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G'day, guys! Welcome to this
interview episode of the Aussie
English podcast. Today, I have my
special guest, one of my students
Yong, who is from China and he has
been working his arse off on his
accent for a long time, he's been
working very hard. He is in the
Aussie English Classroom and has been
using the Aussie English
Pronunciation course, he's been going
crazy in this course to level up his
pronunciation.

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So, today I thought that I would get
him on, so that he can talk about his
experience coming to Australia, he
can talk about learning the accent,
learning slang, expressions, fitting
in, because he's been here now for a
good slog. He's been here for a good
chunk of time, I think 15 years, but
yeah, he's been working his butt off.
It's a really good interview, I think
you'll get a lot out of it and also I
want to announce that if you guys
would like the Australian
Pronunciation course, you can now buy
that separately, ok?

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So, if you are just interested in
working on your Australian English,
learning how to pronounce the 20
different vowels in English, the 26
different consonants in English, as
well as go through exercises, learn
the IPA, the International Phonetic
Alphabet, and also have minimal pair
exercises where you can learn those
tricky different sounds that are very
close, very close to one another,
right? Like sheep and ship.

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Make sure that you sign up for the
Aussie English Pronunciation course.
If you're in the Aussie English
Classroom, though, you already have
access to this course, at least for
now. Things are going to change in
the future for new members, but if
you want access to this course, click
the link that I will provide and you
can sign up for it.

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Anyway. Let's get into this episode.
Yong, take it away.

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G'day, guys! Welcome to this episode
of Aussie English. Today, I have
special guest, Yong on the podcast.
Young is from China, do you want to
give us, I guess give us a bit of an
intro, tell us your story, Youg. How
did you end up in Australia with such
a good Australian accent too?

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Well, Hi everyone. My name is Yong,
I'm from China. I've been here for
probably 14 years. Thanks Peter for
inviting me, basically I think I'm
here to share my experience, although
I hope that it can be helpful, but
again I don't know. Basically I did
my study back in China and I came
here about probably 14 years ago, I
did at PhD in Monash and basically I
found, when I first came, I'm pretty
much daunting about how much I
couldn't understand the English,
because we learned the United States
accent a bit more and then I first
came, I was like 'what's going on
here? Are you talking in English or
not?'

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What made you decide to come to
Australia, out of all the different,
so you had like Canada, America,
Britain to choose from? At the time
was there a big emphasis on Australia
being closer and a much better choice
because of that or?

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00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:37,260
Yes. Sorry, I was a bit sidetracked.
Because I was doing my masters degree
and then my supervisor had a good
relationship with some guy here and
then the guy in here wanted a PhD
student and then I was recommended,
that's what happened. Basically, it
followed the trend other than
anything was planned.

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00:03:38,020 --> 00:03:45,799
And, sowhat was it like when you
first got here? Was there a big
culture shock and language shock and
everything like that? What was the
experience like?

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I think cultural wise was ok, because
we watch a lot, you know, movies from
the United States, from Australia.
So, I think the main language,
because we were learning English
pretty much for 10 or 20 years, and I
thought that to be ok, but that one
is came because we had a seminar. I
remember the first exactly day on the
afternoon, I just fresh off the boat,
as you may say, and I was there and
couldn't hardly understand probably
10 percent. I was actually so
shocked.

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What was the difficult part? Was it
just the pronunciation or the slang,
the expressions?

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I didn't know back then, but now I
think because the contractions. The
linking as well, because in Chinese
if you're going to learn a word or a
sentence, as long as you know how to
pronounce every single word, you put
them together and that's it, but in
English you're then linking
everything together, and sometimes
like three words sound like one word,
and now that make you lost, if you
know what I mean. Like, what's going
on?

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00:04:48,430 --> 00:05:00,842
So, did you have to pay attention to
that and try and actively learn that
or was that just something that came
with time? The more exposure that you
had, the more you sort of got your
head around that you could understand
when people were contracting things.

