Personal Reflections of Dejoey Fifita (soon to be ex.FOB)

Dejoey "Ga" Fifita hit our Aussie shores in 2007 and has since settled into our madly confusing way of life. So here are her thoughts after we gave her the quick and dirty 5Qs:

1. What was your first impression when you stepped off the plane?

Customs: Very strict. We ended up leaving an airsoft gun (which wasn’t cheap) with them. (jets just tried his luck anyway)… and we left about 3 reams of ciggies as well, tsk tsk tsk…

Weather: It was late September last year when I got here and hubby said it should start to get warm already… not even!!! I came in singlet top and Havs thongs and I had to quickly look for my jumper ( hoodie)… that time, the chilly-spring wind feels like winter to me hahaha… but later I realized that wasn’t even close to how cold winter can be…

2. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of:

• Winter --- heater (makes me wish im back home during this season.
• Summer --- sunscreen ( I don’t use as much back home but here its very dry and sun is too strong )
• Autumn --- shopping for winter clothes and getting ready for winter fashion… hehe
• Spring --- asthma alert cos of pollens.. hehe (my favorite season though)

3. The worst thing about living in Australia...

Can’t cook “buwad” [editor's note: Cebuano for the infamous Filipino dried fish] anytime cos ppl are not immune to its “pleasant-aromatic” smell!
Haha, SERIOUSLY, I heard that it’s the heatwave during summer, last summer wasn’t that bad but they say it can get really nasty the heatwave.

4. The BEST thing about living in Australia..

2 best things: multicultural and cleaner air (.’_’.)

5. Your advice for any newbies to the Aussie Culture...

Christmases and New Years are not as noisy and loud back home… not even a lot of christmas lights you see around. :)

Get ready to put on weight. Kebabs are just awesome!

Don’t be too surprised if one day its 32˚C and then next day is 12˚C. It’s kinda scary how global warming is so obvious in a 4-seasons county

Be prepared with plenty of hoodies and skin tight clothes for winter…

People love their beer here… (just thought I’d include that)…

And their “barbeques” different from ours back home… “no skewers”

The Aussie accent is quite hard to understand and can be tricky at times but I guess, its just a matter of getting used to it…

Cost of living is high so, gotta work real hard

RSL clubs are good for dinners but beware of the pokies…

And how can I forget….. that most of the shops would close 5pm on weekdays and even earlier on weekends! Though in some days they close 9pm.. Crazy, totally different from back home!

People here love their fishing ( Jets is a good example..hehe and he just got his boat license, yey!!!)

…and by the way, they say “again” as “ageyn”…… that’s all I guess…(.’_’.)

Aussie Sports

It's been a while so I thought I would add something for you 'wannabe Aussies'. This might apply more to Mark than Tara - we're talking sport. There are 4 main Aussie sports that are followed - 3 are football codes. There are national basketball and soccer competitions as well, but these 4 are the more popular spectator/participant sports:

- Rugby League (national comp is NRL)

- Rugby Union (international comp Super 14s)

- Aussie Rules (national comp AFL)

- Cricket (national & international comps)

Rather than explain what each is, try a Google/Wikipedia search to learn more. Rugby League is more NSW based, AFL is more Victoria based. When you come here you'll want to follow NRL (rugby league) - make sure your team is the Rabbitohs! South Sydney... where we live.

Aussies love their sport... as in LOVE IT. You can be a lawyer, a baker, a cleaner - even the prime minister! EVERYONE can talk sport.

Issue 3 - Personal reflections of Maica (ex.FOB)

After the release of Issue 1 and 2, we quickly realised that we're going to need all the help if we are to properly educate you in the mind-boggling Aussie culture.
To keep things fresh and real, we're enlisting the help of people
who have ventured into the dark unknown,
braved the challenges,
stumbled through the confusion,
stuttered through the lingo and
ultimately conquered the crazy culture that is uniquely Australian.

So first up is Ms. Maica E.
Maica is a driven careerwoman who successfully juggles the roles of being a permanent resident of Queen St Alexandria,
a casual** shopper, part-time snowbunny
and full-time wife/boss/babysitter of one very lucky Jeremy "Jezza" E.

** vegemiteme.blogspot.com is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the above content


Excerpt from Maica's email:

Hello there I heard you needed some input into Aussie speak.
:)

I know I compiled a scrapbook of these things when I first arrived but
they are at the 'rents (editor's note: term for the people that have given you life, short for parents)

From the top of my head: from aus to pinoy some of which J (editor's note: term of endearment for pet/hubby "Jezza") and I discussed last night:

My shout - libre kita

Go to the shops - go malling / go to the mall

On special - on sale

(For girls) Went out with my girlfriend - went out with my friend (I honestly thought when I first heard that from a friend of mine that she was lesbian) - Editor's note: Yes, Jezza wishes he was that lucky!

Get pissed - get drunk

Take a sickie - don't come to work

This arvo - this afternoon

Ta - thanks

Off the boat - recently migrated

That's all I can think of now but hope this helps

Also don't forget to tell them what a ranger, a yobo and a bogan is.

Editor's note:

A "ranger" is keeper of a public park and can be found in their green uniform behind the wheel of a dirty 4WD.

A "bogan" is person who takes little pride in his appearance, spends his days slacking and drinking beer; also used to refer to a Westie (i.e. someone from the Western Suburbs) - to be discussed in greater depth.

A "yobo" is a discourteous, rude, uncivil person

* Definitions courtesy of http://koalanet.com.au

Issue 2 - Nationalities

Here's a quick run down for some terms used when talking about other nationalities:

(NB. Some of the slang terms might be taken offensively)

Aussie/Skip: Australian; person from Australia!

Yank/Seppo: American. (Seppo comes from septic tank [toilet] which rhymes with Yank. Not used much)

Filo: Pinoy, of course!

Coconut/Islander: Refers to people from the Pacific, eg. Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand (don't say 'coconut' to their face, though!)

FOB: Fresh Off the Boat. Anyone that's migrated to Oz - usually Islanders or Asians.

Wogs: Can be from the Middle East or from Europe, ie. there are wogs from Italy, Greece etc, and also from Lebanon, Saudi etc. Not always a good term to use.

Aboriginal/Abo: Indigenous Aussies - the original/native people from this land.

Curry: Anyone from the continent, ie. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan

Nip/Gook/Slant: All rude terms for an Asian. If anyone calls you that give them the Manny Pacquiao treatment

Issue 1 - Aussie Accents & Greetings

Aussie Accents

Well, Aussies don't really pronounce their "R"s like the Americans.
Instead of saying "wa-terrrrr", it's "wa-tah"...
"Printer" is pronounced "printah"...
"Together" is pronounced "togethah"..

-x-x-

Aussie Greetings

The standard greeting is usually one of the following:
"How's it going?" or "How are you going?" or "How's things?"
But the tricky part is how they say it...
When it comes out of an Aussie's mouth it will come out very quickly and will sound like this:
"Howzit-gowin?" or "How-ah-yah-gowin?" or "Howz things?"
So your standard responses would be:
"I'm good thanks!"
"Not bad" - which is kinda confusing cos it's saying you're not good OR bad, so you're actually OK!
Confusing right?

-x-x-