Transcript of AE 1300 - Learn English with a Short Story: Piss-Up at the Pub

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, mate. Have you ever wondered what kind of slang and expressions Aussies use at the pub, or when drinking a beer or two? In this episode, you're going to learn a whole bunch of slang, advanced expressions and collocations related to drinking culture and pub culture in Australia.

Don't forget to grab the free worksheet for today's episode. You can download it via the link in the description. It has a full transcript of the short story. We will study in depth today a glossary with all of the interesting vocab from the story, and a 20 question quiz at the end. A multiple choice quiz for you to test your comprehension. So go grab that. It's free. Just click it and you can download it. Don't forget you can listen to this episode as a podcast episode. So if you're not able to watch a video but you still want to study, go and check it out on the Aussie English Podcast. It'll be linked below in the description, but you can find it via any good podcast app as well.

Now lastly guys, I want to say thanks for all the kind comments and words of encouragement from the last episode that we did, where we were looking at a Day at the Beach. That was the first time I had done this structure with a story like this, and you guys seem to love it. So I'm so happy to be doing a second episode. And I asked you guys if you had any suggestions for future episodes. And here's one of those comments. I got this from Mr. PK 266. "Great story! How about camping and exploring the outback with a couple of animals and critters. And two, a diving expedition in the Great Barrier Reef."

Now, next week's episode is going to be number one that he suggested here, a camping and exploring episode about the outback, with loads of animals. So that's a little cheeky preview for next week's episode. But without any further ado, let's get into today's episode.

So today's episode is called Piss Up at the pub. And as a little preview, in Australian English slang, we have loads of terms, expressions, vocab related to 'piss' and you will see that in this episode.

Anyway, let's play the story through. After the story I'm going to go through line by line. We'll read it out, we'll practice the vocab, we'll talk about what things mean in each line, and then I'll play the story for you again, so that hopefully the second time you'll understand almost everything, if not everything, that you hear. Okay, so are you ready to rock? Let's go.

Mick pushed open the door of the Rusty Roo. Feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves. It was his first Friday arvo at an Australian pub, and as an American, he wasn't sure what to expect. The place was already chockers, filled with blokes and sheilas all having a proper piss up. Mick had heard about the legendary Australian pub culture, but nothing could have prepared him for what lay ahead.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Mick spotted two blokes at the bar, Tommo and Davo, both dressed in high-vis work shirts, clearly having knocked off after a long day. Already a couple of drinks in, they waved him over with big grins plastered on their faces.

"G'day, mate! You're new 'round here, eh?" Tommo greeted, raising his glass. "Let's grab a brewski. It's time to get on the piss!" Mick furrowed his brow, trying to keep up. "On the what?"

Davo chuckled, leaning in close. "Means we'll be drinking tonight, mate. On the piss all night long!" Still unsure of what he'd gotten himself into, Mick nodded, eager to fit in.

Tommo had been quick to take charge, ordering the first round of beers for the group. As they waited, the barmaid, Shazza zipped past them with a full tray of beers, expertly weaving through the crowded pub like it was second nature. She looked completely swamped, barely keeping up with the mountain of orders that just kept coming in.

"Bloody hell. Shaz is flat out like a lizard drinking tonight," Davo remarked, casually leaning against the bar. "The place is going off like a frog in a sock!"

Moments later, their drinks arrived, three pints of cold beer, each glistening under the warm pub lights. Mick grabbed his pint and with a grin raised his glass. "Cheers!"

"Good on ya, mate!" Tommo cheered, clinking glasses with Mick. "Ah! A pint's just what the doctor ordered. None of that schooner or pot stuff tonight. You Yanks love your oversized drinks, anyway, right?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Mick replied. They all took long, satisfying sips, and Mick felt the tension in his shoulders melt away as the beer settled in. It was only when Tommo set his glass down and looked at Mick with a grin that he realised something was coming.

"All right, Mick, you know the rules, right?" Tommo announced with a hearty slap on Mick's back. "It's your shout next!"

Mick blinked, confused yet again. "My what? What do I need to shout?"

Davo burst into laughter. "Not 'shout' as in 'yell'. If it's your shout, it means it's your turn to buy the next round of drinks, mate. No tight arses allowed in this pub."

Mick chuckled nervously, trying to mentally calculate how many rounds he'd be expected to buy before the night was over.

Before he could ask what to order next, the door swung open with a loud bang, and in stomped Big Pete, a massive bloke with a reputation for causing trouble. He was the kind of yobbo everyone knew to avoid after a few drinks.

Big Pete's eyes immediately locked onto a man sitting across the pub- Gazza. With a smug grin, Big Pete made a beeline for him.

"Oi! Gazza!" Big Pete hollered, his voice booming across the room. "You old bludger! Still supporting that useless footie team of yours?"

Gazza glared up at him, clearly unimpressed. "You're full of it, Pete. Don't you start taking the piss out of my team!"

Mick, feeling lost again, turned to Tommo. "Wait, what does taking the piss mean? As in, taking his beer off him?"

Tomo smirked. "No, mate. If someone's taken the piss, they're making fun of you. We Aussies love a bit of piss-taking!"

Before Mick could respond, Davo leaned in with a grin. "And while you lot are watching Big Pete take the piss, I'm off to take a piss." He winked at Mick as he strolled off towards the bathroom.

