Friday 12 November 2010
No Kangaroos in Austria
HA!
You might have heard of the latest faux-pas at the G-20 meeting? The hosts at the G-20 meeting confused Australia with Austria, putting Julia Gillard in an Austrian Dirndl.
This is funny!
Why?
Because it is one of the RARE occasions, Austria and Australia got mixed up "the other way round". Lets say, this faux -pas is a bit of an antidote to our minority-complex, regarding Australia.
Usually it goes like this:
An Austrian abroad meets someon and introduces him/herself "I am from Austria"
People react like "Ah, Sidney, great opera building. And the exotic marsupials".
Then it is time to say "No, there are no kangaroos in Austria. Austria, not Australia!"
Most of the poeple "hear" Australia when you say "Austria" because Australia is a huge continent.
PS: I started adding adjuncts like "Sacher Torte" or "Mozart":
"I am from Austria, you know, Mozart and Sacher Torte."
In the US I would probably add "The Sound of Music", in Japan I would add "Seiji Ozawa", the conductor at the State Opera in Vienna :-)
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So you are back blogging, Paula. Welcome! As I don´t check my followers daily, I did not know you have been posting a few times already. Yes, your post about the mix-up with Austria and Australia is funny. I think most people who want to know about what is going on, do know Finland. I only hope that we would be remembered not only because of the Santa Claus, sauna and Sibelius ; )!
ReplyDeleteMetsan, I am not sure if you like my image of Finland which has been formed by the last episode of the movie "Night on Earth" by Jim Jarmusch, the taxi ride with three drunk men in Helsinki.
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Paula: ; )
ReplyDeleteI used to have (and wear!) this t-shirt, when I went on my exchange student year to CA. :-)
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