Transcript of AE 1279 - Expression: Calm Your Farm

G'day you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete. And my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day, you mob! How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. I am your host, Pete Smissen, and I hope you guys are having a ripper of a week. A ripper of a week. I have just got back from the farm. We went away to my grandparents farm over the weekend and hopefully probably a week or two ago, you heard a Walking With Pete episode where I delved more deeply into that experience. I talked more about it. I talked also about catching a an eastern brown snake. That was definitely the sort of highlight of the trip. It was interesting, to say the least, to sort of stumble upon and then capture, take away and release Australia's second most deadliest snake. Oof! So yes. Anyway, go check that episode out.

But I also saw that it was fitting to kind of include this expression today. Calm your farm, right. Which is related to obviously farms. So anyway, before we get into today's episode, don't forget if you want to support the podcast whilst also levelling up your English, go and check out my Premium Podcast.

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Also, if you want to just get some freebies from my uh, from my my content from my website, go over to AussieEnglish.com.au/free and you will find my free PDFs and my free five day level up your English course. Okay, so yes, that's what I've been up to this week. Going to the farm, coming back and just getting back into the swing of things. All right. Kids are going back to Day-care. And that's about it, really.

I've just been chilling out, playing a bit of guitar. I got guitar elbow recently, which is golfer's elbow, effectively, right. It's, it's tendonitis. So the tendons that attach the muscle in your forearm to your inner elbow get inflamed from overuse. So I've had to try and take it easy with the guitar and not do as many repetitive kind of exercises and also loosen out my muscles by stretching.

And I've got a massage gun that I use as well to, to help sort of relax them. To, yeah, to fix it, but it kind of disappeared after a few days. So knock on wood, knock on wood that it doesn't come back any time soon and I can get back to playing. All right. So, I guess 'chase the sheep'. And let's get into today's question and answer. [sheep sound]

So today's question comes from Julia. Julia Kibkalo over in Ukraine. So g'day, Julia. I know you well. So I saw this question, I had to ask it. Again, it's related to snakes and farms. So Julia asks "How do the snake services in Australia work? Do you pay for them? Are they free? What's the deal?"

So I think I mentioned this when I did the Instagram stories on the farm and the weekend that we had. I showed the snake and talked about catching it and everything like that, and mentioned that we were probably going to have to hire some snake handlers, snake catchers, to come up and and go through the rock pile, the pile of large rocks where I found this snake, in order to probably remove its mother or father and or siblings that are probably also inside that huge pile of rocks.

So yes, you can hire snake catchers in Australia, it is a job. There's more of them further north. I think if you were to go further north, it's more of a frequent occurrence having snakes, you know, get into your house or your backyard and, and there's yeah.

We've talked to snake Catchers on the podcast before. Ross MacGibbon, check out his podcast episodes. We've chatted to him. He used to be a snake catcher. And I think Stuart Mackenzie was also a previous interview. And he is a Queensland snake catcher as well. Has a business. These guys, it's their full time job effectively where they get phone calls and people have venomous and non-venomous snakes that have gotten into their house, or into their backyard, and they want them removed. They don't want to hurt the snakes. They just want them taken away from their yard and released into the wild.

Obviously, it's kind of less of a problem, like it's less dangerous if it's a python. But if you don't know your snakes and you don't, you can't tell you want to hire someone to go and do it. Because if it's not a python and it's something like a brown snake or a taipan, or, you know, any of these venomous snakes in Australia, you could, you could die if you get bitten, right? So, yes, you can call these people up and I assume there's a standard fee that they charge, you know, might be 1 or 200 bucks. Whatever it is, they pop over in their car with their snake capturing, capturing material or, you know, tools, and they will get the snake off your property and go and release it.

So yes, that's how it sort of works around here. All right, guys, smack the kookaburra and let's get into today's joke! [kookaburra sound] So again, tried to tie this into the themes that have been occurring already on this episode.

So here's the joke. Are you ready? "What are snakes do after they fight?" All right, so snakes, they've had a fight. What do they do after they've had a fight? "They hiss and make up."

Do you get it? "They hiss and make up." So this is a pun with the expression 'to kiss and make up', right? 'To kiss and make up'. This is reconciling after a disagreement or an argument or a fight of some kind, right? An example would be, "After a long discussion about their misunderstanding, the two friends decided to kiss and make up, and they said they'd never have a fight again."

It's, it can be literal. Like, if you're in a relationship with someone. You know, my wife and I, if we had a really big fight, we might literally 'kiss and make up', you know, like, repair the damage that was done from the fight. But it could also be figurative. You don't have to kiss someone when you 'kiss and make up'. So.

And also, obviously the pun is on the word 'hiss'. This is to make a sharp, sibilant sound, typically as a sign of disapproval or to warn off threats, right. So you could, I guess. Yeah. As a, as a human, you could go, "Oh, hsss, I don't like that. That's a bit weird though." But we would think about it as the sound that a snake makes, right. It goes /sss/.

