Saturday, December 6, 2025

Filipino English vs Australian English

Pinoy Joseph Lumanog and Australian wife Julia recorded this very interesting video comparing Philippine English words that mean the same but are called differently in Australia.

This video from Bang’s Bucket List differentiated Australian English to Filipino and American English. Bang is a blogger who visits her sister in Australia every now and then. In 2017, she compiled a list of Aussie words and phrases that were new or confusing to her and offered how its called in the Philippines and United States.

This is interesting to watch and learn even for us Filos (Filipino-Australians).

For instance, the word napkin in Australia means sanitary napkin while in the Philippines it means table napkin. Table napkin is called serviette in Australia.

Some of the words Bang mentioned here are Aussie slangs but note that it is also acceptable to call it the way Americans and Filipinos call it. For example, the word brekkie which means, breakfast is an Aussie slang. However, it’s also okay to simply say breakfast.

The word toilet which is normally called CR or restroom in America and the Philippines is commonly called toilet or oftentimes called loo in the bush (forest or country area) as dunnee (or dunny).

Someone commented: By the way, you were on a vacation in Australia, not holiday which is Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc.. Bang was right – Australians/British say holiday to mean vacation.

Some of Bang’s translation of words in Tagalog/Filipino are interestingly uncommon like buson.

She also mentioned the Aussie term for paperclip to be glide-clip. Hmmm, Australians also call it paperclip.

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