Mick turned to Tommo with a quizzical look. "So, I gather Davo means he's going to the bathroom?"

Tomo chuckled. "Spot on mate. There's a huge difference between taking a piss and taking the piss."

Mick smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. "You Aussies really love the word piss, don't you?"

"Too right," Tomo replied with a laugh. "After all, it's a pisser of a word!"

Meanwhile, the pub started to buzz as the banter between Gazza and Big Pete heated up. Mick could feel the tension rising, but Tommo and Davo seemed completely unbothered.

"She'll be right," Davo reassured Mick as he returned from the bathroom. "Happens every week."

But the argument suddenly escalated before anyone could stop it, Big Pete lunged at Gaza, swinging a fist at him and knocking over a full tray of beers in the process. A full-on biffo erupted in the pub, with blokes swinging punches left and right.

"Crikey! Pete's as mad as a cut snake tonight!" Davo shouted over the chaos, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

Mick froze, unsure of what to do. He'd never seen anything like this back in the States. Punches were flying, beer was spilling everywhere, and the pub had turned into a battleground.

"Just another Friday night, mate," Tomo yelled over the noise. "Things always get a bit loose after a few rounds!"

As Mick ducked under the bar to avoid the chaos, a pint of beer splashed all over him, drenching his shirt. One bloke in the corner was already blind drunk, stumbling around, completely out of it.

That's when Shazza had had enough. "Oi! Knock it off, everyone!" she shouted. "Rack off, Pete, or you're banned for life! I'm not cleaning up this mess again, ya drongo!"

Shazza marched over her face red with fury, glaring at Big Pete as she added, "Now, piss off!" Realising he was seconds away from being banned from the pub for good,

Big Pete backed down, muttering one last insult as he stormed out. "Oh, you're weak as piss, Gazza!"

The fight fizzled out, and the pub slowly returned to its usual rowdy but slightly calmer state. Tommo slapped Mick on the back, laughing. "Fair dinkum, mate, you handled that well. Didn't run off like a wuss. Nice one!"

Mick, still dripping in beer, chuckled awkwardly. "So, is this a normal Friday night?" Davo smiled back. "Bloody oath, mate! Things always get a bit full-on around here. But it's all good fun, especially when you're on the piss with mates."

As they settled back down at their table, Shazza, seeing Mick soaked and looking out of sorts, took pity on him and brought over another beer. "Don't worry, love, this one's on the house," she said with a kind smile.

Mick grinned, finally starting to understand the rhythm of Australian pub life. He raised his glass with a newfound sense of belonging. "I'm starting to get the hang of this, I think."

The next morning, Mick woke up with a pounding headache and a foggy memory of the night before. He groaned, grabbing his phone and shooting a quick text to Tommo. "I'm feeling awful this morning, mate." He rubbed his sore head.

Tommy replied almost instantly. "Haha! Reckon you'll need the hair of the dog."

"Dog hair? What are you talking about now, Tommo?" Mick asked confused.

"Hair of the dog, mate. A drink in the morning to get rid of the hangover." Tommo replied. "Meet us at the pub later for a recovery drink."

Mick chuckled despite the throbbing in his head. He was still learning the ropes, but after surviving his first piss-up, he knew he was well on his way to becoming one of the locals.

Okay, so hopefully you enjoyed that guys. Hopefully there was loads of new vocab for you to learn. Loads of slang. Um, hopefully it was a fun story as well. Let's dive into the transcript and just go through line by line. So today's story is called Piss Up at the pub. Let's do it.

"Mick pushed open the door of The Rusty Roo, feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves." So, The Rusty Roo. The rusty kangaroo. This is the name of the pub.

"Feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves." Like, 'nerves', as in you're nervous, right? So there's sort of two, I guess. They're contrasting. You're excited, but you're also a bit nervous.

"It was the first Friday arvo at an Australian pub, and as an American he wasn't sure what to expect." So it was 'the first Friday arvo'. 'Arvo' is Australian slang for 'afternoon'.

So, "Friday afternoon at an Australian pub and as an American, he wasn't sure what to expect. The place was already chockers, filled with blokes and sheilas all having a proper piss-up."

So, 'chockers', we learnt this last week and this means 'really full'. You can use it in terms of people, like a place is 'chock full of people'. You can also say 'chock a block' or 'packed'. It's got loads of people, but we can also use it about items, right? Like as we talked about last week, if you've got an esky that's full of drinks, if it's 'chockers full', it's very, very full.

"Filled with blokes and sheilas." So these are two Aussie slang terms for men and women. 'Blokes', men, 'sheilas', women. The only thing to mention here is that you can kind of use 'sheilas' more often as a man, as long as you're not referring to a woman directly. I don't think women would enjoy being called 'sheilas' directly. For some reason, it has a bit of a negative connotation. It probably comes from the past, when, you know there was a bit more sexism in Australian society, and 'blokes' would often talk about women as 'sheilas' and yeah, they didn't like that.

But, you know, sometimes it can be used to sort of add a bit of Australian, Australian-ness, to the way that you speak or a story you're telling or something you're reading.

So, "Filled with blokes and sheilas, all having a proper piss-up." So, 'a proper piss-up' here would be like a proper party or event with lots of alcoholic drinking, right? So, a 'piss-up' is an event. A party where everyone's drinking alcohol. 'A piss-up'.