But it's also with the word 'kiss'. This is the pun between 'hiss' and 'kiss'. 'Kiss' meaning to touch or press one's lips against another person or an object as a sign of affection, greeting, or reverence. "She kissed her grandmother on the cheek when she said goodbye." That's right.

And the cat? A cat can 'hiss'. It can go [hissing sound]. That's a 'hiss' as well, I guess, right? A cat hiss. "The cat hissed at the new puppy to tell it to stay away."

So there you go. That's the joke. Hopefully you liked it, guys. "What do snakes do after they fight?" "They 'hiss' /hss/ and make up." [That was good, wasn't it? It was good for a bit of a giggle, anyway.].

All right, so today's expression is 'calm your farm'. 'To calm your farm'. "Calm your farm, mate. Look, just steady on." "Relax. Calm your farm." But before we get into that, let's go through the different words in the expression and what they mean and how to use them. [Youse. Collective noun. All of your friends.].

So, 'to calm'. You could 'calm someone down'. And this is to make someone tranquil or quiet, right? To soothe. So, "After a stressful day at work, meditation helps her to calm her mind."

Or, "The teacher managed to calm down the noisy classroom by starting up with a captivating story." Right? "She calmed them down." "She calmed them."

'Your'. This is a possessive adjective indicating that the following noun belongs to the person or people being spoken to, right? "Is this your book?" "Make sure that you bring your umbrella.", right. Not mine. Not his, not hers, not theirs, not ours. 'Your' umbrella.

A 'farm'. A farm is an area of land and its buildings used for growing crops and rearing animals. So, as I said, "On the weekend, we went up to my grandparents farm where they have sheep." We like visiting farms sometimes, maybe to buy farmers products, right? You might buy milk, you might buy fruit, all that sort of stuff. 'Farm'.

Okay. So if you 'calm your farm', 'calm your farm'. If someone usually says this to you, right, you're not going to say it about yourself. "I'm just calming my farm." It's more of a, an order that you would give someone, right? You would say to them, "Calm your farm, mate." It's just a rhyming expression that means 'calm down', right. Calm down. Relax. Chill out. Just calm yourself. 'Calm your farm'.

It doesn't literally have anything to do with a farm. It just rhymes nicely with the word 'calm'. And so, yes, we have this expression 'calm your farm'. I only really started hearing this when I was at university. I think there were a few people, I think probably in my PhD, right. So that would have been like 2012 to 2017. So only about a decade ago, they started using this all the time, and that's how I started using it. And now you hear it all over the place.

So I think it is a recently developed expression in Australian English, and I don't know if it's unique to us. It may be used elsewhere, but it's definitely common here. You'll hear it, you know, 'calm your farm', 'calm your farm'.

All right. So let's go through three examples of how and when I would use this expression in everyday English.

All right. So you're at a popular beach in Queensland, right? A group of your friends gathers together for a weekend barbecue when they realise they've forgotten the sausages at home. One of them starts panicking and ruining the outing, right? They start freaking out. They start, "Oh God, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?" So seeing your friend overreact, you might laugh and say, "Mate, just calm your farm. Look, we'll go down to the shops, we'll grab some snags, we'll get some sausages. It'll be all right." "No need to freak out. No need to lose your cool. Just relax. Chill out. Calm your fam. Just 'calm your farm'."

Example number two. During the Ashes series, a family in Perth gathers to watch the cricket match on TV. When Australia loses a crucial wicket, one family member starts ranting loudly about the cricket team's strategy. This person's sister, trying to keep the peace, hands him a drink and says, "Look mate, 'calm your farm'. It's just a game. It's not the end of the world and it's not over yet. Have a sip. Sit down, relax, watch the match. Calm your farm. Calm your farm."

Example number three. In a Sydney office, a team works on a tight deadline. As the deadline approaches, the project manager starts to stress excessively, raising her voice and rushing around the office. Kind of freaking out, right? And her colleague trying to lighten the mood might quip. She might say, "Hey, calm your farm. It's all good. We're all on it. Doing our best. Stressing out won't help us finish it up any quicker. Calm your farm."

So, 'to calm your farm' guys, hopefully now you understand this expression. It means to calm down, relax, chill out and you give it as an order to someone, right? You usually just say it as 'calm your farm'. I guess you could say, you know, "He needs to calm his farm." "She needs to calm her farm." But typically you'll probably hear this as someone saying something directly to another person as the phrase 'calm your farm'.

Okay, so as usual, let's get into today's Australian pronunciation exercise. [Would you like a car-donnay, Kylie? Kim, it's not car-donnay. The correct pronunciation is 'chardonnay'. Mum, it's French! The H is silent! Back me up here, Kylie!] Okay, so the goal of this exercise is for you to find somewhere quiet where you can talk out loud, you can speak, you can pronounce these words and phrases out loud in your own voice, listening and repeating after me. Okay, so are you ready? Let's go.

