- 10 weeks; term three- 10 weeks; term four- 11 weeks. After term four the summer holidays start.

And lastly, I want the setting of my story to be a small coastal town. What states or particular places should I research?

You should be more pacific. What coast? We have the Goldcoast in QLD, Central Coast where I live, Sunshine coast in QLD etc.

In Central Coast there's Blue Haven (Bluey) which is a fairly new town, San Remo (Sammy) which has a pretty bad rep, not a bad place though (I attend school in Sammy.) Charmhaven (Charmy) which has a fair few little shops. All three of these are close together and you can walk from one to the other without realizing.

Budgewoi (Budgy) which has good beaches.

There's also Tookley, Wyee, The Entrance (Popular place and is the tourist attraction down this way) Gorican(SP?) which is near Wyee. That's all I can think of at the moment.

I know that Hermione would never allow anyone to call her by one, but what are some nicknames you can think of for 'Hermione'? C'mon, this is the fun question!

Herms'a, Mionsie, Hermsie, Herm. Me personaly... Booky! Cause she's a book worm. Some times you get nicknames cause of traits. I was called Kat for ages cause I have long nails, another friend was called Bubbles cause she was bubbly.


...xXxLove SandyxXx...

[Azhure]

There's our major one. Summer holidays: starts three, four days before christmas (In NSW anyway) and finished 28th January. We also have term holidays. two weeks between each term. The terms go: term one- 11 weeks; term two- 10 weeks; term three- 10 weeks; term four- 11 weeks. After term four the summer holidays start.

That's pretty similar here in Victoria, except for older students (seventeen/eighteen year olds) -- the summer break starts at the end of November. However, exams go from late November to mid-December. At my school, anyway.


I know that Hermione would never allow anyone to call her by one, but what are some nicknames you can think of for 'Hermione'? C'mon, this is the fun question!

Herm, Hermes (lol, the owl -- I'm sure Hermione would love that), Minnie, Mionie. And so forth.

[OliveOil_Med]

Okay, I've decided the town is going to be in Victoria, so Azhure, you're really going to have to help me out with the info.

For starters, what is the usually tempurature on the coast in Victoria January through February (browie points if you can give me the answer in Fahrenheit)?

As far as nicknames, I don't know if I could ever call Hermione Bookie. In America, a bookie is someone who arranges (often illegal) bets for sporting events. It's a very seedy profession.

[xOxLyDzxOx]

In Victoria temperatures vary a huge amount in summer, even from week to week. It could be 19 and raining (about 66 fahrenheit, I think) to 40 and brilliant sunshine the next (about 104f). Take today for instance. It's overcast and about 22 (71 by yours). Two days ago, it was 34 (93) and really sunny. Often it's cold, without raining, because we've been in drought for a very long time.

[Azhure]

Lydia basically said it all.

With regards to rain, don't have it too often. However, when it does rain here it seems that there is a fair bit of it (there's the occasional sprinkle, of course, but it usually pours down).

So, basically, with the weather, make it as random as possible.

[OliveOil_Med]

Alright. Now I'm moving onto dialogue for the story, and writing accents in J.K.'s style is always so much fun! Can anyone give me any tips for how to write dialogue to make my characters sound Australian?

[xOxLyDzxOx]

Casual language is a good bet, you know, avoiding the over ue of long formal sentences. We usually use contractions: can't, won't, shouldn't etc. I think language and slang has been discussed quite a bit in this thread, with things like G'day and mate, and vernacular like that, but of course, this should all be used in moderation: we don't use a G'day or mate or anything like that in every sentence. Umm, let's see... it's actually quite hard to define what makes up the Australian language. We never say things like "y'all" - that's very American. If you're ever unsure about Aus dialouge, Molly, just pm me the dialouge and I can look at it for you.