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00:05:02,210 --> 00:05:14,215
I guess half and half, I would say.
Because I my wife is Chinese as well,
so we don't really speak any English,
plus she's not a native speaker. If I
had someone who is with me was a
native speaker, I reckon I could have
picked up a bit quicker.

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Yeah.

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I think I, since I started this
lesson with you, I started pick up a
lot because no one has explained to
me what's going on here. It's a bit
slow if you go with a natural course,
but I reckon if you could get someone
to teach you, especially the best
ways to get to a native speaker
partner, I think that's possible.

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Definitely, well, that's and that's
what we've been doing, obviously, in
lessons. Because it's hard when
you're trying to learn, you know, and
you don't have someone there to point
out each time you should be linking
words or not. But have you noticed
that helping, as soon as you sort of
had those things pointed out, did
that really help you be able to hear
it when other people are using it?

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Now I can pick 'oh, that's how they
say it', but before I could
understand, but when I was speaking
the same sense I couldn't do it. When
you say it, I could get it, but again
I can't just the copy it.

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So, whereabouts in Australia did you
move to and how did you choose which
city or the, oh sorry, it was chosen
for you, right? If you had to do the
PhD here.

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Yeah, basically everything was set
up, so I just came to Melbourne after
Monash University, I started over
there.

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And how how did you find it? When you
got here what was it like? How would
you compare it to where you'd come
from in China?

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I guess it's a lovely city, the
people are certainly nice and also
tolerant because, you know, in my
language that wasn't great, but the
people were so support it, everyone
would slow down when they talked to
me, also because I showed an
interesting in aussie accent, so they
teach me actually how to say it
properly and that's great.

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The people here are lovely, the
culture is great. I think that's why
people come to Australia, because
that's this is a great city, a great
country, got great people.

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00:07:10,959 --> 00:07:27,899
So, what advice would you have for
Chinese people if they were to arrive
tomorrow saying that they are finding
the language difficult too? Having
gone through it yourself, what sort
of advice would you give them if they
came to you and said 'Yong I'm having
trouble with the accent, I'm having
trouble with the slang, what should I
do?'.

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There is no easy way to do it, which
I didn't know. I thought I would pick
up very quickly, but actually no easy
way, you can you can get better other
than practice expose yourself to the
native speakers and watch news. I got
a guy, I knew a guy who's from South
Korea. He my co PhD student and he
was here probably a couple more years
than I was back then, he was speaking
fluently, I just asking how he get to
where you are now in terms of your
language and he told me basically
watch the news every day, also talk
to native speakers as well.
Basically, and you have to practice
as well.

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No, you go, you go, keep going.

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I do know a lot Chinese people, they
can understand with no problem, but
when they talk, that's a very thick
accent. I'm still having accent, but
the accent isn't much thicker, I
think they just don't pay attention
to what they say or what the way you
say. It's just come out naturally.

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00:08:33,179 --> 00:09:02,150
It's difficult, though, right too? I
guess too, once you're at the stage
where you can communicate relatively
well, 90% of the time you kind of
don't need to work your ass off the
same way to be able to get, you know,
to improve and it also requires even
more work, right? Like that last
little per cent which we're working
on now with your accent and
pronunciation that the smallest last
little, you know, 5% is often the
hardest to squeeze out of the bottle,
right? It's the last 5% of the tomato
sauce bottle.

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Yeah, I guess, you can if you have
the motivation to push yourself a bit
more. Otherwise, you could be leading
comfortably because you can speak,
you can understand, you have no
problem to communicate, but really up
to yourself, you want to speak
properly, you know, and sound a bit
like proper English speakers. I
reckon you still need put in a lot of
work.

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I think that's it. You have to see it
as a journey that keeps going. I
don't think it sort of ends. You
don't think ok, I'll study hard for
three months and then we'll be done,
you know? I'll be a native speaker
and whatever language. You have to
think this is going to be an ongoing
process, even me with pronunciation
in French, which I've studied since I
was 13, it's something that I have to
keep paying attention to and
practicing French pronunciation and
every time I get something wrong take
a note, sit down and be like alright,
I'll practice this sound again, it's
an ongoing thing, right?

