Expat praised for breaking down 'unhinged' Aussie slang: 'Nailed it!'

Expats have always been vocal about their culture shock over Australian wildlife, supermarket products, and work-life balance, but there is one thing that always seems to confuse them the most — our slang. One American woman living in Sydney revealed last month she had been forced to change her own name — Devyn Hales — after moving Down Under.

“My name is Devyn but I go by Dev now because apparently my name means packaged meat in Australian,” she said. However, one Canadian woman may have cracked the code, with hundreds of Aussies praising her “spot on” breakdown of our “unhinged” lingo.

Alexandra, a Canadian woman who says she has lived in Australia for the last 12 years, posted a TikTok earlier this month which shows her detailing the slang tourists need to know before they belly up to the bar.

“Slang you need to know before your first night out in Australia. So we’ll start easy, G’day means hello, ‘ta’ means thank you, ‘yeah, nah’ means no, ‘nah, yeah’ means yes and ‘yeah, right’ means ok,” she begins the video before moving onto the more “complex” jargon.

“Your mate is your friend, but if someone says ‘hey, mate’ then they’re probably not your friend,” she continued. “If someone says that they’re ‘spewin’ that means that they’re pissed off but if someone says that they’re ‘pissed’, that actually means that they’re really drunk.”

Alexandra goes on to warn that being labelled a “yobbo, a drongo, a bogan or a derro” is “bad”, but being called a “ripper” or “sick c***” is a term of endearment. At rapid speed, the well-versed Canadian then continues to explain after pub “kick-ons” and hot chicken feeds, and encourages anyone who is offered a “slab” or some “goon” to take it.

• Canadian expat roasts Aussie approach to friendship: 'Spot on'

• British expat calls out 'impatient' driving habit in Australia

• Expat left 'shaking' after unexpected visitor at her Aussie home

Aussies praise Canadian's slang breakdown

The clip has since gone viral with almost 400,000 views and hundreds of comments, many from Aussies who said the 32-year-old “nailed it”. “This is the best reference of the Aussie slang,” one person said, while another exclaimed Alexandra was “one of us” and didn’t need a citizenship test.

“You are too good at this, which makes me think you really are an Aussie called Shazza just putting on an American accent,” someone else joked. “Ok, as an Aussie, this was impressive,” a fourth commented.

However, a handful of Aussies claimed they had never uttered “90 per cent” of the phrases mentioned. “FYI, no one says G’day,” one person argued, to which others responded it probably “depends on where you live” across the country.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.