Strine

Strine is how Aussies pronounce Australian, and gives its name to the country’s unique brand of English.
「ストライン」とは、オーストラリア人が「 Australian 」を発音したときの響きで、そこから同国独特の英語を指す名前として使われるようになりました

  • Bung On An Act

    Bunging on an act in Australian English, or Strine, means to pretend, or fake. オージー英語(ストラインとも言う)では、「bung on an act」は「見せかける」か「演技する」という意味。ちなみに、bung onも独特なオージー英語でもあり、「する」の砕けた言い方。 Strine Dictionary | 考えRoo

  • Kangaroo Words Put Power In Pouches

    カンガルー・ワードで英語を楽しく学ぼう! A kangaroo word is a word that contains all the letters of one of its synonyms (joey words) inside it. The letters may be in the same order or in a different order.For example: MAsculinE (male), BLOssOM (bloom), cHickEN (chicken), hoNOurabLE (honorable). 「カンガルー・ワード」とは、その同義語(ジョーイ・ワード)のすべての文字を中に含む単語のことです。文字の順番は同じでも、違っていてもかまいません。たとえば、MAsculinE(男性)、BLOssOM(花が咲く)、cHickEN(鶏肉)、hoNOurabLE(名誉ある)などがあります。 Why kangaroo? Kangaroos carry their young, called joeys, in a pouch. The term kangaroo word comes from this idea. なぜ「カンガルー」なのでしょう?カンガルーは赤ちゃん(ジョーイ)をおなかの袋で育てます。「カンガルー・ワード」は、このイメージから生まれた言葉です。 big → biGgest (big), beginNing (begin)kind → kinDness (kind), kinDergarten (kindergarten) Strine Dictionary | 考えRoo

  • Event Approvals, Grants On Offer For 50th Anniversary Of Japan-Australia Friendship Treaty

    Japan and Australia are offering grants and approval for certain events to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation between Japan and Australia in 2026. The governments of both countries and the Australia-Japan Foundation are taking all sorts of steps for broad exchange between Japan and Australia, with the active participation of local governments, businesses, private organizations, and others. The countries will recognize events as 50th anniversary events if they meet all of the following criteria: Approved events may identify themselves as Anniversary Events for the 50th Anniversary of the Signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation between Japan and…

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    The Japan-Australia Link As A Fallen Star Became A Black Hole

    Japan has become pretty much synonymous with high quality construction, but that didn’t prove to be in what was supposed to be a star project in Melbourne but ended up being more of a black hole. The 120-meter-high Melbourne Star Ferris wheel was supposed to be a boon for tourism in Australia’s largest city, as well as a strong leap forward for Sanoyas, an Osaka-based shipbuilding company looking to expand into the amusement park business. The Melbourne Star was plagued from the outset. It was supposed to open in 2006, but didn’t start taking customers until two years later. It ran for just 40 days when it was shut down…

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    Monkeying Around With Shared Kobe Steel(e)s

    Of the many commonalities shared by Australia and Japan, perhaps one of the quirkier ones is that both countries are home to a Kobe Steele known for monkeying around. Australia’s Kobe Steele founded the Orangutan Foundation International Australia (OFI Australia), and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2021 for her services to conservation and the environment. Japan’s Kobe Steel Ltd., meanwhile, monkeyed around in a far less noble way, falsifying inspection and quality data on steel, aluminium and copper products for years, affecting hundreds of customers and resulting in billions of yen in fines after causing one of Japan’s most significant industrial quality scandals in recent…

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    Have A Very Merry Mad Max Xmas!

    It was with great delight that I learned overnight that Christmas in Japan in 2025 will have a tinge of Aussie about it. And my enthusiasm was in no way quelled by the fact that this merely meant a screening of Mad Max. With a message of “Merry Mad Max,” National broadcaster NHK‘s Premium Cinema channel will celebrate the festive season with a screening of the Aussie classic propelled to worldwide success on the back of becoming a hit in Japan when it was released here in 1979. Mad Max is Australia’s most successful film franchise and Japan played a huge role in it becoming that way, as we have…

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    The Japan-Australia Link To The Great Train Robbery

    Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery were pretty well-known among my generation of Australians growing up, and recognition of the famous long-term fugitive was enough in Japan for his 2014 death to be widely reported. What is less established, however, is that both Japan and Australia have a much closer connection to the crook than many in either country know. Biggs was one of a gang of about 16 people who carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, making off with 2.61 million pounds (worth about 12.16 billion yen today). Biggs used his share of the haul to pay for almost 40 years on the run, most famously…

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    Oh, Maggie I Should Have Known! Bubble Era Tokyo’s Aussie Haven

    When I first got to Japan in the late 1980s, Australia was hot property–mainly in a literal sense for real estate investment, but also for honeymooners and koala fans. But finding anything “Australian” in Tokyo was bloody hard and homesickness particularly strong in those days, so I was deeply grateful for Maggie’s Revenge and the kangaroo awning that advertised the establishment. Maggie’s Revenge was an Aussie-themed bar in the Roppongi nightclub district of Tokyo, which was a bit of a drag for me to get to as I was living in the northern part of the capital at the time. Sometimes, you could buy a meat pie there, and always…

  • How Japanese Men Shaped An Australian Language

    日本人男性が育てたオーストラリアのある言語 Japanese people living in far northwestern Australia played a crucial role in development and use of an Australian language. オーストラリア北西部で暮らしていた日本人たちが、あるオーストラリアの言語の発展に大きな役割を果たしていた――そんな事実が改めて注目されている。 Mostly male pearl divers, the Japanese people who lived in and around Broome in the late 19th to early 20 centuries influenced the Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin. 19世紀末から20世紀初頭にかけて、主に男性の日本人真珠潜り師たちが多く暮らしていたブルーム周辺では、「ブルーム・パーリング・ラッガー・ピジン」と呼ばれる言語が使われていた。 Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin is named for the lugger boats used in the pearling industry around Broome, which was booming at the start of the 20th century. The pidgin is Malay-based, but had a strong Japanese tinge, as well as incorporated English and various Indigenous Australian languages. このピジン語はマレー語をベースに、英語や先住民の諸言語が混ざり合い、さらに強い“日本語の風味”が加わっていた。 The industry attracted a diverse number of ethnicities and people groups, including, Malays,…