To. To calm. To calm your. To calm your farm. To calm your farm. To calm your farm. To calm your farm. To calm your farm. I need a calm my farm. You need a calm your farm. He needs to calm his farm. She needs to calm her farm. We need a calm our farm. They need a calm their farm. It needs to calm its farm.

Good job guys. All right. Let's go through a little bit of what happens, you know, with the pronunciation of these words and phrases, the connected speech, everything like that. So first thing is always if there is the word 'to' in front of something, I think it's an adverb, right, in front of a verb. 'To calm' becomes /tə/. We use the schwa sound and it isn't emphasised that syllable that is 'to'. We say /tə/ /tə calm/, /tə calm/.

Secondly, you'll notice in the word 'calm' as in the word 'farm', you don't pronounce the L and the R sounds that come before the M. Okay, so 'calm', C A L M. You don't pronounce the L, it just signifies that there's a long /aa/ vowel sound. /Caam/, /caam/.

Same thing for 'farm' in Australian English. We don't pronounce that R. There's no vowel that comes after it. It's a consonant and M sound. So it just shows that the A and the R together are a long /aa/ vowel sound /faam/ /faam/.

Then lastly, the word 'your' becomes /yuh/ /tə caam yuh faam/. And we skip over it really quickly, right? So 'calm' and 'farm' are the words that are emphasised, and the other words are reduced. /Tə caam yuh faam/, /tə caam yuh faam/, and it is its schwa. And then the R sound, and then schwa again, and then the R sound. If we look at the vowels in this phrase /tə caam yuh faam/ /tə caam yuh faam/.

All right. Secondly, when we go through these phrases of 'I need to', 'he needs to', 'you need to', etc., you'll notice that 'need' and 'to' become /needa/, and /needz/ and /to/ become /needsta/, okay. So /needa/ /I needa caam my faam/. /You needa caam yuh faam/ and /needsta/. /He needsta caam his faam/. /She needsta caam her faam/.

Get used to contracting those words together. That is very common in all forms of English, okay? Instead of saying /need/ /to/, /needs/ /to/, you're going to hear /needa/ and /needsta/.

And then the last thing I wanted to mention here is H deletion, as always with the- I guess they're possessive pronouns, 'his' and 'her'. So instead of /calm/ /his/ and /calm/ /her/ with very clearly pronounced H sounds, because there's a consonant that comes before the words 'his' and 'her', the M sound at the end of the word 'calm', we just link those words together and you'll hear no H. It just links from the M, okay? /Caamiz/ /he needsta caam◡iz faam/ /caam◡er/ /she needsta caam◡er faam/.

Okay, so lots going on there. Don't forget, guys, if you want to learn Australian pronunciation and develop your own Australian accent so that you can one understand Australian Aussies, you know, you can understand the Australian accent by studying the accent. But then two, probably most importantly, develop your own Australian accent so you can speak more naturally and sound like a true blue fair dinkum Aussie.

Be sure to check out my Australian pronunciation course at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. If you use that link, you will save $100 off the price of the course. A P C 1 0 0 okay, so AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. Go check it out.

Okay, so to finish up guys, let's get into today's little film or TV show clip exercise. [That's not a nice. That's a knife.] [Here, there's no cash. All right. Cash? No robber. No cash.] [You're terrible, Muriel. Tell him he's dreaming.].

So today's clip comes from a new Aussie TV show called Outback Farm. I think this was first released last year. So the excerpt is "Ex-water drillers turned first time farmers Anthony and Danyelle Haigh move to a 5000 acre property in the remote Australian outback to turn it into a successful hay making farm and a popular tourist attraction." So it's actually really good.

I was watching some of the scenes from this show, Outback Farm. You can find it on YouTube. The scenes that are on there. And there are loads of different accents, and really strong Australian accents! And there's a really strong Irish accent as well from one of the workers. So go check it out.

Anyway, the rules of the game. I'm going to play a clip for you two times, and your goal is to listen and then write down what you hear being said. It's a great way to train your listening comprehension and remember you'll be able to check your answer if you download today's free worksheet, which you can get via the links in the description of the podcast episode or on the website.

Or if you're a Premium Podcast member, you'll obviously be able to see the answer in the transcript itself. So you're ready to go. Here's the first playthrough.

Anthony's taking my truck. He's, I think he's real impressed about it. Hey, um, the nice, um, pink truck. For a manly man.

How'd you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough.

Anthony's taking my truck. He's, I think he's real impressed about it. Hey, um, the nice, um, pink truck. For a manly man.

All right. Good job guys. That's it from me. Thank you for joining me. I'm your host, Pete, this is Aussie English. I hope you have a ripper of a weekend and I'll see you next time! Tooroo!