Strewth the spelling of English is weird!

[willedoo]

22 hours ago, onetrack said:

"Up" as a suffix in local Aboriginal (Noongar) place names in W.A., means "a place of .....". 

 

So we have lots of place names in W.A. ending in "up", with the first part of the name referring to what is plentiful there.

Even in song, ie: Matt Taylor's 'Nannup Tiger'.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Onetrack, is the story true that some places are named " fu#k off whitefeller"  in aboriginal dialect?

The explanation I read was that the white mapmaker would ask his aboriginal assistant " what name this place Jacky?" and then write down what he was told.

[onetrack]

Bruce, I must say I've never heard that one before - but it may have been possible before the Aboriginal languages were properly recorded.

[onetrack]

A story related to me by a farmer about an Italian POW bloke being taught English, is supposedly true, because it happened amongst a family of his close relations - and I had no reason to doubt him. 

He told me the story in the 1970's, and it happened in the early 1950's, when the Italian post-War refugees were often sent to wheatbelt farms to provide much-needed labour.

 

This family had 3 sons in their teens and twenties, and a very nice daughter in her late teens. The family treated all their workers well and the Italian bloke dined with the family all the time.

But his English was extremely poor, like most Italian immigrants, and he struggled putting together good understandable sentences in English.

 

And of course, he took a fancy to the nice daughter, and wanted to talk to her, and develop a friendship. But the boys thought it was bit "suss" that the Italian bloke was keen on their sister.

Accordingly, out in the paddock, the Italian bloke pressed the boys on what words you would use to start a conversation with a girl.

Of course, the boys couldn't help themselves, and carefully taught him a nice line to use on girls.

 

So the whole family is sitting down, eating dinner, and the Italian bloke finally summons up enough courage to speak to the daughter, Carole. 

So he comes out with the carefully-taught line from the boys, "Carole, I think you are very beautiful. I would like to fXXX you".

 

Apparently Mum and daughter nearly choked on their food, the boys couldn't help themselves, and fell about laughing - and Dad immediately summed up the situation, and said to the boys. "I'll talk to you three, right after dinner!"

Of course, the Italian bloke was mortified, he knew from the response, he'd said something unacceptable. So the rest of the meal was consumed in silence.

Dad apparently pulled the boys aside after dinner and tore strips off them. They had thought the stunt was funny, but Dad soon sorted out their prank ideas about teaching socially unacceptable English words, to an unsuspecting Italian refugee.

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by onetrack

[willedoo]

My dad used to tell me about the Italian POW's at Cowra. He was in a training battalion stationed just out of Cowra on the Sydney road. When he used to get leave to go to Sydney on the train he would often end up in a carriage with them. He said they were a happy bunch, often singing along to one of them playing a guitar. They must have been well trusted to go on trips like that with no guards whatsoever.

 

I don't know if any of the Indonesians at Cowra were let out into the community, but the Italians must have been looked upon as no threat.

[onetrack]

I left editing too late, but I meant to mention the Italian bloke was a former POW who returned after the War as a War refugee.

Quite a few of the Italian POW's were sent out onto farms in the W.A. wheatbelt to work during the War - and this bloke enjoyed wheatbelt life so much as a POW, he came back.

In fact, I reckon I could name a couple of dozen Italian farmers I knew, just in the Central Wheatbelt, who fitted this description - and most became very wealthy farmers.

 

As POW's, they were completely trustworthy, the Italians mostly had no stomach for War, and a large proportion of them hated Mussolini, anyway.

I can remember Middle East veterans telling me they would have a few hundred Italians surrender to a few dozen Aussies in the M.E. - and once they were POW's, they were only too willing to work as cooks and labourers.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by onetrack

[old man emu]

Can you imagine how those Italians felt? Most of them were probably doing it tough in Italy in the 1930s like the rest of the world. Then they get conscripted into the army to fight for someone else's political and empire-building aspirations. Then they run second in the Benghazi Handicap. They get shipped off across the world, where they are well looked after, provided they make an effort to work at teh same sort of work they did at home. I suppose that they were quite able to write home via the Red Cross and tell their families of th good life they were living, while those at home suffered rationing and military action.

 

Is it any wonder that the Italians migrated to Australia in such large numbers in the 1950s?

[facthunter]

 Send home the picture of the Bigga redda car and the Bambino's. Nev

[old man emu]

The Italian community is strong in Australia. It is based on concrete foundations.

[facthunter]

When I firsta come here, I know F###k nothing.....  NOW I know F###k "ALL".   

[willedoo]

15 hours ago, onetrack said:

left editing too late, but I meant to mention the Italian bloke was a former POW who returned after the War as a War refugee.

I figured that must have been the case.

 

The Indonesians at Cowra were a different case as they were political prisoners. Most were separatists locked up by the Dutch government. I think a lot were held in Dutch New Guinea. When the Japanese threatened the place, the Dutch didn't want the prisoners getting out into the community, so asked Australia to take them. There were whole families, men, women and children. The Cowra prison camp even had a small school for the Indonesian kids.