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00:09:57,990 --> 00:10:27,919
And do you find it is it even harder
for you as a Chinese person who's
come to Melbourne, because there are
so many Chinese people in Melbourne,
do you want to talk about what that
was like? Because you probably got
here when, obviously, there was a lot
fewer Chinese people then than today.
So, do you want to talk about how
that's changed and also what it's
like trying to improve your English
when so many of your own compatriots,
people from your own country, live in
the city where you're trying to sort
of thrive, right?

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Again, that's really hard and I think
if you only, you know, hang out with
your own friends basically from your
own country, you won't get through it
at all. I know a couple of girls,
they were really smart, they, you
know, they get some foreign like
Aussie friends, like a boyfriend,
their English was so much better, so
much improved after half a year, you
say 'oh this girl is talking in
native aussie accent', but for us or
someone else who's only stay with
your own friends from the same
country, you really don't get any any
way to improve at all.

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So, did you have to at the time worry
about ok, I'm not going to try and
spend too much time with other
Chinese people because my English is
going to suffer, my cultural
integration here if I'm planning to
live here permanently is going to
suffer, if if as soon as I jump off
the boat, land in Australia I find,
you know, it's easier to hang out
with other Chinese people and just
make that my social network? Did you
have to pay attention to that or was
it just something that naturally
happened?

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I think that's up to your
personality. If you are someone who
like to know new people, you can make
more friends. You wouldn't have any
trouble. Again, you still can hang
out with your own friends after work,
but during the work you still got
aussie friends and you can hang out
with them, go out for lunch, talk to
them about everything and then slowly
you still can pick up a bit of
English, but it does take a long
time, to be honest.

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Is it weird? Are there those two
kinds of Chinese people you meet in
Melbourne too, where you have the
hardworking immigrant who's come here
and wants to stay here and then you
have the student who's come for the
degree and then is planning to go
home and, so they have two different
kind of views of what they're going
to do when they get here, right?

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You'll have the the one person who's
planning to live here forever,
obviously, trying to really fit in
and learn English and then at least I
found when I was at uni there was a
lot of Chinese students who just kind
of wanted to get the degree and then
go home and, so they weren't in much
of they were like 'I don't really
want to worry too much about you know
getting integrated or making a lot of
Australian friends because I'm
planning to leave after a few years',
which makes sense, but do you find it
difficult to sort of get along with
those other kinds of, I guess,
migrants here in Australia?

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Not particularly, but I guess in the
meantime if you're going to make
friends, you guys are going to have
something in common to share. If you
are interested in English, someone
else say 'don't worry about it! You
are speaking good enough' and why
would you bother? Why go out to have
a deal or something, have you relax,
but for myself like or someone else
who would like to learn to be it's
get a bit better. I think you meet
always some people who you are alike,
if you know what I mean. But I guess
I didn't really think about that way,
but I don't think I had any trouble
to see or meet any friends like
Chinese, if that answers your
question.

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That's the sort of criticism I get at
least from the other side, right?
Where a lot of, especially Chinese
people that I've met at university,
they would say 'it's so hard to meet
Australians here, it's so hard to
make Australian friends', and I would
ask them all 'what are you doing?'.
You know, like in terms of
socializing, what do you actually do?
And they would say 'I come to uni and
hang out with my other Chinese
friends, speak Chinese or speak
Mandarin or whatever it is,
Cantonese', and I'm like well,
clearly then it's hard for
Australians to sort of insert
themselves into that into that
environment, so the onus is on you,
right?

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00:14:05,214 --> 00:14:26,006
Like if you want to get Australian
friends, you can't wait for them to
come and find you, right? You kind of
have to go and find them. So, what
did you do in order to do that? Were
there specific activities that you
took up or places you went or things
you did that really helped you, you
know, establish a better social
circle once you were here?

