Transcript of AE 1000 – 1000 Bloody, Fair Dinkum, True Blue Aussie English Episodes!

Cheers, episode 1,000, guys, episode 1,000. I've just pulled myself a little dram, a little bit of Ardbeg drum whisky to celebrate episode 1,000. I could never have done this without you guys. So, today's episode is going to be a celebration of Aussie English, but most importantly, it's a celebration of you guys.

It's a celebration of everyone who has been downloading and listening to my content, watching my videos on YouTube, following me on Instagram and Facebook, as well as purchasing my courses and products, which in turn supports me and helps me continue doing what I do.

So, I've got some notes here about how Aussie English has gone in the past, how we've done in these 1,000 episodes, and also for the second half of this episode, I have a number of Academy members that I wanted to include, and I had to make a video about one to two minutes long telling us about who they are, where they're from, something interesting about their country and why they decided to learn Australian English.

So, yeah, it's going to be a good episode, guys. Let's get into it. So, man, I started Aussie English all the way back in the year 2015, I believe it was the end of 2015 when I first published my first episode. In fact, if I actually just double check this, I can see here that was a lie. February 28th, 2016, at 2:04pm is when I published Episode one, where I introduced myself.

And I can remember sitting in the park. I was in Royal Park behind the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. You guys can go there, you can check it out. If you go to the park, there is a place there towards the back of the children's hospital where there are these large logs on the ground, so these old dead trees have fallen over. I was sitting on one of those logs recording this, just using my phone. So, how crazy is that?

We've come a long way. At the time, I was just doing it because I had met a bunch of people at university and at the gym that I was training at at the time who were foreigners. They were wanting to learn more about Australian English, as you guys know from the story that I've told so many times, I was learning French at the time from a podcast called Francais Authentique from Johan Tekfak.

And I thought it was just an amazing podcast. And I wanted to help other people learn like I was learning French from this podcast. So, I decided, you know what, I'm going to start a podcast teaching Australian English, I'll call it Aussie English. Let's see how we go. And we have come a very, very long way. If you go back and have a listen to the very first episodes, I sound like a completely different person.

I'm Pete Smissen, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken down under. I was definitely thinner. I was single. I was studying at the time. I was doing my PhD at the time at Melbourne University and Museum Victoria, studying native Australian rats and their evolutionary history, how they are related to one another, why and how they moved into different environments around Australia.

And then at the end of the PhD, I sort of had these- I had a fork in the road. Right. I could continue and keep doing science, I could become a scientist doing that working in a lab. But Aussie English was sort of slowly taking off. It was probably a year, almost two years after I'd first begun, and I decided to kind of just see how we would go if I only did Aussie English as a job.

So, thanks to you guys, here we are today. You guys continue to support me, you continue to help me earn a crust and put bread on the table for me and my family. At the end of 2017 when I was finishing the podcast as well, as you guys will know, if you've listened to many of those episodes from that era, from that time. Jeez seems like another lifetime. I had actually met my wife through Australian English, through Aussie English.

She had commented on one of my videos and just said, you know, I'm Brazilian. I really like the video. I'm having trouble with English, blah, blah, blah. And at the time, I had just started learning Portuguese. So, I said, you know, if you want to trade time, we can practise Portuguese and English together, I need some partners to speak with. We ended up meeting and I was just like, holy crap, this girl is absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

She's stunning, she's funny, she's smart, she's incredibly intelligent, she makes me laugh, she sends me memes over Facebook and on Instagram. I remember the thing that did it for me, we were chatting, and I said, you know, jokingly, you're up in Townsville, in Queensland, you should come to Victoria. You know, no reason. No reason. And she posted the meme from the movie- What's it called? With Tom Hanks.

Where- How am I having a brain fart right now? Box of chocolates, movie. Come on, Tom Hanks, all you guys are going to be shouting at me. It's this movie. It's this- Forrest Gump. It was Forrest Gump. She sent me the meme from Forrest Gump where he is running down the street. I can still remember that. I can still remember seeing that and being like, damn, this girls got a sense of humour. She gets it. She's funny, she's hilarious.

And, you know, two years later, we ended up- What, no, not even then. Six months later, we ended up moving to Canberra. We thought we were going to be there for two years. I was like, you know what, I'll just try Aussie English whilst we're living together here, we'll see how it goes.

Six months after we moved there, she- Kel, my girlfriend at the time, we ended up having to sort of think about what else to do because she wasn't going to be able to stay at the place she was working. They weren't able to sponsor her visa, so we had to work something else out. So, we decided to come back to Ocean Grove to live near my parents and my family, and she could study and have a visa doing that.

