We all know the obvious differences in American an Australian terms, the ones movies and TV have taught us.  Jello is jelly. Jelly is jam. Jam is also jam, but homemade, with more lumps and less sugar. The kind your grandma makes.  We know that a bell pepper is a capsicum (but what we don’t know is that they have never even heard of a capsicum).  Coffee refers to the brown colored supposedly caffeinated water you can buy for $1, not the milky, delicious goodness that is a flat white.  But there are some other phrases that get bandied about regularly here, that took me a little while to get used to (now I write and say them all the time, I’m one of them now). Here I present to you, a short guide to things Americans say, and what they mean by them. Enjoy!

Reach out

The only way you contact people here. You don’t touch base or get in touch, you reach out. This is used primarily in work places, but it has been known to be heard on the popular online dating app, Tinder™, as well.  Every time I write it I imagine my hand reaching though the screen, through time and space, to tap someone on the shoulder and say “hey”. Or you know, I just write it and get on with it.

Loop back / close the loop

This is how you get back in touch after you have reached out. You are looping back to make sure the person got your reach out, or to ensure they have actioned it. If you are really efficient or towards the end of a project you are looping back in order to close the loop so that everyone can breathe a sigh of relief and start the reaching out process with someone new all over again.

Sync up

Used to describe meeting up briefly to discuss something. It is not referring to your iPhone. If an American says they want to sync up, they want to make sure you are on the same page before the main meeting on this topic happens with other people. It is NOT the main meeting and you will most definitely still have a proper meeting after this to discuss the fact that you are all synced up and what the next steps should be now that you’re all synced.

Midday

Used to describe a time of day, but not an exact time of day as we know it. Midday means any time in the middle of the day. Any time between 11am and 2pm. If you want something done by midday, you need to say noon, otherwise you could end up with something on your desk at 2pm, or even worse, at 11am, when you aren’t even god damned ready for it yet.

Pickleback

This is not a form of piggy back, nor is it the outer side of a pickle. It is a shot of whiskey chased by a shot of pickle brine. You read that right. A shot of pickle juice. The liquid that pickles are … well pickled in?  To be fair, the pickle juice does distract you from the fact you just did a shot of whiskey, so I guess it has worked.

Well drink

As in, "well drinks are $4". This is a house spirit. I kinda hugely love this one. Like the house spirits are all kept in little wells under the bar and they are scooping you out a drink from the well.

Dope

Used to describe a great situation or that someone is on board with your suggestion.  OK, I know some people use this phrase in Australia as well, but it’s rarer and I used to find it weird when people did. But now I keep my laughter to myself and roll with it.

Folks

“Guys” or “people” don’t stand a chance against folks. We are used to folks being used as a descriptor for our parents, or for a type of music, or maybe for people who live very far away and keep life simple. But we have been using it wrong you guys! The folks from downstairs might have a good idea about what the video folks mean when they say that having lots of folks in the video isn’t a good idea. Folks.

Iteration / Iterate

I mean, we all know what this means, but never have I heard it so much in my life before now. You can replace all your boring phrases such as “brainstorm” or “work on” or “version” with “iteration” or “iterate” or even “the next iteration”. So many variations for this versatile word. Once you have it, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. This is the third iteration of this blog and I think the rounds of iteration have really helped it become the best it can be.

Keep in mind though, that we Australians say chewy, yonks, heaps, hey, arvo, fortnight, capsicum, avo, shit a brick, holey moley, and flat white.  So let’s call it even.