"Mick had heard about the legendary Australian pub culture, but nothing could have prepared him for what lay ahead." So, 'lay ahead' is like, 'to come'. What's to come? "Nothing could have prepared him for what's to come." Doesn't matter what you told him. Doesn't matter what you showed him. He wasn't going to be prepared for what 'lay ahead'.

"As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Mick spotted two blokes at the bar. Tomo and Davo, both dressed in high-vis work shirts, clearly having knocked off after a long day." So there's quite a bit going on here. 'Two blokes at the bar', two men at the bar. The 'bar' will be the part of the pub where people will be serving drinks behind it, right. That's the 'bar' within a pub.

We can also use 'bar' to mean a place where you can go and buy drinks like an event, an event, a venue that maybe has events. But typically at a pub, the 'bar' is going to be the the table, the bench, the thing behind which all the drinks are and the people that are working there behind that bar.

"Tommo and Davo". So, quite often in Australian English we add /o/ to names to make them nicknames. So 'Tommo' is almost certainly short for 'Tom'. Well, Tom is shorter than Tommo. The name Thomas will be reduced to 'Tommo', and 'Davo' will be short for David or Dave, right, Dave-oh.

So we do this when we're talking about friends and we give them nicknames and it's just a bit of informality. So just be used to the fact that Australians may have nicknames that end in things like E, O and A as sounds, right.

"Both dressed in high-vis work shirts." So these are 'high visibility'. They're usually bright orange, bright yellow, you know, fluorescent colours. They might be reflecting white, you know, have that really reflective stuff on them as well. And they're used by people who work usually as like tradesmen. Uh, they could work with large machinery, all that sort of stuff. It's so that they can obviously be highly visible at work.

So, "Both dressed in high-vis work shirts, clearly having knocked off after a day at work" or "a long day." Sorry, "a long day". "Clearly having knocked off after a long day already. A couple of drinks in, they waved him over with a big grin with big grins plastered on their faces."

So, "already a couple of drinks in". The idea here would be it's a few drinks 'into the night', 'into the evening', 'into the arvo', 'into the piss-up', 'into the party'. So they've been there for a while and there are a few drinks in. They've had a few drinks.

"They waved him over". That's like, 'G'day, mate, come over here, come and sit with us'. You're waving at someone and telling them to come over. You 'wave someone over'.

"With big grins plastered on their faces." "Plastered on their face". 'Plaster' is the stuff that we have on the wall behind here, right? And if you 'plaster something onto something', or 'something is plastered on something', it's like it's squashed or like spread all over that thing. So if you have 'a grin plastered on your face', it's like you have a 'huge grin all over your face'.

"G'day, mate. You're new around here, eh?" So, that's a little way of saying 'Hello. G'day, mate.' That's a common greeting in Australian English. 'G'day, mate'. 'G'day, mate'.

'Mate', we use to be informal, friendly, and we use it to refer to other people, typically men. But you can use it on women too.

"You're new 'round 'ere, eh?" So there's some interesting stuff going on here. "You're new." So, 'you' 'are' 'new'. 'You are new around here'. So we shortened 'around' to just 'round'.

"You're new 'round 'ere" and then "eh" at the end of the sentence can be used by Australians. Typically, sort of, in Queensland, you will hear it everywhere. But I definitely remember when I travelled to Queensland, loads of people did it almost like a tick. That they were always saying /a/ at the end of all sentences. But he's used it here as a way of turning the phrase into a question, right? It's kind of like a tag question. "You're new 'round here, eh?" So it's sort of like, 'are you?'.

"Tommo greeted raising his glass", so he raised his glass up. "Let's grab a brewski. It's time to get on the piss." A 'brewski'. This is an interesting slang term. 'Brew', right? If you 'brew' beer, you make beer. It is the 'brew'. You 'brew' beer at a 'brewery'. It's a very hard word to say. And 'brewski' is just a slang term for, I guess, a beer, a drink, you know, 'You want some brewski?'.

"It's time to get on the piss." If you 'get on the piss' or if you are 'on the piss', you're drinking alcohol. So if you had someone, maybe in your family who's always drunk, you could say, 'Oh, he's always on the piss', 'he's always on the piss'. And remember, 'piss' typically means like urine. If you were to sort of translate it literally. So like, 'wee', 'pee', 'piss', um, but we use it informally for alcoholic drinks in Australia. So you'll hear this all the time. 'Oh, I'm going to get on the piss tonight with some mates.' 'I'm going to go to the shops and buy some piss.' 'Are you guys coming to the piss-up?'.

"Mick furrowed his brow, trying to keep up. On the what?" That's me doing my best American accent. So if someone 'furrows their brow', it's usually this idea, right? That they're sort of looking confused. They're frowning. They're kind of like mhm. So, "He furrowed his brow, trying to keep up", trying to understand what the person was talking about, what he said, right. "On the what?" Or 'on the what' if I use my American accent, 'on the piss', right?

"Davo chuckled, leaning in close."

So he's leaned in. "It means" or "Means we'll be drinking tonight, mate. On the piss all night long." So, 'the whole night we're going to be drinking'.