And then at the same time, we ended up getting married, you know, we got engaged first. Right. And then having children. So, as we've gone, you guys have followed this entire love story. You know, you've seen me finish my university degree, my PhD. You've seen me meet my girlfriend, then fiancée, then wife. You've seen me and my wife get pregnant twice now, we've had two children now.

You've been there for the ups. You've been there for the downs. It's been a real roller coaster. It's been- It's been incredible. But if we go to some of the stats here and just let me have a little bit of more whisky here. Yeah, that's good. So, this is a smoky Islay whisky from Scotland. So, we- On YouTube, we've got a hundre- Nearly 150,000 subscribers. 7.6 million views, which is just insane. That blows me away.

The podcast has somewhere around 6 million views or 6 million downloads, I guess, I don't know the exact number because I switched providers or hosts for the podcast a few years ago. So, at the moment, I think it's at 4.7 million with the new host. We're getting about 187,000 downloads a month with a total of over 700,000 listeners throughout that entire period. I think we have about 35,000 listeners at any one time listening to the podcast.

So, thank you, guys, if you've stuck with me. But we've had 700,000 unique listeners on the podcast or to the podcast, so that's insane. The most popular episode that has ever been downloaded was- You'd probably be really shocked here. Episode number one, introductions. But the second most downloaded one, and I think it's been downloaded over 12,000 times, is life in the Aussie Outback with Will Maas, who was a guy I went to school with.

We went to high school together. So, that's episode 612 if you want to go check that out. Highlights on the podcast, man, so you've got my marriage with Kel, episode 506. Noah's birth, episode 572. Joanna's birth, episode 878. We have 78 Goss' episodes that I've had the pleasure of doing with my father over the last two years now we've done them. I think we started at the start of last year, so we've done 78 Goss' episodes.

The most popular Goss' episode, which has been downloaded, I think it was about 9,500 times, was cannabis legislation, women's sports and dating indigenous art with wasp nests, that was episode 646. Man, it's been amazing, I've been able to interview authors like David Hunt, who has published the books Girt and True Girt. Adam Courtenay, who I've become really good friends with, and he did The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter.

I've interviewed scientists, linguists, friends on the podcast, immigrants on the podcast. It has just been an absolutely amazing experience. And I just want you to g- You guys, to know how grateful I am. Right. I could never have imagined back during my PhD when I was studying hard to become a scientist that fast forward 3 or 4 years, this is where I would end up. So, that's it, I guess that's really it.

I wanted to say a massive thank you to you guys. I'm going to keep going. Here's to another thousand episodes. Cheers. Have another sip. And so, let me say a massive thank you to the guys in the academy who decided to submit a video, Vanderlei, Fabiano, Gary, Kenji, Nilo, Paulina, Yan, and Zabrina. Huge thank you to you guys. And also, a leader who has been there almost since the very beginning and has become a really close friend of the family. We catch up quite a bit because Alida and her family are from Brazil.

She's got two beautiful children. And we're obviously, you know, heavily engaged with Brazilian culture and the language and everything. And we just hit it off when we got to meet Alida, so huge thanks to her and her support, but also to all of you guys in the academy. You're not just customers, you guys have become, you know, a huge part of my life, really, really good friends. I appreciate all of you guys so much.

You probably have no real understanding of how much I just, you know, I love you guys. I absolutely love you guys. So, anyway, without any further ado, guys, let's get into these videos. They're going to be telling you about where they're from, what language they speak, some interesting facts about their country and also why they decided to learn Australian English and why, if they did, they decided to migrate to Australia.

So, thanks again and enjoy these videos, guys.

Hi there. My name is Fabiano and I'm from Brazil. I ended up coming to Australia in 2018 for five months just to study English and come back to my country. And here I am for three years. I live on the Gold Coast. My background is finance in my country, and here I work with disabled people. I like the diversity of people in Australia and the opportunities the country offers for us immigrants.

So, things that people don't know about Brazil. We eat avocado with sugar. I know it's weird, it isn't. Buteco, the name in Portuguese for us is like a small pub or bar where we just catch up with mates to have fun, even with just one table. Noise. Wherever you go, you can hear a noise. Someone listen to music, talking. Cultural aspects, we have Carnival. It is a big festival in Brazil.

And Brazilians should be more open, like to talk more with other people. Whereas sometimes it's different for other cultures. So, I say throughout my years in Australia, I haven't seen- I see a change in myself.

Hi, guys. My name is Paulina Bravo. I'm originally from Mexico, Mexico City, and I've been living in Melbourne for the past almost 6 years. Actually, I moved to Australia in 2016, and something I really miss about my country is the food. Mexico is well known for having one of the best cuisines in the world, so even though here in Australia we have very good tacos and other Mexican options.

