Shadowing Practice: Why Are These Galah's Cracking Tinnies? | Does Dad Know It? Ep 4 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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G'day, you mob.
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Welcome to Aussie English.
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I'm your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken down under.
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So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie, or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place.
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So sit back, grab a cuppa, and enjoy Aussie English.
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Let's go.
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Dad, how's it going?
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Pete, hang on.
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Oh, he's got to get a drink.
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We're going to do the compulsory.
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We're doing slang episodes first, Dad.
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Diet Coke today.
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I know, we're taking it easy.
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I know, well, you've got to pick up the kids.
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It's afternoon.
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Yeah, yeah, true.
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Okay, all right, so we're doing 10 more slang terms.
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Oh, beauty.
19
Don't stop guessing it.
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You're giving away the content.
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That's actually the next episode.
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All right, Galah.
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Yeah, silly galah.
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Yeah, flaming galah.
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Is this one that you heard growing up?
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Oh, yeah.
27
Yeah?
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A lot. And used.
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Was it used by everyone?
30
Yeah, pretty much.
31
Like older generation, younger ones?
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Yeah, older.
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Men, women?
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As a kid, I didn't probably use it, but you just sort of pick it up because it was so common.
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And so, yeah, a bit of background.
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A galah is a small grey and pink cockatoo in Australia, a parrot.
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and they have a tendency to feed by roadsides and they're not very good at taking off, so they get hit by cars a lot.
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And so I think people always look at them as being a bit stupid.
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They need a long runway.
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Yeah, and they also have a reputation for being the clowns of the cockatoo world, them and Corellas.
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Are we surprised they're all idiots?
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Yeah, but the Galatas swing upside down on telephone lines and, you know, they're just silly.
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I've seen Corellas definitely acting that way, acting a fool, being stupid a lot.
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And there's always huge groups of them.
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Yes.
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And I think galahs, don't they mate for life?
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Yeah, so you always see galahs in pairs.
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They're such beautiful animals.
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I'd love one as a pet if it had like maybe a tenth the longevity.
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Yeah, the fact that you buy a pet in your 30s and it's going to outlive you.
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Well, if you get it as a baby.
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I saw a video the other day of someone with a cockatoo and he was like, he's 57.
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And you're just like, Jesus Christ.
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That's quite a commitment.
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Back in eight.
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I know, that's it.
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I'll outlive you, mate.
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All right, so galah.
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What is a galah?
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If you use it in terms of slang with a person.
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It just means it's a stupid person.
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Yeah, flaming galah.
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It used to always be used on Home and Away by Alf.
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Alf, yeah.
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Obviously, he couldn't swear on it.
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It was this G -rated TV show.
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Yeah, family.
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And he'd always be like his...
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Primetime television.
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His fury, he would always be angry at the kids.
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He'd be, flaming galahs, flaming galahs, flaming mongrels.
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Yeah, flaming galahs.
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Yeah.
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All right, so it's a polite version of calling someone an idiot effectively.
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Yeah.
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So how would you use it in a sentence?
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Pete, stop being a galah.
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Yeah, stop being a flaming galah.
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I love adding flamin as well, you're flaming galah.
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You obviously grew up in a period where watching Home and Away was a thing.
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Yeah.
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You had that collocation.
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It wasn't just a galah.
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It was a flaming galah.
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Flaming galah.
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Well, it's effectively the soft version of fucking idiot, right?
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Yeah, exactly.
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You can idiot.
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You fucking idiot.
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Flaming galah.
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I think, too, if you use that on someone, even if you had an angry altercation, they would probably just laugh.
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They'd just laugh at you.
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Okay.
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Whatever, mate. That was offensive.
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All right, number two, crack a tinny.
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We've just done that.
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We have.
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We just did.
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Effectively.
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Yeah, go back to the start of the episode.
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I know, so that's to - You can't redo it.
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Open a beer can.
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Yeah, beer can.
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I don't know if you'd use it for soft drink, would you?
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And they're not made of tin anymore.
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No, they haven't been made of tin.
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In fact, they were never made of tin.
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No, here we go.
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Back in the olden days, cans, as in food cans,
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used to be made of tin because tin was a bit cheaper and more easily obtainable than steel.
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Did it react less as well?
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And it reacts a lot less.
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But then steel became just a common thing to be made.