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00:14:26,870 --> 00:15:17,270
Yeah, I guess I was a bit lucky,
because I was doing PhD, basically
the lab place, I'm sure you've got a
similar experience, it's not the
classroom place. Yeah, basically we
do have a lot of interaction with
people doing the work. Also, we
didn't have much Chinese students
back then. I had to push myself to
talk to Aussies. Also, you have to go
out hang out with them, because our
culture is different. If you want to
meet your friends, which who have a
different background you may have to
do the things they would be
interested in. You can't get them to
come out to your way, like doing
whatever you would enjoy, which
doesn't work that way.

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It's almost like dating, right? As a
man. If you go out, it's like you
can't just wait for the women to come
up to you, you have to walk up to
them and say how's it going? You
know, where are you from? What do you
do?

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And in the meantime, I guess, that's
a good way to learn your culture as
well to see what are the guys doing
out of work and what they talk about.
And I remember this time when I first
came in during the lunch we, you
know, we have a lunch table 'you guys
are talking about something I don't
know', I didn't know, I was like
'what are they talking about?'. So
there's and new words, new vocabs,
what's going on? I was like totally
lost. (?) fake my laugh sometimes 'oh
yeah, yeah, that's interesting',
actually I didn't get it.

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It's funny because for us, I mean,
I'm sure did you think at the time
too it's really awkward? Like, I
don't want to ask what does this
mean? What does this mean? What does
this mean? All the time, but for us,
at least, quite often it was always
sort of like a pleasure when people
show an interest in the culture or
the language or that sort of stuff or
they get lost in a conversation,
because we're talking about footy or
whatever. It tends to be sort of like
'oh yeah, we get to tell someone and
share this with them', right? So, did
you find that you had a good reaction
from people when you would be in
those situations? How did you deal
with those situations?

45
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I guess, I was like... What do you
say to people? I felt embarrassed to
ask you guys everything 'oh, what
that word is?, What that word is?',
but in the meantime you guys are
really, really helpful like you said,
whenever I'm going to ask them any
question, they slow down, they
explain to me what's the background
or what are you talking about. But
you're still with a feeling, you
know, you stop the conversation
because everything flows really well,
and than you're like 'sorry, guys! I
didn't get it!'. They look at you,
not like an idiot, but 'oh, this guy
doesn't know what we're talking
about'. I think it can happen a bit,
but not all the time, if you know
what I mean.

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You have to sort of balance it,
right? Because if you're doing that
all the time you might irritate
people, but if you never do it,
you're just going to be sitting on
the outside never learning or picking
anything up, right?

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I think I was basically just asking
anything really critical, in the
meantime I probably got another 80%,
if you know what I mean. If I got
nothing, like I only got 20% I just
didn't bother to ask, because that's
going to take too much for them to
explain to me, But if already got 80%
or something I can ask a little bit.

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Did you have any interesting
experiences with learning slang in
Australia, where you either heard a
word for a long time and then it only
clicked later what it was or that you
used a word and people reacted in a
different way than you were
expecting?

49
00:17:47,070 --> 00:17:57,068
Yeah, a lot! And I think I showed
them my interests in all the slangs,
and a guy bought me a book, I think
we have the Christmas Kringles. Is
that right?

50
00:18:00,290 --> 00:18:07,009
Kris Kringle, yeah. Kris Kringle,
where everyone buys a present for
someone else that they draw out of a
hat the name of that person at work.

51
00:18:07,860 --> 00:18:15,822
Yeah, I got a book, which is that
'All the Slang' because I showed
interest. I read through everything,
but I think most of them you guys
don't talk about anymore.

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00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:38,269
That's the difficulty with those
books. Quite a lot of those slang
books tend to be... I think the
people who publish the newest book
get the old book and just copy and
paste it and add a few new things.
So, it's been, you know, they've been
using the old words since the
eighteen hundreds or whatever and, so
there's some stuff in there, but did
you end up learning a lot of
Australian slang?

53
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,915
I learned a fair bit, yeah, but some
bad ones I won't say that here. .

