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00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:34,410
We were all moulded in one part of The Dreaming, or what we call the “Jukurrpa”. We were all moulded from the Earth. And we were given “wangarru”. We all got speech. Or “Lilla”, we were given a song. And with that song came The Medicine, and The Medicine, the story for the country. And we believe that we come from the country, ‘cause we were moulded, given birth, from her. And when we finish up or when we pass on, we go back to her, we become a part of her. So, that’s another way of saying… talking about The Dreaming. And the songs are very important. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. And when you sing all the songs, you’re putting all the little jigsaw puzzle together. And it becomes a big map. And the map is Australia.

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00:00:56,510 --> 00:01:22,700
G'day, guys, and welcome to Aussie
English. My objective here is to
teach you guys the English spoken
Down Under. So whether you want to
speak like a fair dinkum Aussie or
you just want to understand what the
flippin' hell we're on about when
we're having a yarn, you've come to
the right place. So, sit back, grab a
cuppa, and enjoy Aussie English.

4
00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:40,780
G'day, you mob. How's it going?
Welcome to this episode of Aussie
English, the number one podcast for
anyone and everyone wanting to learn
Australian English.

5
00:01:41,280 --> 00:02:18,940
Guys, I'm starting to get the hang of
working from home. I'm starting to
get into the swing of things. I'm
starting to become accustomed to
having a work-from-home job, I tell
you what. It's nice to have this kind
of freedom. Like, today for instance,
got up, did a bit of work, had a
lesson, went and got some coffee with
Kel from a little cafe in Barwon
Heads, and I had a croissant with...
what was it, cheese and ham, and
something else in there. Really,
really good. If you guys haven't yet
had cheese and ham croissants in
Australia, they are really good.

6
00:02:19,490 --> 00:02:48,340
After that, came home, did a bit more
work then went for a walk, sort of
hung out on the beach, you know,
relaxed, cleared my head, listened to
a few audio books. But yeah,
definitely enjoying this kind of
lifestyle, I think, although the
downside, you know, that's the
upside, the downside is that I have
to do it all myself, right. There is
no boss that I can turn to, that kind
of comes to me and says, "Pete do
this. Have this done by this time.",
so I have to rely on my own
motivation and discipline to get
things done.

7
00:02:49,030 --> 00:02:58,950
Anyway, guys, welcome with this
episode. It's great to have you here
as usual. Hope you don't mind me sort
of sharing a bit about my life. I
love, you know, trying to give you
guys access to the inside world of
Aussie English.

8
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:21,030
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9
00:03:21,410 --> 00:03:34,420
And on top of that, you will get
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10
00:03:34,890 --> 00:04:13,380
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dialogues, natural language
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So, if you sign up to the Aussie
English Classroom, you get access to
everything okay.

11
00:04:14,350 --> 00:04:19,558
Anyway, the intro scene there. Now, I
wanted to share that. I thought it
was really important to get the story
about Dreaming and the Dreamtime
straight from the horse's mouth, as
we say in English, meaning directly
from the original source, right.

12
00:04:29,093 --> 00:04:50,230
So, we had several Aboriginals in
that video by the Australian Museum.
You'll be able to check it out via
the link in the transcript. Go watch
the whole thing. It's very
insightful, very interesting. But the
guy there talking was Eric Tamwoy,
and he was talking about Dreamtime in
Aboriginal culture and what it means
to him.

13
00:04:50,420 --> 00:04:58,370
Now, we'll go over that in today's
Aussie English fact so stick around
for that. But before then, we'll dive
into the Aussie English joke.

14
00:04:59,090 --> 00:05:21,140
So, because the expression, 'the
penny drops', is talking about
pennies, I thought I'll try and find
a joke about pennies, right. And 'a
penny' is an old form of currency
that was used in Australia that came
from Britain. So, they're still used
in Britain, pennies. They make up a
pound, I believe. But in Australia
now, we use dollars. Anyway. Here's
the joke.

15
00:05:21,820 --> 00:05:29,180
What did one penny say to the other
penny? What did one penny say to the
other penny?

16
00:05:29,930 --> 00:05:38,575
Let's get together and make some
cents. Do you get it? Let's get
together and make some cents.

17
00:05:39,420 --> 00:05:58,086
So, it's a bit of a weird joke. So,
'cents' spelt C-E-N-T-S, 100 of
those, 100 cents makes up a dollar in
dollar currency, whether it's
American dollars, Australian dollars,
Hong Kong dollars, a cent is one
hundredth of a dollar. Okay?

18
00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:19,660
Now, if we spell that S-E-N-S-E, same
pronunciation, 'sense', this can
mean, when you say 'makes some
sense', it means a way in which an
expression or situation can be
interpreted a meaning, right. So,
'what is the sense of that thing?'
would mean 'what's the meaning of
that thing?'.

