AUSTRALIAN Culture and Language Help!

[Black-Sand]

G'day

Also, do Australian people still use milkman in this day and age?
Some have milkman, it comes around in a truck adn moos!


Are ten-year-old girls just as wild about Hannah Monatana as they are in the states, or do the Aussie children have someone else they worship?

I guess but we also have H2O (About mermaids) And that's an Aussie show.

Does anyone know of any good movies featuring children with Australian accents. For study, of course, but also, as a videomaker, I'm also looking for some good material.

Bootman Is an Australian movie but it doesn't have kids in it.... Razzle Dazzle is Australian adn has a lot of kids in it... Cracker jack is another Aussie movie but I can't remember if it has any kids in it.

...xXxLove SandyxXx...

[jenny b]

The Black Balloon is an amazing Australian movie where the main characters are teenagers - its about a boy with a brother who has autism. Even if you want specifically children, not teenagers, I recommend this because not only does everyone have Australian accents, but it's a perfect picture of suburban Australian life. I don't know if you've seen it, but the movie Australia has an Aboriginal child as one of its main characters, which is about as Australian as you can get.

I can't think of many more movies with Australian children - you might do better going for television shows. Round the Twist is show from the 90s, and the main characters are two thirteen year olds and a nine year old. Summer Heights High isn't bad if you're looking for something more modern, but that's mostly stereotypes, all played by one actor. It might be good to check out if you want to see what the average Australian high school looks like.

Hope I helped!

[emck]

Good Australian movies...now THAT is a challenge...kidding.

There's The Castle, I think that there might be a kid in that...there's a kid in Crocodile Dundee...one of them, anyway... There's also a movie called Storm Boy, which I haven't actually seen, but I read the book and it had a few kids in it, I think.

Oh, I had a good idea!!! The Wiggles Movie!!! I haven't actually seen it, but whatever, I'm sure there'd be kids in it...

Yeh, there aren't that many good Australian movies. Sorry.

Also, check out Rollercoaster, on the ABC (the Australian version). It has load of kids shows, like...um...Blue Water High and stuff...

[OliveOil_Med]

In general, how do you feel the Australian wizarding world would be different from the British one?

Also, this isn't exactly a culture question, but what do you think an interesting way of enter the Australian wizarding marketplace would be?

[Black-Sand]

G'day

In general, how do you feel the Australian wizarding world would be different from the British one?

Not sure, but one thing you should know about Australian schooling that's different to other countries is, the teachers teach the students to be wary of everyone. A student doesn't walk into a class room and immedently sit down, get their books out and wait for the teacher to start. Most teachers, without the students knowing, encourage them to test how the teacher acts to things cause of the whole some athority figures turn out to be pedifials.

In general, I this we might have different spells to co-inside with our different acsents, we'd have different potion ingrediants because we'd have things that are natural to Australia and I think we might be a bit more relaxed with the whole, oops, a Muggle found out. We wouldn't be clumzy and let the whole world know but Muggleborns might tell their Muggle friends as long as they keep it a secret sort of thing.

...xXxLove SandyxXx...

[jenny b]

Not sure, but one thing you should know about Australian schooling that's different to other countries is, the teachers teach the students to be wary of everyone. A student doesn't walk into a class room and immedently sit down, get their books out and wait for the teacher to start. Most teachers, without the students knowing, encourage them to test how the teacher acts to things cause of the whole some athority figures turn out to be pedifials.

Um, I actually don't think that's true at all. At least with all the schools I've been to. The attitude between teachers and students is usually pretty relaxed, and I don't know a single teacher who tries to teach their students to be wary in case teachers are pedophiles. Maybe that's true for some schools, but I've never heard that before. In general, I've always thought the Australian schooling system was a lot more relaxed than in other countries - for example, in public schools (and most private ones, too) they don't call teachers 'Sir' or 'Miss', it's always Mr or Ms [insert surname here].

Now to actually answer the question. I agree with Black-Sand, and I think we may have some different wording for spells - but seeing as Britain colonised Australia, I'm pretty sure the pronunication and wording would be more or less the same, with perhaps a few variations as Australia moved away from British influence, and the spells would change slightly, adapting to our accents and slang. Then you also have to factor in the native Aboriginals. They would have had spells in their own language, but I think over the years that both the Aboriginal and British magic would have blended in together, so there might be a few Aboriginal spells used by the majority of Australian wizards.

As for the Australian wizarding world in general, I think it would differ in the fact that it probably wouldn't be as traditional or as structured as the British one. I disagree with Sandy, and I can't see them being lax on keeping wizards a secret from Muggles, especially since the law for that is called the International Statute of Secrecy. But I can't imagine them having things such as the Wizengamot or Azkaban with Dementors guarding it, especially since there wouldn't be much need for things like that with the absence of Voldemort (I assume his tyranny never reached Australia).

