Tea, dinner, evening meal

[akibun 0]

Hi. Can someone tell me difference between the three? Sometimes same?

[bobby12 0]

all the same.

 

'Dinner' is probably the best term. But in the north of england 'dinner' is called 'tea'. Foreigners tend to say 'evening meal.'

[gamera 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by bobby12:
But in the north of england 'dinner' is called 'tea'.

Ohhh... So I have to be careful not to get confused when people there start talking about 'tea' if I could get a chance to visit there

[damian 0]

In Australia if one calls dinner 'tea' it is usually a pretty reliable indication of where they lay in the social strata, particularly if they then call lunch 'dinner'.

[Davo 1]

"What's for tea Mum?" Is what I used to say everyday after school in NZ

[indosnm 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Davo:
"What's for tea Mum?" Is what I used to say everyday after school in NZ

sounds like my place.

OR
" you kids get inside you F%&'ing TEA is getting cold"
and she wasn't talking about ocha!

[bobby12 0]

I think that just shows how UK culture is more closely linked to that of Oz/NZ than any other country, despite being on the exact opposite side of the globe. This was why I didn't like Oz!

 

UK + sunshine - culture = Oz

[damian 0]

Correct, Australia does not have culture, but it does most certainly have an exact spirit and rhythm and identity.

 

England and culture? I won't stand for that, it is bullshit. Most of Europe has culture, London has some as far as the west end and design hotspots in the inner East. However England in general and its people do not have culture. That needn't be taken as an insult.

[2pints-mate 0]

34, you really really need to get out of London and explore. (Around the UK that is)

[brett_jackson 0]

True 34 - Australia doesn't have culture the way other countires (that have been developed for hundereds of years longer) have. But 'Astraya' does in fact have 'culcha', which is different altogether ....I'm also sure it's spirit would be even stronger if it weren't for the fact that we totally f#$ked over it's native inhabitants.

 

I used to call dinner tea - back living with the folks due to my Dad's folks being English. Now I call it dinner. Occaisionally I call it (and every other meal) 'fwaad' which is just 'food' said in a funny way: "...geez, must be about time for some fwaad".

[js 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by akibun:
Hi. Can someone tell me difference between the three? Sometimes same?

In traditional order:

Breakfast or brunch, morning tea/elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, high tea, dinner, supper.

Did they EVER stop eating??

(As for Oz not having 'culture' - well, we're lucky enough to have taken the best bits from other countries and not been inhibited by their inbred notions accumulated over millennia by genetically challenged peasants. Australia has a very diverse culture - no single one, that's why most outsiders can't comprehend it. )

[2pints-mate 0]

I'm staying with my parents tonight.

I just called me mum up and asked her what's for tea.

It's lasagne.

She makes a killer lasagne.

[bobby12 0]

I just felt Ozzies were into beer, sports and BBQ and little else. I suppose if you swap the BBQ for kebabs then its not that different to the UK. But thats pop/chav-culture.

 

I found Australia really fascinating in that it just seemed so desolate, like one immensely huge (and beautiful) ghost town. I think if you want to be surrounded by vast empty nature, and want a really simple life then you'd love it. Even in the big cities (Sydney, Brisbane) you get the feeling that if you walked 500 meters away from the shops you'd be in the bush. This is something I thought I desperately wanted, but I got to Oz and realised that I need more than just space and scenery.

 

Diverging slightly, I also find Australians and South Africans incredibly racist, and quite open about it. I can understand it more from South Africans given what has happened over there, but from Australians it seems almost irrational given the power balance there.

[snobee 0]

B-12 - sorry to hear you had such a -ive time in Oz from the cultural/social side of things.

 

Sure Oz is different, as everywhere is - but can't help but think you moved in very limited circles.

 

Especially re the racist tag. Broadly speaking aussies display a pretty open tolerance of people from all walks & creeds. I don't recall too many of the ugly brit types of open racism splashed across the news. eg 1,000s making monkey noises at black soccer players.