19
00:06:19,670 --> 00:06:31,800
And then, if you were to say 'make
some sense', that means to be
intelligible, justifiable,
practicable, right, for it to be...
for the meaning of it to be obvious.
'To make some sense'.

20
00:06:31,870 --> 00:06:44,920
So, the joke here with currencies
pennies and cents: What did one penny
say to the other penny? Let's get
together and make some sense. Right?
So, it'll be practical and obvious if
we get together. It'll make sense.
Anyway.

21
00:06:45,070 --> 00:07:05,140
The expression today is 'the penny
drops'. 'The penny drops'. I wonder
if you guys have heard this
expression before. Now, this was
suggested by Emma. Good job, Emma.
She is in the Aussie English
Classroom. Every week on the Aussie
English Classroom students suggest
the different expressions that we
then vote on and the winner is the
one that I do for this episode.

22
00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:09,490
So, let's go through and define the
words in the expression 'the penny
drops'.

23
00:07:09,700 --> 00:07:19,480
So, again, I've already sort of
covered what 'a penny' is. 'A penny'
is a bronze coin and monetary unit
equal to one hundredth of a pound in
British currency.

24
00:07:20,116 --> 00:07:37,660
'To drop'. If you drop something, it
is that you let that thing or you
make that thing fall vertically.
Right, so I've got my wallet here in
my hand. Hopefully, you can hear
that. If I drop it onto the table,
that's what happens, right. Gravity
smacks it in to the table. 'To drop
something'.

25
00:07:38,350 --> 00:07:58,810
So, the expression. What is it mean?
'The penny drops'. 'The penny drops'.
We would use this when we suddenly
realise something, right. It's used
to indicate that someone has finally
realised something. A belated
realisation of something after a
period of confusion or ignorance.
That is when 'the penny drops'.

26
00:07:59,030 --> 00:08:19,940
Now, it originates, according to the
Oxford English Dictionary, it
originates by way of allusion to the
mechanism of a penny-in-the-slot
machine, right? So, this is where you
put a penny into a machine to get it
to do something. It's an old vintage
arcade machine that you can play by
dropping a penny into it.

27
00:08:20,350 --> 00:08:35,410
So, the earliest citation of a use of
this phrase, 'the penny drops',
meaning, 'Now I understand', was used
in the Daily Mirror in August 1939,
so it's not even 100 years old,
right. And the quote was:.

28
00:08:35,830 --> 00:08:38,860
"And then the penny dropped and I saw
his meaning".

29
00:08:39,030 --> 00:08:56,830
Right? He suddenly understood his
meaning. So, it's the image of
someone waiting for a
penny-in-the-slot mechanism, which
frequently jammed, to operate making
a loud noise, making a clicking noise
that it's working, right. Sounds
plausible. And if that isn't the
origin, it's difficult to imagine
what is.

30
00:08:56,881 --> 00:09:07,240
So, as usual, let's go through some
examples of how I would use the
expression, 'the penny drops' or 'for
the penny to drop' or 'and then the
penny dropped'.

31
00:09:07,810 --> 00:09:25,395
So, example number one. I was reading
an article this week about
catfishing, right. Have you heard of
catfishing? So, 'a cat fish',
obviously as a fish that lives in the
water and it looks like a cat because
it has whiskers on it. These fish
kind of suck the mud up and try and
get animals out of the mud.

32
00:09:25,515 --> 00:09:53,890
However, we use this to refer to
someone who pretends to be someone
else online on Facebook, on MySpace,
on whatever it is online, on dating
websites, and they assume someone
else's identity. They create fake
social media accounts and then use
them to create a fictional online
persona to lure someone into a
relationship with them. That is when
you are 'a catfish'. And then, if we
want to turn it into a noun it is
called 'catfishing'.

33
00:09:55,090 --> 00:10:27,910
So, I read an article about a
horrifying story, again, which I'll
link in the transcript, where this
girl was catfished by what turned out
to be another woman. And when the
girl finally realises after months
and months and months that she'd been
tricked, that she'd been duped by a
catfish, she said that the penny
finally dropped. She finally realised
the person was a fake who had assumed
someone else's identity online, who
had been catfishing her, who was a
catfish, and the penny finally
dropped.

34
00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:34,843
Example number two. Maybe you've got
a meddling mother who's always trying
to play matchmaker and set you up on
dates with her friends' children. So,
she is always meddling in your
affairs and try to set you up with
these people to go out with them, and
you know, hoping you'll end up in a
relationship.