54
00:18:44,980 --> 00:18:50,079
You tell me after the podcast
episode. What good ones did you learn
and what was it like using them?

55
00:18:50,750 --> 00:18:54,112
I think one of them was 'build a
bridge and get over it'.

56
00:18:54,710 --> 00:18:55,710
That's a good expression.

57
00:18:55,870 --> 00:19:07,013
Yeah. Because some guy just I think
we had a guy who's got Taiwanese
background, he was bit funny in a
way, I'm not saying he's a bad
person, but I think he's easily get
upset.

58
00:19:08,250 --> 00:19:09,620
Do you mean with other Chinese
people?

59
00:19:09,850 --> 00:19:25,890
Yeah, with everyone else, basically.
And some guy just came out saying
that 'build bridges and get over it',
I was like what does that mean, and
he explained to me, I got it. Build a
bridge and get over it.

60
00:19:26,420 --> 00:19:28,356
It's sort of like get past your
problems, right? Let it go.

61
00:19:29,771 --> 00:19:33,860
Let it go, yeah, leave it. That's one
of them.

62
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,885
And do you use many other words
things like 'arvo' and 'barbie' and
those sorts of things?

63
00:19:37,471 --> 00:19:55,094
Yes, I still remember the first time
my co student said 'when are you
going these arvo?' I said 'what is
arvo? What is it?' He said
'afternoon!'. And now I know you guys
normally put a O after a lot of
things, like servo, arvo.

64
00:19:57,100 --> 00:20:03,766
Yeah, it was just a matter of
learning the patterns and then you
can kind of infer what they're
talking about, right?

65
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:18,811
If you know one and you know oh this
guy, and you guys talking adding a E
after like... Even the name Yong,
they call me 'Yongy' and anything
like that, it sound like really
friendly and close.

66
00:20:18,950 --> 00:20:38,089
Well, that's something worth talking
about too. If you get a nickname in
Australia it's a very cultural thing
where it means that you're sort of
being embraced by people.That's a
very friendly thing as you say. So,
yeah, if anyone ever gives you a
nickname, obviously, if it's not a
rude nickname, if it's your name with
an extra vowel or something like
'Peto' or 'Petey' then you know that
it's because you're being embraced.

67
00:20:38,540 --> 00:21:04,039
Yeah, I like it when they called me
Yongy, I felt really welcomed, but
it's funny, you have to be careful. I
remember one day, I know a guy whose
name is Peter, we Peter, we normally
called him 'Pete', because that's
like close. I saw the other guy was
proper academic, and I don't know why
I called him 'Pete' and he wouldn't
be upset.

68
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:05,269
Really?

69
00:21:05,270 --> 00:21:06,270
Yeah he's like 'call me Peter, not
Pete'.

70
00:21:07,730 --> 00:21:26,450
Yeah, sometimes that happens, I
think, with the older generation.
They'll be a little bit more,
especially in those kinds of jobs
where there's a bit more of a
hierarchy, so I think yeah, generally
with shortening people's names you'll
do it when you know them and you hear
other people doing it, but yeah, but
that's funny those sorts of lessons
are important, right? Because how
else  you learn those things?

71
00:21:26,990 --> 00:21:31,210
Yeah, probably I didn't know him
really well, I don't know how I
called him 'Pete'.

72
00:21:32,420 --> 00:21:36,928
Well, if you're used to calling
everyone you meet who's called
'Peter', you know, 'Pete' ...

73
00:21:36,972 --> 00:21:45,140
Just came out from my mouth without
being noticed then that he was a
bit... he wasn't upset, he just said
'no, call me Peter, not Pete'.

74
00:21:45,740 --> 00:21:51,113
Sometimes people are just weird too
and they don't like short names, so
they'll always be like, you know,
just call me Christopher, not Chris.

75
00:21:53,450 --> 00:22:05,150
And he was proper, you know, academic
and he's like mid 50s or something.
Probably he's not used to these short
name, probably not showing enough
respect. Yeah, that's fine.

