boyo loophole

I was half tempted to learn Welsh having read in The Age of the new regulations for UK citzenship

British mockery of the Australian accent and vernacular has boiled over into outright hostility with new regulations demanding that Australians submit to English language tests before taking out British citizenship.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has decreed that applications for a British passport must be supported by certificates of proficiency in English, supplied by designated English teachers

An unnamed Australian writer with two degrees has failed.
I wouldn't like boynton to get the third degree in language proficiency, so would be tempted to opt for the welsh loophole myself.

Applicants who speak English have to demonstrate their proficiency, but those who claim to speak the notoriously treacherous and consonant-laden Welsh language, or the indigenous Scottish Gaelic, are exempt from testing

A Welsh accent might be just as challenging to fake as dinkum Aussie. The original Guardian article on this story, Pommie lingo test is unfair dinkum, mate claims that we still speak old strine:
They may describe women as "sheilas" and use "bastard" as a term of endearment but, apart from pedants, few suggest Australians cannot speak English.

Sadly, few of my cobbers ever use the word sheila now, the bastards.

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Comments: boyo loophole

A propos "sheila". One of my chinas in travelling the same cockney road that leads us to china, uses the term "potato". (In unguarded moments, "spud".)

He also doesn't think there hasn't been a *real* poet since C.J. Dennis popped his quills.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 20, 2004 04:07 PM

The mind boggled but I googled and was glad to see that Potato is polite.

I wanted to add the disclaimer: I sincerely lament the passing of old strine and 'sentimental bloke' speak. Especially given the global net-speak that has replaced it. I wish there was a way of reviving old slang, and protecting the last stands from imports.
Posted by boynton at August 20, 2004 04:18 PM

Yo sista!

Gorstrooth! I think we well-meaning crypto-slango-troglo-dytes should appropriate the Eureka flag and make one last glorious stand.

(And make Lenny Lower compulsory reading.)
Posted by Sedgwick at August 20, 2004 05:37 PM

Here's luck, dude.

btw I have priors on both the slang (well an obscure dialect anyway)

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/002694.html
and the flag.
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/005414.html

so sign me up as a fellow crypto-slango-troglo-dyte.
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2004 06:59 PM

nothin wrong with strayan as she is spoke on the hibiscus coast, aaayyy

...and I always thought that punctuating aaayyy was a kiwi thing, but time amongst the banana benders (up and down the Bruce Highway) has set me straight...
Posted by nardo at August 22, 2004 02:47 PM

Is the Hibiscus Coast F NQ - or just Q?

A correspondent informs me that aaayyy is pretty big in the Latrobe Valley, too. I only ever noticed a thick rise of the inflections, but.
Posted by boynton at August 22, 2004 06:46 PM

err ... Improper use of the vernacular...
that should be of course be more:
"Can't say I noticed.
Did notice a thick rise of the inflections, but."
Posted by boynton at August 22, 2004 07:50 PM

if you're heading north, pass the Gold, Sunshine, Fraser, and Coral Coasts... you'll find it just past Mackay, aaayyy
Posted by nardo at August 23, 2004 06:53 AM