You really get to miss the typical flavour that you only get when your mum's cooking something with love for you. And the reason why I chose Australia originally was because I'm married to an Australian guy, so life brought me here. And realising that my life was going to be already in Australia, I realised that I needed to improve my English. So, I took different courses like Cambridge, IELTS, EAP, which is for academic purposes, basically.

And then in time when I started working professionally and having my own business, made me realise that I needed to improve a little bit more, expand my vocabulary, and also try to use more native expressions and improve my pronunciation, as well. Because when I saw Pete's videos on YouTube, I realised that he had these very specific and particular way of teaching you how to make sounds more similar to the way that natives speak.

So, I really recommend you guys go have a look at what Pete has put together in his courses, because he's going to help you improve overall your listening, reading, speaking skills. And that's going to really help you integrate better in the Australian way of life. So, give it a go.

G'day, mate! I'm Gary from Taiwan, and now living in Taichung City, which is the second largest city in Taiwan. And... ...Taipei City. But I think Tainan city was a great city. It has nice weather and also not that crowded compared to other cities, so I really recommend for people who are to visit here. In Taiwan we mostly speak Chinese and also Taiwanese.

And I think most people now watch... I mean, even me or a lot of Taiwanese don't really know how to speak Taiwanese. But it's really common to see people speak Taiwanese in traditional markets, so if you want to buy some food ingredients later, so you can see people speaking Taiwanese. And I have been to Australia twice in 2015 and also 2017.

And it is an amazing country and a lot of natural resources and beautiful and amazing national parks. And also, the cutest animals in the world, wombats. So, that's the reason why I wanted to learn English, to know more about Australia and also Australians. And I was planning to move to Australia earlier this year, but we all know the impact of COVID.

So, I hope that the pandemic will end soon, and then I can visit Australia again soon. And see you. Bye.

Hi, Aussie English people. My name is Alida. I am Brazilian, I speak Portuguese and living in Melbourne now. We are currently in lockdown, but I am out and about my one-hour exercise permit. So, I got in this beautiful park that I have around my suburb. So, I am living the best life. And one thing about my country, I would say I would have lots of things to say.

But one thing, as I am hearing lots of birds calling here, I miss so much a bird called bem-te-vi. I miss its singing, and yeah. But I'm pretty sure if I move out, I would miss the magpie singing to death. I got into Aussie English before I moved out here, so more than three years ago, and I got here three years ago. And the thing- I am very happy and proud of my friend.

Now, we became friend, me and Pete, and I feel like celebrating together because I work at the episodes from the bottom to the top, and I covered pretty much most of them. And the thing is, today, I feel much more confident and much more connected. Because when you go throughout culture, you connect with the place you are living, you connect with the people throughout the culture... ...Yeah. Yeah, congratulations.

G'day, Pete. G'day, everyone. My name is Kenji from Japan. The country just had Olympics, and Japan is a very beautiful country. As you can see, they've got a beautiful nature and traditional shrines and temples, but also got high tech buildings with cutting edge technology. And also, you can find very good food in Japan. Sushi, tempura, ramen, everything's good. But today, honouring that requires you to try sukiyaki.

Sukiyaki is one of the traditional Japanese foods with beef and like soy sauce-based soup. It's very good. It might be a bit expensive, but worth a try. I am a medical doctor graduate from Japanese med school, I came to Australia 2018 for extra training and studying. It's been three years so far, so good. Coffee is very good in Melbourne.

I was a big fan of Starbucks when I was in Tokyo, but since I came to Melbourne, you can find better coffees every corner in Melbourne. So, you don't need to go to Starbucks, actually. Obviously, currently under lockdown, and so you actually can't enjoy the cafes in-store, but hopefully we can get out of it soon. See you then. Bye.

Hi, everyone. My name is Yan. I'm from Hong Kong. I speak Cantonese. If you have heard about Hong Kong, you must know some of the famous food in Hong Kong, such as the street food, the egg waffle, the fish ball and the pineapple bun, that doesn't really contain any pineapple at all.

And we have the experience called Lion Rock Experience. It has been here for centuries and, you know, originated from the famous hill in Hong Kong, which is called the Lion Rock Hill. It is located in current areas. It means Hongkongers never give up on something they are working on, meet their goals, and whenever they are facing any adversity, they will stay strong.

I'm currently living in Tasmania of Australia. I love it here, because as a vegan, I find it really, really vegan friendly here. And you can always find vegan options on every menu, in every restaurant, and even supermarkets such as Coles and Woollies have their columns for plant-based food. And I work as a nurse here, and I find there is a big cultural difference.

And this is why it makes me love Australia more, because we communicate with doctors in Hong Kong in a really polite and kind of having a hierarchy between us. But here, the culture is totally different. We treat doctors as friends, we call them by their first names. This is so, so amazing, because you can really effectively communicate with them and work in such a harmonious environment. And I'm really enjoying my life here.