"Still unsure of what he'd gotten himself into, Mick nodded, eager to fit in." So 'to fit in' is to feel part of the group, right. You want to feel like you're one of everyone in that group. You want to 'fit in'. I guess it's like being a 'fit'. You know, if you put a puzzle piece into a puzzle and it fits, it fits in that spot. And that's the idea of you, I guess, socially here, you want to fit in with everyone else.

Tommo had been. "Tommo had been quick to take charge, ordering the first round of beers for the group." If you 'take charge', you 'take control', right? You're 'in charge'. You're 'in charge of something'. So, "Tommo took charge". He 'took control' of what was going on.

"Ordering the first round of beers for the group." A 'round of beers' is like if you were there with three mates at the pub, getting on the piss, and you want to get 'a round of beers', you 'get a beer for everyone'. So it's sort of like, I guess around the table. If you had like three people sitting at a table, you're 'getting beers for everyone around the table', so you're getting 'a round of beers'. We use that a lot in Australia.

"As they waited, the barmaid Shazza zipped past them with a with a tray full of beers, expertly weaving through the crowded pub like it was second nature." I don't know why I didn't highlight some of this vocab in here. It's really interesting. 'Barmaid'. This is a word for someone, usually a woman who works at a bar, right? They're a 'barmaid'. I guess the male version would be 'barman'. Uh, 'barmaid'. 'Shazza'. 'Shazza' is a common Australian. A common Australian nickname for 'Sharon'. Anyone with 'Shar' at the front of their name? I guess so, 'Shazza'. It'll typically be 'Sharon' though.

Trying to think, are there any other names that start with Shar? Sharon? Cheryl? Dunno. Yeah. Shazza, Shazza is probably just short for Sharon.

"Zipped past them", so she went past really quickly. Like 'zip', "zipped past them with a tray full of beers, expertly weaving her way through the crowded pub like it was second nature." So, if you 'weave your way through something', it's like there are many obstacles and you're going around them, 'weaving yourself around' those obstacles.

And if something is like 'second nature' to you, it's like it's 'natural'. You know, you you've done it your entire life. It's so natural for you to do. You don't even have to think about it. It's 'second nature'. Don't know why we say 'second nature' as opposed to just 'first nature'. I don't know if there's 'third nature'. 'Second nature'.

"She looked completely swamped, barely keeping up with the mountain of orders that just kept coming in." So if you're 'swamped'. "She looked completely swamped." This is the idea that you are very, very busy with a lot of work. So if you went to work, you worked in an office and all of a sudden all this paperwork got piled up on your desk by, you know, all of your colleagues. You're 'getting swamped'.

I guess the idea being that all this stuff is piling up on top of you so we can use it literally. You know, you can get 'swamped with paper' like that, but it can also be figurative where if Shazza has heaps of these orders coming in and she's having to run around and deliver stuff and pour drinks, she can also be figuratively 'swamped' with the amount of work that she has to do.

"Barely keeping up with the mountain of orders that just kept coming in." So 'mountain' here, we're using again figuratively, to talk about how much she's got coming in, how much work she has, how many orders are coming. Is a 'mountain' of these orders right? They're coming in. They just 'kept coming in'.

"Bloody hell. Shaz is flat out like a lizard drinking tonight, Davo remarked, casually leaning against the bar." So, 'casually leaning'.

"The place is going off like a frog in a sock!" So I wanted to include a bunch of these really cool Australian expressions. 'Bloody hell'. This is an exclamation. Shows shock, surprise, that you're surprised. It shows that you're impressed. 'Bloody hell. Wow.' 'Bloody hell. Wooh!' 'Bloody hell.'.

"Shaz". Now 'Shaz' is a shortened version of 'Shazza', right? So her name would probably be Sharon. It gets turned into Shazza, but it can be further shortened to just Shaz.

"Flat out like a lizard drinking." If you're 'flat out'. 'Flat out like a lizard drinking', you're incredibly busy. 'Oh, man. I have been flat out all day'. 'Flat out like a lizard drinking.' You can say either of those. You can shorten it to just 'flat out', or you can say 'flat out like a lizard drinking'.

"Davo remarked casually, leaning against the bar. This place is going off like a frog in a sock." This is a great Australian expression, and it means for something to be very wild, often a party. Um, it could be a person too. 'They could go off like a frog in a sock'. And the idea would be they're a bit crazy. They're wild. You know, if someone got really drunk and was going crazy at an event, you could say, 'Oh, Pete's going off like a frog in a sock'. And I think the idea would be, if you put a frog inside of a sock, it's not going to be happy. It's probably going to lose its shit, right? It's going to it's going to go crazy. It's going to 'go off like a frog in a sock'. It's going to go wild.

"Moments later, their drinks arrived. Three pints of cold beer, each glistening under the warm pub lights." So 'moments later', 'very quickly after', 'very soon after', moments later. "Only a few moments later, their drinks arrived." 'Three pints'. A 'pint' is probably about this size, right? This is my drink that I'm holding up to the camera. I think it's about 500ml. I'm not sure how many fluid ounces that is for you guys in the US, but it's about half a litre, although it's ounces. So it's. What is that? Imperial? It won't be exact, but it's one of the common sizes of drinks. It's the largest size of drink you can order from a bar that is like for a single person.

