Learning English….Again

I figured when I came to Australia that it would be easy to communicate seeing that I already learned the national language of English. I mean I’ve studied this language for years in school and it’s spoken fluently at home. I just knew I had the jump start I needed to hold up conversations with the people over here. That’s been mostly true, however sometimes Aussies will be talking and in the middle of a sentence I will get absolutely lost. Not because I don’t understand 99% of what they say but because they will say one word that I don’t know and I immediately tune out and think what could that possibly mean.
Here is an example.

“Abby the kids only wear nappies during their sleeps”
What I hear.
“Abby the kids only wear napkins during their sleeps”
Hmmmmm
How many!? One napkin two? Where do I put them?

A nappie/nappy

“Would you like chips with you sandwich?”
What I hear
“Would you like chips with your sandwich?”
I imagine getting a bag of potato chips because duh what else would I think. This is what I get.

This one is confusing to me because they interchange Chips meaning potato chips and chips meaning French fries. So each time it’s a 50/50 gamble. Not the worst game to play. The odds are they will be yummy and I will eat it.

“Hey after we go to the beach lets get some Maccas”
What I hear.
“Hey after we go to the beach lets get some _____”
This is one of those times I have no clue. So I hear this buzzing noise where the word should be and I just smile and nod.

No the only slang for this is Mickey-Ds thank you very much.

“I’m buying Sacha some new thongs for summer”
What I hear.
“I’m buying Sacha some new thong underwear for summer”
Isn’t 3 a bit young for those?

Thongs

“I’m going to try and suss up some tickets for footy this weekend”
What I hear.
“I’m going to try and xhmalajf up some tickets for soccer this weekend”
Hmmmm. Footy here means rugby. Why I’m not sure they seem to be throwing a lot more than kicking. Although Americans have it backwards there too so I’m trying not to be judgmental.
Suss means something like going to find something out or the shortened word for suspicious, you know depending on context.

I have also noticed that Australians do not pronounce “er” at the end of words instead replacing it with a.
Examples
Socca–>soccer
Coopa–> Cooper
Maccas–> mackers
And so on.
I’ve heard it’s because they are lazy speakers. Everything is shortened down to the least amount of letters possible. Because saying things like lipstick takes too long. So lippie it is.

I reckon I have heaps more to learn about this Aussie slang but I’ll catch on in no time!

Latas (laters)-
Abby