24:Hi, guys. My name is Nilo. Firstly, I want to congrats Pete and your team for the excellent content of the Aussie English. You are all the best. I am from Brazil, and I live in Salvador City. The first cap towards Brazil. Salvador is a beautiful city, and it has a lot of beach. It was founded in 1549 by Portuguese and nowadays have about 3 million inhabitants.

Logically, my first language is Portuguese, but I am studying English because English is a worldwide language and I have another family. My son, Gabriel, live in Perth, Australia, and I have two grandchildren. My sweet Mia, who is five years old, and my little boy Java, who is four years old. I am very happy with the content of Aussie English; I am improving each day. My skill is in listening, in talking and in reading.

I am very happy- I am very happy with your work. Nice job. See you. Catch you later.

Hello, this is Sahar. I'm from Afghanistan, living in Queensland. I've been here for almost five years. My language is Dari and Pashto. So, I started learning English in 2019 in high school at St. John's College in Australia. So, when you talk about the Australian people, I can say they're really friendly, relaxed and easy-going people.

Because they never charge you for your broken English and they really don't mind as long they understand you. One of the best thing about Australia is that it's a multicultural country. You can see a lot of different cultures, languages, foods. And the other thing that I really like about Australia is Australian accent and slang.

Now, when I found Aussie English Channel last year, which really changed my life because not only did I improve my English, but also I learnt a lot of- A lot about Australian history and cultures. I really enjoy learning Aussie English and slang and using them with my friends. And also thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about myself and my feelings about this beautiful country. Bye.

Hi, guys. I'm Vanderlei. I'm from Brazil and I don't speak Spanish, I do speak Portuguese. When talking about Brazil most of people think about carnival, football, samba, Rio de Janeiro. And yes, it is true, we are really good at playing football. But in my case, I don't dance samba at all. I prefer rock and roll. So, what I would want to talk about are people who are really warm and friendly people.

You're always trying to catch up with friends for barbecue, for celebrating. And no matter how many people, how many problems we are having, we are always trying to put a smile on our face and trying to be happy. I decided to come to Australia in 2018 because a friend of mine was living here and he talked to me about this country, culture, the similarities between Brazil and Australia.

And I was working for a multinational company in Brazil for 10 years, but I was unmotivated, and I wasn't happy anymore there, so I decided to change. My initial plan was stay here for six months, improve my English and come back to Brazil to try to get better job opportunities. But I really like this country, people, culture, and because of this pandemic chaos that we are living as well, I rethink, and I decide to stay here for longer.

So, now I'm here in Brisbane for three years and a half and it's been an amazing and exciting adventure and journey. Peter, thank you for having me on this episode and congratulations for Aussie English, for this episode number 1,000. Congratulations. See ya.

Hi, everyone. My name is Sabrina and I live in Geelong with my family. I'm currently working as a kindergarten teacher. My experience here so far has been really, really great, especially since I moved to regional Victoria here in Geelong. I find that people here are really relaxed, chilled out and also friendly. I'm originally from Indonesia, so Indonesian is my first language.

Oh, talking about Indonesia, I think one thing that is quite surprising is some of my Australian friends, they still think that Bali is an independent nation. So, they said to me, I have never been to Indonesia, but I have been to Bali twice. I was like, wait, if you've been to Bali, that means you've been to Indonesia, because Bali definitely is part of Indonesia. It was funny.

I came to Australia in 2017 to study in Melbourne, and I've been listening to your podcast for almost a year, and I decided to join the Academy, and I think that was my best decision ever. All right. That's all for me and enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.

All right, guys. So, that's it for episode 1,000. Woohoo! Congrats. Congrats. Congrats, me. Congrats, you, everyone. Great job. I'm still just astonished that we got to episode 1,000, it seemed to have passed so quickly in the blink of an eye. Special thank you to Sahar, I forgot to mention her. Well, I didn't forget, but I didn't mention Sahar because she got the video into me after I had already finished recording the intro to this episode.

So, big thank you to Sahar, as well, for submitting her video and to everyone else from the academy who submitted theirs as well. It was really, really cool. And I'm so glad I got to feature you guys. Thank you once again, dear listener, dear viewer, dear supporter, for everything, for allowing this to be my life.

Okay, so, yeah, besides that, if you're interested in joining the academy, guys, you know, cheeky plug at the end here, it is open on the 1st of October, so keep your eyes peeled for when that happens, and I hopefully will get to see you inside and get to know you. So, yeah, big thanks. Huge, thanks. Hopefully, we get to another thousand episodes, and see you guys next time. Ciao.