 

Go again with a different focus I'd say.

[gamera 0]

Arguing, bobby?

[NoFakie 45]

I'm from North-East England and a child of the Sixties, so it was breakfast-dinner-tea for me. "Lunch" sounds very posh. My father didn't take a "packed lunch" to work, he took his "bait". Another class divide word was whether your grandmother was your "grandma" (posh types) or your "nana" (everyone else).

 

Even outside the North, the women serving food at school canteens at midday are still "dinner ladies".

[simop 0]

what´s Oz?

[sakebomb 0]

Not this, In the beginning....the First Fleet carried 1500 people, half of them convicts....

...... and from this day forth it will be known as Australia .

I'm sure my mum says tea- but my father says dinner being English.

[simop 0]

So is it "Old Zeland"??

[gamera 0]

Simop - I think O'z = Australia.

Slangs are anyway hard for not native speakers

Welcome from Suomi!

[sakebomb 0]

That's right Gamera!

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by 2pints,mate:
34, you really really need to get out of London and explore. (Around the UK that is)

I know. What I have seen outside London, I like. I seriously think that the best of England is outside London, and that goes the most for teh people.

B12 - You are right, Australia does not have really any culture in the trad sense, but it has spirit. Other than that, there is simply way too much sport.

[bobby12 0]

If by spirit you mean the people have a positive attitude then I completely agree. That applies both to their attitude to sports and life and general. I think Ozzies are quite like the Scots and Irish in that way, though less self-deprecating.

[damian 0]

You are right, the laid back nature is at least 50% of being Australian: dont take much serioulsy, cause a little harmless trouble along the way, laugh at people.

 

To be honest, I am not sure how to nail down 'spirit'. It is kind of described by the smell of the place, the feel of the air, the colour of the sky and trees and dirt, the length of the coast, the emptiness dominated by nature, the illogical love affair with proud suburbia and the backyard pool.....

 

I am starting to lose the plot now I remember losing the plot like this before on the forum and jokingly suggested a very old and not so great song called "The sound of then" by a band called Gangajang. It is tacky, but it kind of captures some of the feel, needs to be heard, not just read:

 

 Quote:

I think I hear the sounds of then,

And people talking,

The scenes recalled, by minute movement,

And songs they fall, from the backing tape.

That certain texture, that certain smell,

 

To lie in sweat, on familiar sheets,

In brick veneer on financed beds.

In a room, of silent hardiflex

That certain texture, that certain smell,

 

Brings home the heavy days,

Brings home the night time swell,

 

Out on the patio we’d sit,

And the humidity we’d breathe,

We’d watch the lightning crack over canefields

Laugh and think, this is Australia.

Here is a funny website with a funny name. It has a section called 'culture' and a bunch of song lyrics, some of them are very Australian:

 

http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/music.htm

 

It is a long read but enlightening.

 

 Quote:

Fellow hard rock band, the Angels, produced a sentimental song which included the lyrics "Am I ever going to see your face again." Australian yobbos responded by shouting the reply: 'No way, get f****d, f**k off'; thus elevating the song to icon status in the Australian music scene.

[brett_jackson 0]

34 - thanks for putting those lyrics in there ("The sound of then"). That song still lurks amongst various TV & Radio advertisements to this day, and I've never actually known every word they say ... so a BIG thanks.

 

Remember that particular ad, I'm pretty sure it was for beer but I don't remember which one, where a family of canefield workers (all young and attractive funnily enough) were relaxing on the deck of their house in the evening (before tea/supper/dinner) while the canefields burned and the lightning struck down, with that song in the background? Awesome ad - I had the pleasure of experiencing that myself up north (near Murwillumbah) during the burn one year. Great stuff.

 

Gamera - the Oz for Australia is due to the 'Aus' part of Australia sounding like 'Oz'. Though these days I notice a trend towards some Aussies saying 'Astraya', which kinda removes the 'Oz' part.