 

I knew nothing about it until I saw Indonesian names in the Cowra War Cemetary and went from there. Later on, the League of Nations declared them political prisoners and Australia had to release them from Cowra. They didn't want them freely released into the community so they became bonded labour to work on farms. Most went to North Queensland and worked on tobacco farms, and I would guess cane farms as well. I read that after the war some were allowed to stay and gain residency, while others returned home. I guess there would still be some descendants in North Queensland.

[Old Koreelah]

19 hours ago, willedoo said:

...They must have been well trusted to go on trips like that with no guards whatsoever...

One Italian POW spent much of the war working on a nearby farm- the menfolk were away fighting a much more dedicated enemy.

After the war he came back and established a successful business and brought out his family.

 

Considering the energy and enterprise they brought to this country, it could be said that Australia won the war twice over.

[onetrack]

Nev, funny you should mention that line. When I was in the Army in 1969-71, a fellow Nasho's Dad had been a POW of the Japs.

 

He told me a story his Dad had related to him, from his POW days - whereby a little Jap officer lined up all the Aussie POW's in a parade, and proceeded to harangue them.

 

The little cocky Jap officer went on about how piXXweak the Aussie soldiers were, and how great the Japanese military were, and how Japan would soon win the War.

 

Of course, the Aussie diggers just chuckled and sneered at his attempts to belittle them, in his poor English, thus making the little Jap officer more angry, as time went on.

 

The haranguing went on and on, until the little Jap finally outdid himself - he came out with that line -

 

"You FXXXing Aussies think you are FXXXing best!! You think Japanese know FXXX-Nothing!! Soon, we show you!! - we show you, that Japanese know FXXX-ALL!!"

 

And of course, at that, the entire parade of Aussies burst out laughing and chortling, thus making the little Jap totally apoplectic!! 

[old man emu]

German, Jap, the angry Officer changes with the telling, but there's fxxx-all change in the punchline.

[Marty_d]

They even used it in the movie "The Wog Boy", I think his half-Serbian half-Croatian mate says it.

[willedoo]

2 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

They even used it in the movie "The Wog Boy", I think his half-Serbian half-Croatian mate says it.

I always liked the line about the antipasto.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

Nev, funny you should mention that line. When I was in the Army in 1969-71, a fellow Nasho's Dad had been a POW of the Japs.

 

He told me a story his Dad had related to him, from his POW days - whereby a little Jap officer lined up all the Aussie POW's in a parade, and proceeded to harangue them.

 

The little cocky Jap officer went on about how piXXweak the Aussie soldiers were, and how great the Japanese military were, and how Japan would soon win the War.

 

Of course, the Aussie diggers just chuckled and sneered at his attempts to belittle them, in his poor English, thus making the little Jap officer more angry, as time went on.

 

The haranguing went on and on, until the little Jap finally outdid himself - he came out with that line -

 

"You FXXXing Aussies think you are FXXXing best!! You think Japanese know FXXX-Nothing!! Soon, we show you!! - we show you, that Japanese know FXXX-ALL!!"

 

And of course, at that, the entire parade of Aussies burst out laughing and chortling, thus making the little Jap totally apoplectic!! 

onetrack, my Dad was on the other end of the stick one night with a parade of Japs. He finished the war at Balikpapan in the 2/9th., a Qld. battalion. When the war ended they sent home the older blokes who had done more time and amalgamated the younger blokes into a lessor number of units. The 2/9th. was disbanded and along with the other younger blokes he was put in the 2/14th., a Victorian battalion.

 

After Balikpapan, they were sent across to the Celebes and went up to Pare Pare to a Jap POW camp. At that stage, the Japs operated on an honour system where they guarded and policed themselves. One night, my Dad and his mate went to a local shanty, got on the grog and proceeded to become quite full. On the way home, they were staggering past the Jap camp when the guards spotted them and all hell broke loose.

 

The whole camp was roused out onto the parade ground and formed up while the C.O. got my Dad and his mate, both privates, to inspect the troops. It was quite late at night and the two of them could hardly scratch themselves, but they somehow made it up and down every row of Jap prisoners. Needless to say, with a bit of Dutch Courage under the belt, they hammed it up a bit, looking the Japs up and down from head to toe.

 

He told me it was one of the hardest things he's done, pulling that off while trying to keep a straight face. I'd imagine if they'd laughed, it would have been highly embarrassing and offensive to the Jap C.O. after all the trouble he'd gone to.  

[facthunter]

A cleaner at the first school  I ever went to told me that when they over ran Benghazi and the  Italian POWS found we couldn't work on the big Fiat trucks, they offered to fix  them and service them  for our side. I've worked with a few Italian Mechanics. They are the  genuine "petrolheads".  Nev

[Old Koreelah]

[Old Koreelah]

[Bruce Tuncks]

There was a book where the hero was an Italian immigrant who thought the place was called " Kings Bloody Cross" after just one taxi ride.

He must have known about onetrack's story. I prefer onetrack's version.

[old man emu]

Just now, Bruce Tuncks said:

There was a book where the hero was an Italian immigrant

They're a Weird Mob by John O'Grady and filmed in 1966.

[red750]

The difference a blank space can make:

 

Manslaughter

Mans laughter

[facthunter]

How can Laughter sound like Larfter. That would make daughter darfter. Nev

[red750]