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Back in the sort of 19th, early 20th century, everything became made out of steel.
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And so making tin cans were then made out of steel, which of course is a mixture of iron and carbon.
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And now most cans for drinks are made out of aluminium.
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But the whole idea of a tin or a tinny...
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Tin can, I guess.
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A tin can.
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A tinny is a...
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Well, it's two things.
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One is it's usually a beer can, or it's a small fishing boat.
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Yeah, okay.
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A tinny, which were never made out of tin.
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Wow, that's not important.
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No, exactly.
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It's become the way we refer to it.
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so uh yeah to crack a tin he used to open a beer i love
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that idea too the crack using it as a verb to
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mean like crack it open to open a crack in the top crack is onomatopoeic yeah exactly it sounds like
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that but it's funny
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because you can crack the shits you can crack the sad
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yeah crack the sads crack the shits you can crack a fat well at my age you probably can't
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that was the slang term I'm sorry, guys, we're getting a bit silly.
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Crack of fat.
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We're not even drinking beer.
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Crack of fat was a slang term I used in primary school for boys when they got erections or something.
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You're joking about erections.
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I don't think I've used that in 20 -something years.
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How did that come to mind?
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Well, we're talking about crack.
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You just revert to primary school very quickly.
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I was thinking, how do we use crack as a verb?
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Because it's such an interesting...
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What is crack of fat?
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It doesn't make any sense.
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It makes no sense whatsoever.
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You definitely don't want to crack a fat.
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No, exactly.
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All right, anyway, number three, fair go.
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Fair go.
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Yeah, fair go.
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Fair go is giving somebody a reasonable opportunity to complete a task.
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So, yeah, a fair chance or opportunity, right?
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Having a fair go.
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So you can use it as a sort of noun phrase, but you could also use it as an expression, right?
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Fair go, right?
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Fair go.
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Yeah, fair go means give me a chance.
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Or give it a break.
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Don't give me a hard time.
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Yeah, exactly.
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I guess what, yeah.
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Dad, we were meant to be recording this episode at one.
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You showed up at 1 .03.
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Like, why did you have to be late?
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Oh, fair you go.
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Exactly.
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1 .03.
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Fair you go, mate.
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Got all up in the traffic.
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All the traffic between Ocean Grove and here.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, three cars.
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Yeah.
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Now, this is an interesting one.
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A muz.
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A muz?
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M -U -Z -Z.
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A muz.
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Muz.
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This is one I don't know.
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I don't know that.
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Bullshit.
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What would you guess it means then?
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I have no idea.
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If it's a noun, a muz.
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It's an abbreviation of mullet for hairdo.
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No?
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What if I said, I've been working hard all week.
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I need a bit of a muz.
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Let's do an NFI.
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No idea.
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Apparently, it means a rest or some downtime.
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No, fuck off.
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I don't know where this one came from.
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I think ChatGPT has had a connection.
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It's not from ChatGPT.
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All the slang terms that I put into my slang e -book, I collected from online resources, dictionaries.
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So, you know, again, I don't know if it's certain that it wasn't completely fabricated, but they tended to have come.
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Oh, yeah.
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Somebody will have said it once, but no, I've never heard that.
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The only time I've ever heard the word muzz is a contraction of the name Murray.
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So somebody called Murray would go, hey, you're going, muzz.
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Yeah, my mate from high school was called muzz.
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I never knew if that was Murray or Marcus that was getting to his muzzers.
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Yeah, well, no. The only muzzers I've ever known have been called murray.
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I feel like it has the feeling, too, of it being a word for munt or vomit or throw up.
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Like, oh, mate, I'm feeling a bit sick.
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I think I'm going to muzz.
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I'm going to have a bit of a muzz.
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No. No?
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No, you're stretching.
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Just delete that one.
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No, we're not deleting it.
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It's in there.
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No, I'm not saying we'll leave it in, but the audience can delete it from their brain.
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There'll probably be a whole bunch of students here up in Queensland being like, oh, yeah, come on, mate.
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We use this all the time.
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Have a muzz.
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Exactly.
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I hear Aussies saying they're having a bit of a muzz on the weekend to sleep all the time.
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All right, number five, to rabbit on.
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I think that's what we've been doing.
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I knew that was coming.
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What does rabbit on mean, Dan?
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Rabbit on means to talk rubbish.
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Talk on continuously, endlessly, but usually about nothing important.
