Some Austrians in New Zealand

For over 3 months we have been trying to teach our children the new language, aupairs supported our efforts of building up conceptual nodes and custom set (everyday) phrases. Although Anna would try (at least), Verena denied to speak or even participate in lessons. Yet :)

But then, we know it’s not easy to switch to a completely different languistic dimension: The first time we’ve been to NZ I was simply shocked that I couldn’t understand properly what people were saying. Talks were short, however, something was utterly wrong. I didn’t realise what it was until I heard of the phonetic variation in the Australian/NZ region:

• pan is pronounced like the english word pen
• pen -> pin
• pin -> pun
• pair -> peer
• and much more …  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English

… what leads to profound confusion when you’re not used to it.  Still unsure how to handle this in our own speech. At the moment, I’m in denial ;)