Hello Leo Listeners. This week I’m joined by Pete from Aussie English. He invited me over to his podcast and YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago for a chat. And now I’m returning the favour. Pete is Australian, unsurprisingly, so it’s a great chance to listen to and compare our accents.
The idea behind this interview was to discuss Australian accents, Australian TV and anything else that took our fancy.
I ended up finding out about Pete’s PhD research into Australian rat populations. And got a lot of juicy language learning tips out of him. If you want to know about how he got an authentic French accent, stay tuned. A lot of these tips also apply to English.
We discuss:
First 10 minutes or so
- The fact that Pete is actually Dr Pete as he holds a PhD
- The fascinating evolution of Australian rat species and how they’re related to each other
- My close call with a rat in Seville
- Why rats make better pets than hamsters and mice. And why you should avoid ferrets.
The next 10 minutes
- Where Pete’s living and where he’s originally from
- How and why Canberra became Australia’s capital
- Chatting about Australian cities and why my relatives live in the worst one
- Australian geography vs European geography and the impact (or not) on language learning
- Linguistic diversity in the UK and the status of Gaelic in Scotland
20 minutes onwards
- Pete’s experience learning languages
- How Pete got back into learning French
- Pete’s top language learning tips from his experiences in reactiving his French and learning Portuguese
39 minutes in
- Classic Australian TV shows: Home and Away, Neighbours
- Pete’s friends TV show about snake catching
- Some Australian TV shows you might not have heard of
- Australian movies
46 minutes in
- Australian accents and slang
Links Mentioned In Our Chat To Understand Aussie Accents
- My interview on Pete’s YouTube channel about life in France: : https://youtu.be/FtMDWzK9VCM
- My interview on Pete’s YouTube channel about getting rid of subtitles: https://youtu.be/aIeZ3oOujTY
- Pete’s big list of 20+ movies & TV shows in Aussie English that will help you learn the Australian accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feFUc4EEDe0
- Pete’s friend’s show, Snake Catcher is on this site: https://www.facebook.com/fraudulentfilms/
- Pete’s website: https://theaussieenglishpodcast.com/
- Aussie English on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theaussieenglishpodcast/
Hello! intresting conversation, thank you… Listening to you talking about rats… I’ve recently read an amazing novel, about a rat living in a bookshop… narrated from this book-loving rat’s point of view… for rat and books lovers… Firmin by Sam Savage, in case you might be interested!
Hi Elena. Glad you enjoyed it. That novel sounds brilliant, thanks for the recommendation. Who’d have thought you could combine a love for books and rats!?