Improving fluency
Practise: Conventions
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For more information, click to expand/collapse.
Practise: Conventions
You can have some fun – and can learn a lot at the same time – by trying to work out the rules for different types of language behaviour in Australia.
You can then compare and contrast these Australian English rules with those of your home country.
A word about language rules
Bear in mind that these are not ‘rules’ in the strict sense. They are simply ways of showing the general expectations and values of speech and behaviour. These expectations and values are shared by people who belong to the same culture, but they are not always straight-forward nor consistent, and not all people in a culture share them equally.
Think about, and discuss, language conventions
Once you’ve started thinking about this issue you should feel reasonably free to discuss your ideas with friends and colleagues who have grown up in mainstream Australian society.
To start you off, here are a couple of suggestions for areas of language behaviour that you might want to investigate. You will no doubt be able to think of many more.
A word about language rules
Bear in mind that these are not ‘rules’ in the strict sense. They are simply ways of showing the general expectations and values of speech and behaviour. These expectations and values are shared by people who belong to the same culture, but they are not always straight-forward nor consistent, and not all people in a culture share them equally.
Think about, and discuss, language conventions
Once you’ve started thinking about this issue you should feel reasonably free to discuss your ideas with friends and colleagues who have grown up in mainstream Australian society.
To start you off, here are a couple of suggestions for areas of language behaviour that you might want to investigate. You will no doubt be able to think of many more.
- Mate
Have you noticed that some Australian English speakers make frequent use of the word ‘mate’?
Do you hear people say things like: 'Thanks, mate'; 'See you later, mate'; 'Hey, mate, would you mind keeping that noise down', and
so on?
So what do you think the rules are for using this term?
To whom do you say it, and in what sort of circumstances?
Do you say it to good friends, or to acquaintances or strangers?
Do you say it when you’re feeling friendly towards someone, or in other situations?
Do you say it in casual conversation, or in formal conversation?
(hint: do your patients call you ‘mate’? Can you call any of them ‘mate’?)
Do you use it when talking both to males and females?
Is there anything in your native language that corresponds to this use of ‘mate’ in Australian English?
- Meeting & greeting
What do Australians do and say when they meet people socially?
And what do they do and say when they meet people professionally?
Think about the words people use, and how they behave in these situations.
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You will get different answers to some of the above questions, depending on what particular sort of social or professional situation you are focusing on, and depending on what age group, gender, region (i.e. rural versus urban), level of formal education, and so on, that you have in mind.
Are you able to compare and contrast Australian greetings with those of the society that you grew up in?
Are there notable differences and similarities?
- Politeness
Politeness can be very problematic when you are learning to live and work in a new culture. Politeness is important in all human societies, but different cultures can have very different ideas of what is, and what is not, to be interpreted as polite behaviour. It is therefore very easy to see people from other cultures as being rude or offensive, and to react to them according to the standards that apply in your own society.
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Imagine that a colleague in your home country has just been appointed to a job in Australia. Your colleague has never travelled much to other countries and has little experience of dealing with new cultures, so you are worried about how s/he might cope here. Write your colleague a letter explaining how politeness works in Australian society, and how it differs from the place in which you grew up. Point out the things that s/he might find impolite and difficult to deal with, and give him/her some guidelines on how to talk and behave in a way that will help him/her settle in smoothly.
Of course, ideas about politeness are not uniform across Australian society. Have you noticed that within younger generations (e.g. people under 30) there seem to be groups with very different standards for what is appropriately polite public behaviour? And do you think that there are different rules for politeness according to whether there are only men, only women or a mixture of men and women in the group? …. You might want to take these sorts of things into account when explaining the situation to your colleague!
Reflect on how you will incorporate what you have learnt into your everyday General Practice.