A few weeks ago, I was a guest on the Newbie Writers podcast, and one of the hosts, Damien Boath, is Australian. Over the course of our conversation, I came to realize that Australians can make anything sound fun. They seem to have cute nicknames for even the most horrible, gross, and annoying things. There are cockies in the dunny, mate sounds fun, right? It’s not. Here’s a sample of Australian slang:

幾個星期前，我去網絡寫作播客當嘉賓，主持人之一是一位澳大利亞人達米安博斯。在我們談話的過程中，我意識到澳大利亞人能讓所有的事情聽起來都很有趣。他們甚至會為那些最可怕、最惡劣的和最讓人討厭的東西起很可愛的昵稱。“There are cockies in the dunny”，聽起來是不是很有趣?事實上這可不是什么好話。下面就為大家介紹一些澳大利亞俚語的例子：

1. Cockies

Cockroaches

相當于 "cockroaches", 是蟑螂的意思。

Just looking for a photo of cockies made me nauseated.

看到“小強”的照片就能讓我作嘔了。

2. Mozzie

Mosquito

相當于"mosquito", 指蚊子。

Some people call them the most dangerous animal in the world. Australians call them mozzies.

一些人認為蚊子是世界上最危險的動物，可澳大利亞人卻叫它們“小蚊蚊”。

3. Dunny

Toilet

相當于"toilet", 指廁所。

I wonder whether other languages have cute nicknames for the toilet. I suppose potty sounds fun to people who don’t speak English.

我在想是否其他的語言也會用很可愛的昵稱來作為廁所的代名詞。我猜“potty(便壺)” 對一些不會說英語的人而言，這個單詞的讀音是有趣的。

4. Bingle

A car accident

交通事故

Accident sounds so negative. Sure, maybe you ran over a kid’s trike, but it was just a bingle. Apparently there’s an Australian insurance company called Bingle Insurance. Maybe someone should start Crash Insurance in the US.

“事故”聽起來如此的消極。當然，可能你撞到了一個小孩的三輪車，這就僅僅是“bingle(小碰撞)”而算不上“事故”了。澳大利亞有一家保險公司叫“Bingle保險”。也許美國也應該開一家“Crash保險”了。