76
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:18,979
So, how does it feel today, Yong,
compared to when you first got here?
How have you changed as a person?
Have you found that you've changed as
a result of being exposed to
Australian culture or through
learning English or anything like
that?

77
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:46,769
Yeah. One of my friends said that
someone like us who's been overseas
for 10 or 15 years, but who still
expand on the 15 year also back in
their own country, we kind of lost
our root. Because we are kind of not
like the people who's been backing
their own country for 30 years and
also we're not like you guys because
you guys are born here. So, kind of
we are in the middle.

78
00:22:46,860 --> 00:22:50,970
Sort of on the fence, right? You got
one foot on each side of the fence.

79
00:22:51,430 --> 00:23:12,004
It's a bit of a funny position
sometimes when I go back to my
hometown, I had a different opinion
about certain things from them, which
is understandable and back in here I
still would have something different
as well, like different views because
that's how I put myself, probably
just over the fence, you know, one
leg on one side.

80
00:23:13,761 --> 00:23:14,761
How often are you going home?

81
00:23:15,545 --> 00:23:16,619
Probably once a year.

82
00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:21,660
And did you notice a slow change as
you were doing that or was it a
really quick thing?

83
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:36,579
It's not quick, but it's obvious.
Because whenever you go back, there's
new words coming up and you don't
know what have you done, it's on the
Internet, very quickly coming up and
I don't know what it means.

84
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:38,099
Yeah.

85
00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:51,590
The way we, I guess, the way you're
treating people are different.
Because I think I'm doing probably 60
or 70% Aussie ways now, which is
common in China.

86
00:23:51,650 --> 00:23:56,599
So, what? It's hard to turn that off
and switch back into Chinese mode
when you go home?

87
00:23:56,910 --> 00:24:09,454
Yeah I remember one one time he and
the Kel talked about the calling
people's name as well, you know,
other than, you know, fully... If you
want to show you respect you can't
call the name, but I do, even when
I'm going back to China because I
just forgot.

88
00:24:12,587 --> 00:24:13,910
You mean their first names?

89
00:24:14,101 --> 00:24:18,679
Yeah. People got offended sometimes,
which is understandable.

90
00:24:20,180 --> 00:24:25,309
That must be hard, right? Especially
when it's such a deep cultural thing
on both sides.

91
00:24:26,300 --> 00:24:38,413
Also, we call 'you' in Chinese we
have two different words. One is
simple 'you'. The other one is
slightly different, but it shows a
lot respect. People use the other
like a 'nin'.

92
00:24:39,410 --> 00:24:42,886
Yeah. So, you got 'ni' then 'nin'
with the N on the end, right?

93
00:24:44,510 --> 00:24:57,579
'Nin' is more more respectful, but I
just can't be bothered to use it. You
know, I probably have been here for
too long, but people do get offended,
like 'this guy is just so rude'.

94
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:02,690
Do they think that you're being
arrogant if you do that sort of thing
like you see youself above those
people?

95
00:25:03,170 --> 00:25:20,331
Yeah. We had a kind of meeting with
the Chinese Embassy a couple of days,
a couple of years ago, And I think
just after I finished my PhD. And the
I didn't use this proper 'nin', I
could see the we called them, you
know, official...

96
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:26,740
How dare you not respect me?

97
00:25:27,140 --> 00:25:31,180
Yeah. like 'what are you doing?' I've
got to get a new name and talk to you
later.

98
00:25:31,230 --> 00:26:02,150
So, that was that's something very
difficult to get used to? Because I
know that a lot of students when they
get here, they they didn't realize
how casual Australians are and how
much we hate formality, compared to
even Britain, which we're pretty
culturally similar to, but we hate
the class differences. So, quite
often you'll have people who are in
the upper class, you know, say on an
amazing wage and academic, for
example, who will quite often be like
still using slang, using first names,
wanting you to use their first name.