We tend to have things, at least here in Victoria. Jugs will be like a litre in something that you can then pour out into multiple glasses. You'll have pints, you'll have mids- or no mids isn't us. I know all these words. What have we got? Pots, pints. And then there's also mids and schooners in different places in Australia. Anyway, let's keep going.

"Mick grabbed his pint and with a grin raised his glass. Cheers!" Again, me doing my American accent. "Good on you, mate. Tommo cheered, clinking glasses with Mick." 'Good on you, mate'. Another great Australian expression, meaning 'well done'. 'Good job'. 'Good on you, mate'. 'Oh, good on you. Well done'.

"Ah, a pint is just what the doctor ordered. None of that schooner or pot stuff tonight." I'll finish it because it all makes more sense. "You Yanks love your oversized drinks anyway, right?" So, 'a pint is just what the doctor ordered'. If something is 'just what the doctor ordered', it is 'perfect'. It is exactly what you wanted. 'Oh my God, that was just what the doctor ordered'. That was exactly what I wanted.

And then he says, "None of that schooner or pot stuff tonight." The idea being 'none of those smaller drinks'. I don't want those smaller drinks. I want a big drink, you know? I want a big drink. "None of that schooner or pot stuff tonight". None of that.

"You Yanks". 'Yanks' is short for 'Yankee'. And I think we got this from the either the Second World War or the First World War when Australia was fighting with Americans. It's probably the Second World War, and many of them were known as Yankees. And I think that goes back to the- is this a civil war in the US? You had like the, is it the Union and the Yankees? There was like North versus South, and I think Yankees was were the Southerners. Americans, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, Australians will often refer to Americans as Yanks. It's not meant to be like an insult or offensive. It's just a sort of informal, friendly way of saying, you know, American, these Yanks.

Uh, 'oversized drinks' would be really big drinks. So Americans are renowned for having drinks that are always huge. You know, you go to McDonald's and you end up leaving with, like, a gallon of coke. And our large would be like, you know, the size of a pint. So Americans, especially with takeaway and like drinks, coffees, all that sort of stuff, they tend to have like maxed out their sizes. You know, bigger is better.

"You could say that again, Mick replied." You can say that when someone really agrees with you. 'You can say that again'. So if someone says, 'Oh man, that was the best movie I ever saw. What did you think?' And you agree with them? You could say, 'Man, you could say that again.' 'You could say that again'. You know, like, 'I agree with you, it was the best movie that I've ever seen too. You could say that again'.

Um, or maybe, you know, my son farts, you know, and he'd come home. He does that a lot at the moment. Um, he farts and my wife's like, 'Geez, it stinks in here'. And I might say, 'Yeah, you can say that again'. You know, my eyes might be weeping. It's just horrible. Like, 'you could say that again'.

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Let's keep going. "They all took long, satisfying sips." So like, um, a 'long, satisfying sip of their drink'. "And Mick felt the tension in his shoulders just melt away as the beer settled in." So 'melt away' is for it to just disappear. To dissipate. So that tension in his shoulders, you know, he's relaxing as the beer settled in. So I guess as he started feeling the effects of the beer.

"It was only when Tommo set his glass down and looked at Mick with a grin that he realised something was coming. All right, Mick, you know the rules, right? Tommo announced with a hearty slap on Mick's back. It's your shout next!"

So, 'All right. You know the rules, right?' This is like you would know what's meant to be done. You know 'the norms' here. You know 'the cultural norms', what we do here, the rules. And then "It's your shout next". 'Your shout'. It sort of gets explained in the story. If it's your shout, usually with regards to drinks, it's your turn to pay. It's your turn to buy someone a drink.

So in Australian culture you'll go to the pub. If you're there with mates, one person will go up to the bar and buy a round of drinks for everyone, and then the next person will go up and it's their shout, it's their turn. And it's just a way of obviously being friendly, being generous, but also just saving time so that every time you guys want to get a drink, you don't all have to go to the the bar to keep buying drinks for yourselves. One person can do it at a time, and you usually do it until everyone's paid.

You know, um, one of the worst things culturally you could do in Australia is go out with your mates. Everyone else shouts everyone in the group, and then you bail. You leave, before it's your shout because you don't want to fork out money, you know. So that's that's something that some people do. But that is a massive faux pas. Don't do that.

"Mick blinked, confused yet again. My what? What do I need to shout?" 'My what?' So, what do you mean? It's my what? Your shout. It's your shout. It's my what? What do I need to shout? Like, to shout?

"Davo burst into laughter. Not shout as in yell. It's your shout. If it's your shout, it means it's your turn to buy the next round of drinks, mate. No tight arses allowed in this pub." 'Tight arse' is a kind of rude, informal way of saying someone who doesn't want to spend much money. If you're a 'tight ass', you don't like buying expensive things. Whether for other people, whether for yourself. You just don't like parting with money. You don't like spending money.

The idea being that, yeah, I guess you- for whatever reason, we've decided your butthole is very tight. 'Nothing can come out', right. 'Tight ass'. That's a common one in Australia, I love that. 'Oh, man, he's such a tight ass'. 'That guy's a tight ass'.

"Mick chuckled nervously, trying to mentally calculate how many rounds he'd be expected to buy before the night was over." So, 'mentally calculate', to think in his head. How many rounds of beer am I going to have to buy? Oh my God.