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It's like imagine a five -year -old.
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Oh, no. At the moment, it sort of happens with Noah quite a lot.
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Well, you're five to seven -year -old.
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Get to the point, mate.
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And then, and then, and then, and then.
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Yeah, but I was just...
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Is that something out of Kath and Kim?
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I feel like that's out of Kath and Kim.
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So how would you use the expression to rabbit on?
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Oh, you're rabbiting on, mate.
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Give it a fair go.
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Yeah, you go down the pub, you're hanging out with your mates, having some beers, and one of them starts rabbiting on about some Sheila.
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Some ladies, oh, yeah, rabbiting on, having a chat, having a...
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You can't say Sheila without a broad Australian accent.
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Sheila.
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You can't say, oh, that Sheila over there.
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Sheila.
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Sheila means woman, by the way, guys.
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And it's one of those weird ones, right?
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It's not derogatory.
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Not inherently anymore.
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Did it used to be?
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No. No, it was never derogatory?
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Sheila was the feminine of bloke.
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Yeah.
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Blokes and sheilas.
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Yeah, but it just became this kind of like, if you were to use that now on women, I think enough women didn't like it.
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It became bogan -ish.
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It became seen as a bit.
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It became bogan.
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Yeah, well...
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Whereas bloke didn't.
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Bloke is still a generic term.
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I guess sort of like lower class Australia uses sheila
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and bloke evenly and probably the sheilas the women probably don't get offended by it but
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if you met middle upper class women who'd expect to be
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called a sheila yeah check this sheila out she'd probably be like excuse me Like, what did you call me?
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Oh, sorry, mate.
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You're rabbiting on now, Pete.
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What's next?
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She'll be apples.
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She'll be apples?
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Yeah.
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Who's she?
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What are the apples?
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Well, she'll be.
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Why is she going to be an apple?
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We've talked about this one in a previous episode.
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No, but she'll be right.
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Yeah, but no, but not this thing.
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But she'll is, it's a generic term for it.
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It's just changing the pronoun to a gender -based pronoun for no apparent reason.
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And the funny thing is, though...
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And he'll be right doesn't mean the same thing.
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He'll be right definitely means a male person or someone who identifies as a male, whether they be human or dog or anything else.
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Whereas she'll be right is just...
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It's a non -thing.
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It'll be okay.
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Yeah, it's not like, oh, my lawnmower's broken.
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You go, she'll be right.
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Won't mean the lawnmower will be broken.
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It'll be...
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It'll all work out is what it means i have a
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lot of um private students doing english lessons with me at the moment
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and one of those recurring things especially for um say like portuguese
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and spanish speakers is dropping it not using the pronoun it yes
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or there but it in particular
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and i'll say something like they'll say something like um was okay
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and i'll be like it was okay you got to say it
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and they'll be like who's it what's it yeah what is it referring to
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and i'm like everything yeah it is the universe Exactly.
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It's the universal pronoun.
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The situation, the whole vibe, the whole thing.
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So she'll be apples.
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She'll be apples means it'll all be okay.
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Yeah, I guess because apples are tasty.
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I don't know where the apples thing comes from.
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As far as I know, it's not rhyming slang for anything.
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It probably is, Dad.
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I just said as far as I know.
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All right.
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Oh, there you go.
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Likely comes from rhyming slang using apples and spice or apples and rice to mean nice.
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I love that when it's like so far removed from the original term nice that you would never guess.
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It actually doesn't make any sense anymore.
314
Exactly.
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That's why rhyming slang was used quite often, right?
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It was a joke.
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You would come up with, there would be one word like nice, and then you would come up with a phrase like apples and rice because the second word rhymes, and then you remove the second word so that it's not obvious.
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Apples and rice makes no sense either.
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That's a good combo.
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Apples and spice, yes.
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Apples and rice would be nice.
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Because people would have cooked with nutmeg and cinnamon and stuff with apples, but apples and rice?
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Who cooks apples and rice?
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I don't know.
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There's probably a lot of Asian listeners right now thinking, yeah.
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A lot of Asians might, but Asians tend not to use rhyming slang in English.
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I don't want to genericise, please, if you're of Asian origin and you do use those.
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Please let us know.
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There's this whole underground series of restaurants that just cook things with apples and rice.
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Apples and rice, and they call it nice.