There would probably be a different money system, going by the fact that the ordinary Australian population doesn't use the same as Britain. But then again, galleons and sickles and knuts might be universal for wizards. You could really go either way. I think there would be things similar to Diagon Alley in Australia - except I would think more than one (perhaps one in each capital city?), because Australia is a huge place, and if you lived in Perth, for example, it would be quite a stretch to go all the way to Sydney or Melbourne just to do your shopping. Also, there's nothing that says there isn't more than just Diagon Alley in England - it's just the one the trio always visited.

I can't think of much else than that, so I hope that helped you a little.

[emck]

I think, in general, that Australian wizarding society and British would be relatively similar. We have the same basic government structure, and most of our major traditions are similar to British ones. After all, most of the first wizards in Australia would have been British and would have brought their traditions and culture and laws and all of that with them. There would probably be influences from other cultures, but as the Wizarding world in general seems to be behind the Muggle world, I think that, unlike the Muggle world, Australian wizards would probably still be very British - it's only really in the last fifty years or so that we've stopped being heavily influenced by Britain.

I don't think that the Aboriginal culture would have been welcomed by the Wizarding world, however. I can imagine that, much like early Australian settlers, early Australian wizards would have treated the Aboriginals as little more than servants similar to the way British wizards treat house elves. I do think that Aboriginals could have different magical traditions that they would teach each other, but I can't see that becoming a large part of the Wizarding culture, at least not yet.

I do agree that we would probably have a more relaxed attitude towards secrecy and things, to a degree. Like, you wouldn't get expelled for just doing magic at home, only if you hurt someone.

I don't think that we would change spells and potion ingredients that much. Spells would remain basically the same - after all, th Australian accent is losley based on a Cockney accent and I'm pretty sure there would have been at least one witch or wizard with a Cockney accent sometime. And we are taught traditional British spelling in schools, as far as I know, and there hasn't been a problem there. With potion ingredients, maybe if we found an Australian substitute or something we would use it, but again I think we'd probably stick to more traditional British ingredients and just find somewhere to grow or whatever them here.

I think I've gone around in circles a bit...hope you find something useful in there somewhere.

I also mean no offence with my comparison of Aboriginals with house-elves; it is just a fact that fifty and more years ago they were often treated in similar ways to house-elves, not that they are today. (Kevin Rudd even apologised, remember?)

*Just a thought, but if we had a prison, I think they'd probably put it out in the desert someplace, so that is was far away from everyone and if someone escaped without a wand they'd just, you know, die of dehydration.

[Azhure]

In general, I've always thought the Australian schooling system was a lot more relaxed than in other countries - for example, in public schools (and most private ones, too) they don't call teachers 'Sir' or 'Miss', it's always Mr or Ms [insert surname here].

I agree. About a year and a half ago, I went to Europe on a school exchange, and I found that the school I went to (I was in Germany) was a lot stricter and had more rules than any schools I've been to in Australia. And the teacher-student relationship was... I can't think of the word... Basically, it definitely wasn't as relaxed as it is here in Australian schools.

Just thought I should clear that up.

[Black-Sand]

G'day

Um, I actually don't think that's true at all. At least with all the schools I've been to. The attitude between teachers and students is usually pretty relaxed, and I don't know a single teacher who tries to teach their students to be wary in case teachers are pedophiles

*Nods* That's what I mean. We have a teacher here that transfered from Cannada and he thinks the relationship between teachers should be, "You're the students, I'm the teacher, you have to do whatever i say, no matter what." But our teachers let us argue our points and we don't have to do something if we're not comfortable with it.

Originally Posted by jenny b
In general, I've always thought the Australian schooling system was a lot more relaxed than in other countries - for example, in public schools (and most private ones, too) they don't call teachers 'Sir' or 'Miss', it's always Mr or Ms [insert surname here].

Yeah, funny that. I think the only teacher I address with a Mr. is the librarian and I call him Mr. Z.

...xXxLove SandyxXx...

[Inverarity]

*Nods* That's what I mean. We have a teacher here that transfered from Cannada and he thinks the relationship between teachers should be, "You're the students, I'm the teacher, you have to do whatever i say, no matter what." But our teachers let us argue our points and we don't have to do something if we're not comfortable with it.

Just a general comment: one should always be wary of generalizing from individual anecdotes and experiences, whether it's with regard to Australian, British, Canadian, or American culture, or any other. The U.S. has a very wide spectrum of attitudes, as does Canada, and I imagine Australia, while somewhat less regionally diverse than North America, does too.

In the U.S., you'll find teachers who want to be "co-educators" and buddies with their students, and you'll find teachers who are absolute dictators in their classrooms, with most falling somewhere in between. So your Canadian transfer teacher might or might not be a "typical" Canadian teacher, and likewise, I'm sure that not every Australian school is as relaxed as yours seems to be.