"Before he could ask what to order next, the door swung open with a loud bang and in stomped Big Pete, a massive bloke with a reputation for causing trouble." So, if you 'stomp in', the idea here is that you're 'stomping' your feet down on the ground, right? You're, you're 'stamping' your feet on the ground, making a lot of noise.

You 'stomp into a place' and it's usually because you're angry, right? You don't stomp in happily. It's usually you're angry.

'A massive bloke'. A massive 'man', "with a reputation for causing trouble". This would be 'to make problems'. To cause problems somewhere. To cause trouble.

"He was the kind of yobbo everyone knew to avoid after a few drinks." A 'yobbo' is kind of like an uncouth, unpleasant person, you know. Loud. They swear, they're just not friendly, you know? 'Yobbo' right. 'Bit of a yobbo'.

"Everyone knew to avoid after a few drinks." So the idea being being here, that if Pete comes in and he has a few drinks, you better avoid him. Because after a few drinks, after he's had a few drinks, he turns into an unpleasant person.

"Big Pete's eyes immediately locked on to a man sitting across the pub. Gazza." So another one, Gazza will be a nickname for Gary, right? 'Gary'. 'Gazza'. So, his eyes 'locked on'. He saw the man and 'fixed' his his eyes. He was 'staring at'. He was 'glaring at' this person, his eyes 'locked on' to poor old Gazza.

"With a smug grin, big Pete made a beeline for him." So, a 'smug grin'. This would be like your sort of have this, uh, evil kind of look on your face, right? Like, mmm. Or you could be pleased with yourself. Yeah. It's it's. Yeah. You, you sort of be wary of people with a smug grin, right. Or, 'Oh, here it comes'.

And if you 'make a beeline for something or someone', you go 'straight to that thing' without deviating, right? So a bee flies in a straight line towards a flower. You know it's not. It can fly there. It's not impeded by other obstacles. So if you 'make a beeline for something', you it's like you move in the line of a bee straight to that thing.

"Oi! Gazza! Pete hollered, his voice booming across the room." 'Holler' is like, 'yell'. He 'hollered'. And that's something Americans will use quite a lot, 'to holler'. 'Just give me a holler', you know, 'holler'.

"Oi! Gazza! Pete hollered, his voice booming across the room." 'Booming'. He would be like, 'very loud', right? Boom. Like an explosion.

"You old bludger. Still supporting that useless footy team of yours." A 'bludger' is like a lazy person, so he's kind of using it here as an insult, 'You old bludger'. "Still supporting that useless footy team of yours." 'Footy team', a 'football team'. This could be rugby or AFL in Australia.

"Gazza glared up at him, clearly unimpressed." So this would be like 'to look back angrily', 'to glare at someone'.

"You're full of it, Pete. Don't you start taking the piss out of my team." So, if someone's 'full of it', it's like they're 'full of lies'. They say garbage. What they say is not the truth. 'Oh, you're full of it, mate'. So anything you say is just trash, garbage, rubbish. You know.

"You're full of it, Pete. Don't you start taking the piss out of my team." So, if you 'take the piss'. The idea here is you make jokes, you tease, you belittle. Um. So, Big Pete's making fun of Gazza's footy team. He's 'taking the piss out of' the team.

You can do both. So it can be a normal sort of. Well, I guess it's a phrasal verb. 'Take the piss'. But it can be a phrasal verb with a preposition 'out'. You 'take the piss out of someone' or 'out of something' if you want that object after it. But you can also just 'take the piss'.

"Mick, feeling lost, turned to Tommo. Wait, what is taking the piss mean? As in, taking his beer off him?" So here, the idea is that Mick has heard 'take the piss' and having just learnt earlier that 'piss' means 'alcohol', 'beer'. He's thinking, What do you mean take the piss? Why is this guy just said take the piss out of him? Is he going to take his beer away from him? You know what does he mean? Taking the piss?

"Tomo smirked." This is kind of like, similar to smug grin. It's kind of like, you know he's laughing.

"No mate. If someone's taking the piss, they're making fun of you. We Aussies love a bit of piss taking." So the cool thing I've tried to do here is use 'taking the piss' as a verb, a phrase, a verb phrase, right? 'Taking the piss', 'to take the piss'. But then also use it as a noun, 'piss-taking'. So, 'Pete likes partaking in a lot of piss-taking'; this is the noun. 'He likes to take the piss'. And that is the sort of verb phrase that we're using there. So 'piss-taking' is to sort of 'tease people' or 'to tease someone'.

"Before Mick could respond, Davo leaned in with a grin. And while you, and while you lot are watching Big Pete take the piss, I'm off to take a piss. He winked at Mick as he strolled off towards the bathroom." So, 'to take a piss', that would be to go to the toilet to urinate, to wee, to do a pee, to do a piss, to take a piss, to have a piss. You can use all of these number ones. Number ones? Yeah. Number ones. When you go to the toilet.

"Mick turned to Tomo with a quizzical look." So, he's confused. He's you know, What? "So, I gathered Davo means he's going to the bathroom? Tommo chuckled. Spot on mate. There's a huge difference between taking a piss and taking the piss." 'Spot on'. We use this to mean 'exactly right'. You are, you know, 'perfect', 'spot on'. That is it. That is correct. That is exactly right.

