A Canadian man living in Sydney has named the one phrase he hears in the city that he’s never come across anywhere else.
Josiah Hein said the sentence ‘you’re alright mate’ as a response to ‘sorry’ was jarring because he didn’t know if it was positive or negative.
When uttered quickly in an Australian accent it can also sound like ‘you-right-mate’, confusing tourists and expats even more.
Josiah explained he regularly hears the phrase in the street, typically after he apologises to someone, which as a Canadian he does many times a day.
‘I’m in Australia walking on the street and there’s this cool looking guy in a suit walking straight for me and he kind of stopped and I stopped and I was like “oh sorry man”,’ he explained.
‘He didn’t say “that’s all good bro”. He didn’t say “that’s okay”. He didn’t say “oh sorry”. The guy said to me “you are alright”.’
He said in the Australian manner of speaking it sounded like he was telling him he was right – as if he had answered a question correctly.
If someone apologised to him in a similar way he would answer ‘you are all good’ or ‘you are sweet’, ‘don’t worry about it my man’.
He said this phrase feels ‘less warm’ though admitted it ‘carries more swagger’.
‘There’s something nice about it,’ he said.
Many Aussies were quick to comment on his video and explained how it should be taken.
‘At a deeper level it implies that you don’t need to be concerned with offering an apology. It’s almost as if there is no need for one to offer forgiveness for another’s actions as we are not even bothered by it. So yeah, you’re alright,’ one woman said.
‘It’s kind of a question and a statement at the same time. Like “are you ok?” and “it’s all good put together”,’ offered another.
Others didn’t realise it was an Australian thing.
‘100 per cent forget this is not an everywhere thing and say it all the time in Hong Kong. Never thought that someone wouldn’t know what I meant though,’ a traveller said.
Some Australians warned the Canadian to watch out for the less friendly ‘you right mate?’ which might sound similar to the untrained ear.
‘That one has a significantly different vibe,’ one warned.
‘Yeah, we are about to fight with that one,’ said another.
‘If it’s ‘yurightmayd’ it’s all good but if we say ‘are you right mate?’ then that mate is very much about to not be alright,’ a third explained.