99
00:26:02,180 --> 00:26:17,444
So, like my supervisors, always, at
university had me use their first
names. Sometimes their nicknames.
They would never get me to call them,
you know, Doctor, Dr. Smissen, you
know? Or anything like that, they
would be like 'oh, that's
uncomfortable'. So, was that really
weird to get used to?

100
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:30,873
Very weird. It took me, and I would
say, it took me nearly an year to get
over it, because I just thought
that's just so rude to call someone's
name, who is actually more senior,
but later on...

101
00:26:33,710 --> 00:26:56,285
It's difficult, right? Though,
because if you do it, you kind of
hold yourself out outside of the
group, right? If you can't match the
formality or informality of that
group you kind of either seem to be
weird or really rude, right? So it
was there there a certain thing or
anything like a certain piece of
advice you would have in order to get
over that do you just dive in?

102
00:26:57,140 --> 00:27:06,786
I guess you just watch for other
people like what they do and then
also you could talk to some close
friend ask is this ok if I do this or
not?

103
00:27:06,950 --> 00:27:07,489
Yes.

104
00:27:07,490 --> 00:27:14,630
I guess, to get some advice from
local people, because you probably
don't know when you first came in.
Yeah, which is very common.

105
00:27:15,910 --> 00:27:19,372
Exactly. And, so finishing up, have
you done much travel around
Australia?

106
00:27:20,550 --> 00:27:31,043
I have. I've been to South Australia,
I've been to Cairns, I've been to
Sydney, but mainly work related and
(?) holiday as well.

107
00:27:34,110 --> 00:27:39,015
How do you find them? What was the
difference between somewhere like
South Australia and Cairns?

108
00:27:41,130 --> 00:27:56,579
South Australia I think is more
classic, formal. How do you put it?
Like, not laid back and you said laid
back , but Queensland or Cairns like
a more laid back people, they don't
really care much, very easy going.

109
00:27:57,150 --> 00:27:58,150
Could be related to the temperature,
right?

110
00:27:59,460 --> 00:28:16,039
But South is really more proper, you
know, culture wise is very
conservative as well. People are
really nice, really nice, but proper,
properly presented, talk to you
properly, other than, you know, like
mates like 'how are you going,
mate?'.

111
00:28:17,570 --> 00:28:20,907
So, you had that happen in Cairns,
did you? You hada lot of this ' how's
it going?'

112
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:33,539
Yeah, yeah. 'How's it going? How's it
going?' And then also I watch the
news as well. I think some guys from
Queensland are more talking in a
strong Australian accent.

113
00:28:36,150 --> 00:29:25,259
I think it's partly, I reckon, it
must be because there's a lot
more...what would you say? Rurality,
right? So, there is a lot more
countryside, the biggest city is
Brisbane, which is pretty much in the
lower southeast corner of that entire
state. And then the rest of it is
just small towns with, you know,
maybe fifty thousand people max and,
so I think a lot of them end up
growing up in the country or far from
the city and, so that kind of a
strong Australian accent gets
reinforced quite a lot, whereas mine,
I think, dropped off when I went to
Melbourne to go to university,
because all of a sudden you're
surrounded with foreigners, you're
surrounded with, you know, formal
situations and, so you kind of have
to make your accent a bit more
cultivated compared to 'how's it
going?' Yeah! Give us a shrimp!'.

114
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,730
Yeah. Did you have this kind of
accent before you...?

115
00:29:29,120 --> 00:30:22,609
I don't think it was too strong, but
it was definitely stronger and I
think I used more slang, because... I
think it's kind of the opposite,
right? Of you coming to Australia and
having to learn the slang to fit in
because you want conversations to go
effortlessly, I think it was the same
for me in the other direction, where
all of a sudden I came from a town
where it's probably 99.9 Aussie born
Anglo Saxons and then I came to
Melbourne where it's probably, you
know, what? 40 per cent less Anglo
Saxons and everyone there, the
majority of people speak another
language as their first language, so
you have to... You can't just go, you
know, 'how's it going, guys! Want to
go to a barbie this arvo?' with
everyone you meet in the street,
because every single time you'd have
to be like, ok 'how's it going, guys?
Would you like to go to a barbecue
this afternoon?'. And, so I think you
have to tone it down. You have to
kind of, you know, find that middle
ground because you don't want to
repeat yourself all the time, right?