"Spot on, mate. There's a huge difference between taking a piss and taking the piss." It's amazing how just changing the article can completely change the meaning, right? 'Taking a piss', going to the toilet to urinate, or taking the piss. Um, joking around, making fun of someone.

"Mick smiled, shaking his head in disbelief." Like, 'Oh man, are you serious?' This is, you know, confusing.

"You Aussies really love the word piss, don't you?" So I'm trying to do my best American accent, but give me a break. Americans are going to be watching this, you know, vomiting.

"Too right! Tommo replied with a laugh. After all, it's a pisser of a word." So, 'too right'. Again, this is similar to 'spot on'. 'Exactly correct'. You know, you're correct. You're right. Too. Right, mate? "Too right, Tommo replied with a laugh. After all, it's a pisser of a word." If something is a 'pisser'. Again, Australian slang for 'incredibly funny'. 'Man, it is an absolute pisser of a word'. It's a word that is very funny. It's a 'pisser'.

"Meanwhile, the pub started to buzz as the banter between Gaza and Big Pete heated up." So 'buzz', if the pub starts 'buzzing', I guess there's a lot of activity, right? Maybe it sounds like a beehive, with all that buzzing going on, because there are so many people here in this case, you know, arguing, fighting. There's a lot of noise going on.

'Banter'. If you have 'banter' between people, it's kind of like, uh, what would you say? Insults going back and forth.

It can be friendly-ish. It can be really nasty banter, is that kind of back and forth conversation type thing between two people. So here, Gazza and Pete are obviously having a heated argument, a heated fight. Things are 'heating up'. They're getting worse, right? They're intensifying.

"Mick could feel the tension rising, but Tommo and Davo seem completely unbothered." So, 'unbothered'. They didn't care. Nothing bothered them. "She'll be right, Davo reassured Mick, as he returned from the bathroom. Happens every week." So, 'she'll be right'. A great Australian expression for ah, 'it'll be okay'. 'Nothing to worry about'. No worries. She'll be right. There's no she. It's just the phrase we use, right? It's the same as 'it'll be alright'. It'll be fine.

"Davo reassured Mick as he returned from the bathroom. Happens every week." Now this is really cool. We've done. I think it's elision again, where we've dropped the pronoun. 'It happens every week', and we do this when using spoken English all the time, when the context is obvious. So he's talking about obviously this fight between Gazza and Big Pete, or a fight at the pub in general. And he's trying to say 'this happens every week', 'that happens every week'. 'It happens every week'. You don't have to include that pronoun or demonstrative pronoun at the start, 'that' or 'this', and you can just say "happens every week", right? 'Happens every week'.

"But the argument suddenly escalated." So it suddenly got worse, right? It suddenly intensified. "Before anyone could stop it, Big Pete lunged at Gazza, swinging a fist at him and knocking over a tray, a full tray of beers in the process." So, 'lunge' is to, like, jump forward at someone. Um, Big Pete's jumped at Gaza swinging a fist, throwing a punch at him and knocking over a full beer. A full beer of trays. A full tray of beers in the process.

So in the process is like while he's trying to do this thing, in the act of doing this thing, whilst this thing happened, he spilt these, um, these beers. Beers of trays, these trays, this 'tray of beer' over. "A full-on biffo erupted in the middle of the pub, with blokes swinging punches left and right." So, 'full-on', 'full-on' is like very intense. So a 'full-on biffo', 'biffo' is Australian slang for a fight. A 'full-on biffo' is an intense fight, like, Whoa! It's full-on, this fight. This biffo is full on.

"Erupted in the middle of the pub", sort of like exploded, suddenly occurred. It erupted. "With blokes", 'men', "swinging punches left and right." 'Left and right'. If 'something happens left and right' or you 'see something left and right', the idea is that it's everywhere. It's on the left, it's on the right, it's all over the place. But the argument. Oh no, we did that bit already. Let's keep going.

"Crikey! Pete's as mad as a cut snake tonight! Davo shouted over the chaos, clearly enjoying the spectacle." 'Crikey', this is something you would have heard Steve Irwin say all the time back in the day. He made it famous, I think, in the US. 'Crikey' is a way of showing shock or surprise, or being impressed. Similar to like 'bloody hell'. 'Wow'. There's a whole bunch of these that we use in Australian English, you know. 'Blimey'.

"Crikey! Pete's as mad as a cut snake tonight." If you're 'as mad as a cut snake', it could be that you're angry, but it could also be that you're crazy. 'He's mad as a cut snake'. The idea being that if you cut a snake in half, it's gonna go berserk, right? It's gonna lose its shit. For good reason. And, um. Yeah, if you're as mad as a cut snake. Another great Aussie expression for 'crazy angry', um, 'off your tree'. You know, there's loads of these ways of- 'having a few roos loose in the top paddock'. We've got heaps of them!

"Dave shouted over the chaos." So the idea being there's chaos everywhere. All this stuff's happening, and he shouts over the top of it so that other people could hear. "Clearly enjoying the spectacle." So the 'spectacle' is this thing that's happening that's worth watching, right? He's a 'spectator'. He's watching the spectacle. He's 'spectating'. Um, yeah. Spectacle.