35
00:10:44,793 --> 00:11:16,940
You've probably heard of that kind of
mother. Maybe you had a mother like
that. Mine wasn't, thankfully. So,
she keeps doing, you know, she keeps
trying to get you to go out and meet
her friends kids, she keeps telling
you to come to social events, and
then she pushes you towards them,
tells you, you know, "Go and
introduce yourself! Say hello to
this person". If she keeps doing this
incessantly, and then you suddenly
realise what she's up to, what she is
trying to achieve, what she's doing,
she's trying to set you up with a
friends' sons or daughters and find
your partner, the penny finally
drops, right?

36
00:11:16,970 --> 00:11:28,370
The penny has dropped once you
realise. So, you realise what she's
doing, you realise what she's trying
to accomplish with her constant
nagging for you to meet these people.
The penny finally drops.

37
00:11:29,210 --> 00:11:52,800
Example number three. Maybe like me
you're married and your anniversary's
coming up, so the date when you guys
got married is quickly approaching
that you celebrate every year, your
anniversary. And imagine your wife or
your husband keeps asking subtle
questions like: "What are you doing
next week? Are you free on Saturday?
Can you make sure that you leave
Sunday free and not organise anything
with your mates?".

38
00:11:53,300 --> 00:12:16,700
At first, you might be sort of
confused and wonder why all of a
sudden, you know, your partner is
trying to find out about your plans
and make sure that you don't schedule
anything, but then you realise, then
the penny drops, and you realise
she's trying to organise something
for our anniversary. The penny drops,
you cotton on to what she's trying to
plan, and obviously, you know, if you
were me, you let her plan those
things.

39
00:12:18,130 --> 00:12:30,500
Anyway. So, hopefully now, guys, you
understand the expression 'the penny
drops'. It means for you to suddenly
realise something, right? So, if
you... if the penny finally drops for
you, you have suddenly realised
something.

40
00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:39,710
So, as usual, let's go through a
little listen and repeat exercise.
This is your chance to practice your
pronunciation, so listen and repeat
after me, guys.

41
00:12:40,730 --> 00:12:41,730
And.

42
00:12:41,731 --> 00:12:41,920
And then.

43
00:12:41,921 --> 00:12:42,194
And then the.

44
00:12:48,135 --> 00:12:49,135
And then the penny

45
00:12:52,230 --> 00:12:53,624
And then the penny dropped x 5

46
00:13:19,290 --> 00:13:20,067
I said that's when the penny dropped.

47
00:13:21,561 --> 00:13:31,150
You said that's when the penny
dropped.

48
00:13:37,410 --> 00:13:40,230
He said that's when the penny
dropped.

49
00:13:46,550 --> 00:13:47,369
She said that's when the penny
dropped.

50
00:13:48,989 --> 00:13:49,787
We said that's when the penny
dropped.

51
00:13:58,186 --> 00:14:08,140
They said that's when the penny
dropped.

52
00:14:14,430 --> 00:14:17,340
It said that's when the penny
dropped.

53
00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:45,370
Good job, guys. Good job. Now, notice
there what happens to the D and the
TH between 'said that' and between
'and then', right? If I say those
quickly, have a listen. Do you hear
D_TH like D TH, or do you hear no D?
Okay? I'll say both of those.

54
00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:46,615
And then.

55
00:14:46,616 --> 00:14:50,836
Said that.

56
00:14:54,190 --> 00:15:25,930
There's no D there, right? So, we're
not releasing the D. We go... the
tongue goes to make the D sound, but
then go straight into the TH. Now,
this is called assimulation where two
different sounds kind of joined
together and one may disappear. If
you want to learn more about that,
make sure that you join up to the
Aussie English Classroom, and go
through all the pronunciation lessons
that I have in the Australian English
Pronunciation Course. You'll learn
all about this kind of connected
speech, and using these tricks and
tips is going to make you sound a lot
more like a native speaker.

57
00:15:26,500 --> 00:15:32,722
Anyway, guys, let's get into the
Aussie fact today where I wanted to
talk about the Dreamtime and the
Dreaming.

58
00:15:33,340 --> 00:15:41,404
So, I wanted to talk about the
Dreamtime and the Dreaming because
this is the religio-cultural
worldview attributed to Australian
Aboriginal beliefs, and it's very
important to Aboriginals, obviously,
and is a big part of Australian
culture. Most Australians are going
to know if you mention the Dreamtime
of the Dreaming, right. So, they'll
have an idea of what you're talking
about.

59
00:15:55,414 --> 00:16:12,120
So, these terms were first coined by
Australian anthropologist Frances
Gillen and his colleague W. Baldwin
Spencer who studied the indigenous
tribes around Alice Springs, and they
publish their work in the book The
Native Tribes of Central Australia.

60
00:16:12,730 --> 00:16:29,320
In that work, they spoke of the
'alcheringa', an indigenous word
from the Aranda people of Central
Australia, which was translated as
"the name applied to the far distant
past with which the earliest
traditions of that tribe deal".