116
00:30:24,820 --> 00:30:39,942
Yeah, because of work sometimes I go
to the rural areas. I found those
people down there not getting used to
the foreign accent much, because you
have to like like us, like foreigners
we have to speak slowly, but in
Melbourne, you guys getting used to
it. You can understand it.

117
00:30:41,250 --> 00:31:17,965
I think that's what it is all about,
right? You're around those people,
the people you're around all the
time, you know, you get used to and,
so that's with Melbourne, yeah it is
funny, it'd be interesting to measure
the average, you know, native born
Australian in Melbourne and their
capacity to understand foreign
accents, because like for instance
the Indian accent is really difficult
to understand. If someone has a very
thick Indian accent, but I think
again from living in Melbourne for a
long time I'm pretty good with it now
and I can't imagine if you put
someone like that in the middle of
outback Queensland, people would be
like 'I've never come across this
accent and I have no idea what he's
saying'.

118
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:21,342
Yeah. Just like when I first came to
Australia, I guess.

119
00:31:22,410 --> 00:31:31,519
It's not easy, but where would you
live? If you could live anywhere in
Australia, you weren't tied down to
say Melbourne and a career here,
where would you decide to live?

120
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:49,770
I think we like Melbourne a lot, but
I guess in the future we still open
to other options as well, against
mainly for... probably for the kids
and possibly our jobs. You know, if
we find a job in some other places, I
wouldn't say no, but I would stay
here, I reckon I'll stay in
Melbourne, it's a great city, you got
everything.

121
00:31:50,370 --> 00:31:54,469
How does it compare to say Beijing or
Shanghai or Hong Kong?

122
00:31:55,850 --> 00:32:37,369
I think back in China, because of the
population wise, we are really well
service... you know, like you could
go out any anytime, you can get
anything you want. Like, the first
time, when I first came on Saturday
or Sunday nothing opened. After 8
o'clock, the city is dead. But here
now it's getting better because
there's so many immigrants and
everything open up until late, but
back then you might remember on
Saturday on Sunday when we were
driving on the Springvale Road,
there's hardly any car, but now it's
like fully parked even on Saturday,
Sunday. That's how much changed for
the last 10 years.

123
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:43,202
Crazy. Alright, Yong, thank you so
much again for coming on the podcast,
I really appreciate it, mate.

124
00:32:43,730 --> 00:32:44,730
My pleasure.

125
00:32:44,990 --> 00:32:47,834
I'll get you on again in another 15
years and ask you how it's changed.

126
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:50,091
Hopefully, I can speak as good as you
are.

127
00:32:52,490 --> 00:32:54,109
Just keep at it, you're doing well,
but thanks again.

128
00:32:54,590 --> 00:32:56,119
Thank you Peter. Talk to you later.

129
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:23,180
Alright, guys! Thank you so much for
joining me today, I hope you got a
lot out of that, I hope you learned a
whole bunch, especially those of you
who are Chinese migrants or students
working in Australia and you needed a
little bit of motivation and to hear
what it's like for someone who has
been in Australia now for 15 years.
It was an awesome experience to be
able to talk to Yong.

130
00:33:24,050 --> 00:33:51,125
Don't forget too, guys! If you want
to work on your Australian
pronunciation, so you want to be able
to understand Australians when they
speak English or maybe two you want
to get an Australian accent, you want
to pronounce things the way that
Australians do, sign up for the
Australian English Pronunciation
course, ok? There'll be a link in the
transcript or you can find it on the
website www.AussieEnglish.com.au
under 'courses', the Australian
Pronunciation course.

131
00:33:51,770 --> 00:34:00,840
And if you're already in the Aussie
English Classroom, you've already got
access to it. So, anyway thanks for
joining me, guys. It's a pleasure as
always and I'll chat to you soon.
Peace!