The Australian Soldier's English

There was an article this week in our local paper regarding English language barriers between Soldiers from Iowa and New Zealand Soldiers in Afghanistan. Even though both use the English language they had difficulty understanding each other and meaning of the words were different. Of course reading the story brought memories to my mind. In Vietnam we had soldiers from Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, etc. and of course there were all types of language barriers. To me, the funniest and craziest was when we had an Australian Soldier come in. He was carrying on and laughing and talking and I was at a total lost as to what he was saying due to his accent and meaning of words being different that mine. This seemed to amuse him and he just started talking more and more and became very animated as I became more and more confused. I think the only thing I ever got out of the conversation was something about someone looking like a monkey looking out of a cage. I knew he was not talking about me but could not follow who he was talking about. He was only around for about 10 minutes or so and I think he brought in another Australian GI to the ER and then he was off. He was quite the character, one whose personality would match what I have heard as far as description of Australians. I had always hoped to take a trip down under to visit my Austrailan Brothers but know I'll not have that opportunity, but that will no prevent me from downing a beer and toasting my mates.