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That's it.
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Number seven, give it a burl.
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Give it a burl, have a crack.
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There you go.
335
That's it.
336
Have a crack.
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Have a go at it.
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There's a noun there.
339
Give it a bill.
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Yeah, have a go.
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Give it a try.
342
Have a go.
343
Give it a try.
344
But it's not an encouragement.
345
It's not an instruction.
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It's sort of a, oh, okay, let's have a go.
347
Don't you think it's an instruction or like an encouragement?
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Yeah, give it a try, mate.
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Yeah, give it a bill.
350
Get in there.
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But it's not, yeah, Jimmy, you're right, let's go.
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It's not revving it up.
353
It's just, oh, well, let's try.
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Yeah.
355
I think I had a friend over yesterday who came over to give my guitars a burl.
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He was like, can I come and hang out and try your guitars out?
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And I'm like, yeah, come give him a burl.
358
Can you hand me that 10mm socket?
359
I've only got an 11.
360
Oh, well, we'll give it a burl.
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We'll try it.
362
We'll give it a try.
363
I wonder where that one comes from, right?
364
Give it a burl.
365
A burl would be, is that like...
366
I don't know what a burl is.
367
Isn't that the stuff that you put in the water when you're fishing to encourage fish?
368
It's burly.
369
Yeah, but like isn't it... To burl?
370
You're creating a verb out of burl.
371
What are you doing?
372
You're giving the water a burl?
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I don't know.
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So, yeah, you give it a burl.
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Give something a try.
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Number eight, a corker.
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Corker?
378
A cracker.
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A ripper.
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A corker.
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A really good one.
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This is an interesting one where I feel like I would use this mostly for jokes.
383
If someone said a really good joke, I'd be like, that's a fucking corker.
384
This is sort of early 20th century Australian.
385
Yeah, okay.
386
Far out.
387
But it's carried through.
388
People used to understand it.
389
Your average 12 -year -old kid, if you said, oh, that's a corker, they'd go, oh, yeah, it is.
390
They wouldn't go, what the hell are you talking about?
391
But, yeah, it just means a good thing.
392
So it's that standard old ochre, early 20th century language.
393
So someone kicks a really good goal playing AFL.
394
What a corker.
395
What a corker.
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Or if we want to be completely sexist about it, geez, that Sheila's a corker, mate.
397
Jesus Christ.
398
I think I would piss myself laughing if you actually said something like
399
that while we were out and about with the family.
400
Yeah, I would, but I have heard it said.
401
I don't think you would ever say something like that.
402
I would not.
403
Hey, Pete, get a load of this shield.
404
She's a corker.
405
She's a corker.
406
All right, number nine, the Bush Telegraph.
407
The Bush Telegraph?
408
Yeah, what's the Bush Telegraph?
409
The Bush Telegraph is just the rumour mill.
410
The rumour mill, it is, you know, the gossip of rumours spreading by word of mouth.
411
Yes.
412
So I guess what's the telegraph or a telegraph?
413
Telegraph is an old 19th century form of communication.
414
The original electronic, well, it wasn't electronics,
415
electrical communication where people used Morse code over an electric wire to communicate.
416
and so the bush telegraph was just person to person
417
in my head I imagine instead of like poles with an
418
electrical wire going along you've got people hey Pete did you hear
419
that Ian's an idiot hey Bill Ian's an idiot
420
so how would you use this in a sentence how'd you find out about
421
that the bush telegraph mate through the grapevine
422
Heard it through the grapevine Alright That's the 1960s And I heard it through the bush telegraph Too many syllables Alright, number 10, zoomies Zoomies?
423
Yeah, zoomies That's usually children or dogs
424
or cats Who are just running around like idiots My cats
425
seem to do it every night at about 9pm We used
426
to call it the midnight mads with our cats Where all of a sudden they just go
427
And they're just running up and down the hallway Isn't that weird that they kind of The cats in particular, well, I've got two, right?
428
Peaches and Scrappy.
429
And it's like every time at night, they're not doing it during the day.
430
No. They don't do it in the morning.
431
But when the evening comes, I don't know if that's like peak circadian rhythm, like they've just woken up.
432
And they're all of a sudden real frisky.
433
And like, it's so funny, you know, Peaches will walk up to Scrap and just give him a look.
434
And they go, you ready?
435
And then they just tear at it.
