Australia through US eyes

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tabouli" wrote:

<< Back to accents, one thing I noticed when travelling the States 
last year for the first time was that in the US Australia has almost 
no presence (save perhaps Paul Hogan and that crocodile guy).  Quite 
different from the UK, where people readily recognise an Australian 
accent and have definite (albeit sometimes odd) ideas about what the 
place is like.  My impression was that in the States Australia has, 
if anything at all, a vaguely... *rural* sort of an image.  
Californian beaches crossed with small midwest country towns and 
peppered with kangaroos. >>

Really? When I lived in New York City, my ex (a Londoner with the 
modern version of a working-class accent) always said that Americans 
hearing his accent always asked him if he were Australian.

<< what image *do* people in the USA have of Australia, if any? >>

Considering how many photos of Sydney Opera House are always being 
thrust upon me, my image of Australia (and I assume most Americans')
starts with a modern city with a big piece of unlikely architecture 
attractively posed between a sky of fireworks and a harbor of yachts.

<< Would you recognise an Australian accent? >>

Well, that *really* strong Strine ...