61
00:16:29,940 --> 00:16:47,610
Five years later, in their book The
Northern Tribes of Central Australia,
they gloss 'the far distant age' as
'the Dream times' and they link it to
the word 'alcheri' meaning dream, and
affirm that the term is also used by
many other indigenous peoples nearby.

62
00:16:48,310 --> 00:16:56,773
That said, it has been argued that it
is based on a misunderstanding or
mistranslation. Some scholars suggest
that the word's meaning is closer to
"eternal, uncreated". Anthropologist
William Stanner once remarked "Why
the blackfellow thinks of dreaming as
the nearest equivalent in English is
a puzzle", and said that the concept
was best understood by non-Aboriginal
people as a "complex of meanings".

63
00:17:14,506 --> 00:17:19,056
So, what's the difference between The
Dreamtime and The Dreaming.

64
00:17:19,710 --> 00:17:44,501
The Dreamtime is the period in which
life was created according to
Aboriginal culture. In the Dreamtime,
all elements of the natural
world--animals, plants, hills, rocks,
rivers, waterholes, deserts--they
were all created by spiritual beings
or by ancestors often of heroic
proportions or with supernatural
abilities who inhabited the land at
the time.

65
00:17:44,538 --> 00:18:04,990
These figures were often distinct
from 'gods' as they did not control
the material world and they weren't
worshipped, but instead only revered.
The stories of their creation are the
foundation of Aboriginal lore and
culture, and they are also the
subjects painted by many Aboriginal
artists.

66
00:18:05,470 --> 00:18:20,049
According to Aboriginal lore, all
living things were either created by
the ancestors themselves or by
spiritual beings. So, for example, a
river may be an ancestor or it may be
a creation snake, a spiritual being.

67
00:18:20,380 --> 00:18:27,982
In contrast to The Dreamtime, The
Dreaming explains how life came to
be. It is sort of the equivalent of
Genesis in the Bible. It is the
stories and beliefs behind the
creation. It is called different
names in different Aboriginal
languages such as 'Ngarranggarni' by
the Gija people, the 'Jukurrpa' by
the Warlpiri people or 'the Ungud' by
the Ngarinyin people.

68
00:18:47,038 --> 00:19:05,260
The Dreaming explains how things came
to be. For example, why is a rock a
certain shape or in a specific
location. Why did the echidna get its
spikes? Why does the moon return full
every month? How did kangaroos get
their tails?

69
00:19:06,010 --> 00:19:16,279
On top of explaining how and why the
world is the way it is, The Dreaming
also commands the rules and ways of
being in Aboriginal culture. Dreaming
stories explain these beliefs such
as: the lesson not to hurt animals;
who one should marry and bear
children with according to the
Aboriginal skin system; or who one
should not talk to, again, according
to the Aboriginal skin system; how
one should show respect in another's
country; how one should welcome
strangers into one's own country.

70
00:19:37,654 --> 00:19:50,880
So, it dictates how one needs to
behave in certain circumstances. The
Dreaming stories are the cultural rules
and obligations Aboriginal people are
expected to live by within their
culture.

71
00:19:51,270 --> 00:20:08,430
The Dreaming is not static or linear.
It is the past, but it is also the
present and the future. It is
constantly evolving to explain events
and changes today, such as floods and
storms, and both negative and
positive occurrences in people's
lives.

72
00:20:08,730 --> 00:20:25,050
Because Australian Aboriginals never
had written language, The Dreamtime
and The Dreaming are oral traditions
that have been passed down through
thousands of generations for maybe
more than 65,000 years as songs and
stories.

73
00:20:25,380 --> 00:20:42,090
So, guys I hope you enjoy this
episode. I hope you learnt a little
bit about indigenous culture in
Australia. And if you would like to
hear a story, a Dreamtime story, make
sure that you sign up to the Aussie
English Classroom, because I'm going
to add that in today's expression of
course.

74
00:20:42,220 --> 00:20:46,320
Okay. Anyway with that, thanks for
joining me and I'll see you next
time. Peace.

75
00:20:49,690 --> 00:21:01,971
G'day, mate. Thanks for listening to
this episode of the Aussie English
podcast. If you wish to support the
podcast and help me keep bringing new
content, you can do so via my Patreon
page.

76
00:21:03,420 --> 00:21:26,700
Remember, it's my mission here at
Aussie English not only to help you
understand Australian English, but to
speak it like a native. If that's
your goal, make sure you enroll in
the Aussie English Classroom, guys,
where we'll get all the bonus content
for today's episode designed to
improve your English even faster.

77
00:21:27,090 --> 00:21:30,180
Have a ripper of a day and I'll see
you in class.