436
And I'm like, I wonder what...
437
I think she comes up from the side, right?
438
Shows the side.
439
The ears go back and the tail flicks and you're like, ooh, this means business.
440
So, yeah, it's the old signal of I'm going to fight you to let's go.
441
And she just piss bolts afterwards.
442
And then he chases her immediately knowing what's up, what the game is.
443
So how would you use the term zoomies in a sentence?
444
Those cats have got the zoomies.
445
Or the dog running around the backyard chasing a ball.
446
Yeah, they do it too.
447
Labradors, right?
448
They'll just go stupid.
449
Sometimes you're just like, at the beach.
450
You take them to the beach and the moment they get down, And they just run up and down.
451
It's not like they just, and that's the point, is that it's running backwards and forwards.
452
It's not just you take the dog to the beach and it runs 800 metres up the beach.
453
No, they do circles around you and they'll take something.
454
You know how we used to have Jasper and Banjo
455
and you would have something or a stick
456
and you'd be throwing it with them and then all of a sudden they'd be like, oh, I might just not give it back to you and run around the circle.
457
Which actually this one I've heard is an English expression as well.
458
The English use this one.
459
So it's not purely Australian.
460
In the same sense.
461
Well, this is always the hardest thing because it's the Venn diagrams, right?
462
Oh, yeah.
463
What is Australia?
464
So many times people will say, that's not Australian, that's American.
465
And you're like, yes, but it's slang that's used in Australia.
466
If someone was born here, never heard of America and never left the country, is that slang they would use?
467
Yes, exactly.
468
Therefore, it is Australian slang.
469
It didn't necessarily originate here.
470
Americans say selfie.
471
It's not exclusive.
472
It's our word.
473
That is our word.
474
We invented it.
475
Look it up in the Macquarie dictionary.
476
Word of the year in about 2020 or 2015 or something.
477
It'll probably be when phones first got a camera on the opposite side.
478
So you could take a photo yourself, right?
479
Exactly.
480
That'll be like 2011 or 12.
481
First iPhones or whatever came out.
482
All right.
483
Well, that's this episode, guys.
484
Don't forget, shameless plug, if you want to check out my slang ebook
485
and learn over a thousand different slang terms and expressions used in Australian English.
486
Give it a bell.
487
Give it a bell.
488
Go to slangebook .com, okay?
489
One more time, www .slangebook .com.
490
Anyway, thanks for joining us.
491
We'll see you next time.
492
Tooroo.
493
Bye.
494
All right, that's it for today.
495
If you found this one helpful, leaving a quick review really does help other learners find the podcast.
496
And if you know someone who's learning Aussie English, feel free to share this episode with them too, mate.
497
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you in the next one.
498
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 497 sentences and 3725 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:23. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| crack noun | /kɹæk/ | A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. |
| flame noun | /fleɪm/ | The visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat. |
| telegraph noun | /ˈtɛl.ɪ.ɡɹɑːf/ | Synonym of telegraphy, any process for transmitting arbitrarily long messages over a long distance using a symbolic code. |
| rabbit noun | /ˈɹæbɪt/ | A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares) |
| rhyme noun | /ɹaɪm/ | Rhyming verse (poetic form). |
| bloke noun | /bloʊk/ | A fellow, a man; especially an ordinary man, a man on the street. |
| sudden adjective | /ˈsʌd.ən/ | Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly. |
| silly adjective | /ˈsɪl.i/ | Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. |
| delete verb | /dɪˈliːt/ | To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| guitar noun | /ɡɪˈtɑɹ/ | A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). |
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| chase verb | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | To follow at speed. |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| make out of verb | To construct from; to create (something) using (a material or substance). | |
| run around verb | To be very busy doing many different things. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| carry through verb | To manage to execute; to perform successfully, all the way to the end. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| get down verb | /ɡɛt ˈdaʊn/ | To bring or come down; to descend; to cause to bring or come down. |
| give away verb | To make a gift of (something). |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to always be · used to be · used to open |
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been working · we've been doing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've come · I've seen · We've just done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been made · were never made · be made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 148 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, tenth /tɛnθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, erection /ɪˈɹɛkʃən/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, shield /ˈʃild/
- Long words — get the stress right: electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, encouragement [ɪnˈkʌɹɪd͡ʒmənt], universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like crack, flame, telegraph.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.