An expat living in Australia has revealed the one common phrase that Aussies should never use when speaking to an American: ‘oldies’.
Ellie Drabik said that the everyday, ‘innocent’ phrase used by many Aussies would cause extreme offense in the US.
‘My Americans, brace yourself for this, because this would never fly in America,’ she said in a video.
‘People literally call elderly people “oldies”… they talk about them and say those are the oldies or that’s where the oldies go.’
Ellie added that the popular term, which would ‘send you to jail for bad manners in America’, didn’t seem to be offensive among Aussies.
‘In America saying you’re old or an oldie would send people through the roof, like it would absolutely not fly, it would be completely not okay,’ she added.
Ellie admitted that despite how insulting the expression would be in her home country, it was still her favourite local abbreviation.
Aussies reacting to the video defended the popular term and insisted that it was the best way to refer to older Australians and was meant to be a sign of affection.
Ellie Drabik, an American living in Australia, was shocked to hear that Aussies refer to the elderly as ‘oldies’
‘Oldies is affectionate! ‘The elderly’ makes them sound old,’ one said.
‘Wow, I didn’t realise other cultures wouldn’t say that! We certainly don’t mean offence by it,’ another added.
Many said that they referred to their parents as ‘old man’, ‘old lady’ or just ‘olds’ – with ‘old mate’ thrown in when they couldn’t remember a name.
One senior citizen said that she was happy to be called an oldie and another agreed that it was a ‘term of endearment’.
‘The oldies also call themselves oldies,’ one man said.
An Australian man boldly stated it didn’t matter whether the phrase was offensive or not.
‘Most of the oldies can’t hear us calling them that, and those that can hear can’t remember that we said it five minutes later,’ he quipped.
This isn’t the first time that foreigners have been confronted with Aussie language.
American musician K.Flay was recently confused during a visit Down Under when everyone kept saying ‘no worries’.
In an interview with Triple J, she said the expression ‘threw her off’ and made her think she was offending people who said it to her.
‘We say no worries but it’s in a different context. ‘No worries’ is like when you ask someone to do a favour and then that person goes, ‘oh no worries’,’ she explained.
‘You guys use no worries when basically nothing has been asked and I’m like I wasn’t worrying about it. You are presuming the worry.’
‘Wait till someone says ‘No Dramas’,’ someone laughed.
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