Recently I read a comment in an overseas paper, stating that foreign students studying in Britain will be educated in the etiquette of queuing. The Brits do the queuing thing exceedingly well, however the foreign students are not so well versed in this habit. Some cultures even hold a scrum every time a bus turns up, apparently.
As I didn't plan to write about this subject I shall segue to my main topic, the English language as spoken in Australia.
The letter L appears to have been replaced from the the word Australia by the letter Y. Australia has now become Austraya. I think this is unfair to the letter L and also it makes Australia sound even more like Austria. Is this a conspiracy? Are the Austrians now taking over Austraya?
Then there is the (wonderful) State of Western Australia (WA) now often referred to as Dubba u A. Oooh wait, doesn't that sound like Dubai?
I formally declare myself proud of the L, see how it stands up tall and straight. I personally think it is more upstanding than the Y. If this makes me a revolutionary and non conformist, so be it.
One more thing I find particularly annoying is using 'u' in place of the curly little 'e' as in uleven for eleven. There is a place for the Y and the U but not in Australia, WA and eleven.
I'm off to make and sell cheap placards stating 'down with Y, up with L and E.
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