"Mick froze, unsure of what to do. He'd never seen anything like this back in the States." 'In the States', 'the States'. This is the United States of America, and we shorten this quite often. This isn't just Australian, this is just English in general to the States, you know. 'Where are you from?' 'Oh, the States'. It's just a short version of The United States of America or The United States.

"Punches were flying, beer was spilling everywhere, and the pub had turned into a battleground." So when something's 'flying', the idea is that it's all around in the air, right? So people are flying. Well, punches are 'flying', people are 'throwing punches'. The idea is there's punches happening everywhere. You know, all these people are fighting.

"Beer was spilling everywhere and the pub had turned into a battleground." A 'battleground' is a place where a battle takes place, right? That's the ground on which a battle occurs. "Just another Friday night, mate, Tomo yelled over the noise. Things always get a bit loose after a few rounds!" So, 'things always get a bit loose'. That would be like a little wild, a little crazy, loose, you know, as opposed to, I guess, uptight. Tight, more formal. Formal, informal, sort of like tight and loose. We use that comparison in English. You know, you can be uptight or you can be laid back and loose, if that makes sense.

"After a few rounds", a few rounds of beer, a few rounds of drinks. "As Mick ducked under the bar to avoid the chaos, a pint of beer splashed all over him, drenching his shirt." If you get 'drenched', you get 'very wet'. You get saturated. You get covered in water, right? 'Drenching his shirt' so he had a beer spill on him, splashed all over him, and it drenched his shirt.

"One bloke in the corner was already blind drunk, stumbling around completely out of it." If you're 'blind drunk', you are 'incredibly drunk'. I guess the idea being that you can barely see, you know, you're that wasted, you're that inebriated. You are that, um, intoxicated that you can't see properly. You're 'blind drunk'. "Stumbling around", you know, unable to walk properly, falling over.

"Completely out of it." If you're 'out of it', it's that you're not there like consciously, you know? So like, yeah, if you get drunk and you pass out or you're, you know, you can barely function. You can barely walk, you can barely talk, you are out of it. It's kind of like you're not 100% conscious. You're not 100% there.

"That's when Shazza had had enough." Right, 'to have had enough', to not want any more. Like, that's that's enough. That's going to suffice. No more. She's had enough. "Oi!" Well, Shazza doesn't have a low voice.

"Oi! Knock it off, everyone!" Knock it off! Stop it! Cut it out! Knock it off! "She shouted. Rack off, Pete, or you're banned for life! I'm not cleaning up this mess again, you drongo." 'Rack off'. This is a bit of an outdated slang term that you know older generations may still use.

It was very popular in the 90s and the early 2000 in Australia. And it means go away, piss off. "Rack off, Pete, or you're banned for life." You can't come back here ever. You know, you get a lifetime ban. "I'm not cleaning this mess up again, you drongo." 'Drongo' is like an informal, not to offensive way of calling someone an idiot. Moron. You know, drongo. You idiot. You drongo.

"Shahzza marched over, her face red with fury, glaring at Big Pete as she added, Now, piss off!" Again, I've tried to use piss here in a way that Australians will use this. If you tell someone to 'piss off', you're telling them to 'go away'. It doesn't have anything to do with beer, doesn't have anything to do with urine or going to the toilet. It means 'get out of here', piss off, piss off.

"Realising he was seconds away from being banned from the pub for good, Big Pete backed down." So he's sort of like 'surrendered'. He 'gave up'. He was like, All right, all right. I'm backing down. "Muttering one last insult as he stormed out." If you 'mutter something', it's like you 'say it under your breath'. You say it softly. Like you know he's muttering. "One last insult". So one last offensive thing, "as he stormed out". It's kind of like, is he, he raged. He got angry and stomped again out of the pub. He stormed out.

"You're weak as piss, Gazza!" 'Weak as piss'. So again, using 'piss', if something is 'weak as piss', it is 'very, very weak'. It's not very strong. So we're saying together, you know You're weak as piss, Gazza. You're weak, you're you're a wuss. You're, you know, shitty person. You're weak, you're weak is piss, Gazza. Weak is piss. So you can use it in English, Australian English in particular to just mean very weak. You can use it about people.

You could use it about drinks. So you could get a beer and just be like, This beer is weak as piss, you know, it's almost like, I guess we're liking likening it to urine, having no alcohol in urine. And you could just, you know, although I don't know why you would drink it. You say that, you know, urine is weak as piss because it's piss. There's no alcohol in it. So if a drink doesn't have much alcohol or it's not very strong, you can just say, oh, it's weak as piss weak is piss.

"The fight fizzled out and the pub slowly returned to its usual rowdy but slightly calmer state." If something 'fizzles out', it's sort of like, you know, like it dissipates, disappears. So the fight stopped, 'fizzled out', "and the pub slowly returned to its rowdy but slightly calmer state." So, 'rowdy'. There's a lot of noise going on. There's a lot of talking, all that sort of stuff, you know, it's loud, but it's calmer than it was.

Right. It's a calmer state.

"Tommoslapped Mick on the back, laughing. Fair dinkum mate, you handled that well. Didn't run off like a wuss. Nice one." So, 'fair dinkum, mate'. He's like, you know. Truthfully? Honestly. Fair dinkum, mate. 'Honestly, mate, you handled that well'. You did a good job. You did well in that situation. "You didn't run off like a wuss", 'didn't run off like a wuss'.

We've done that elision thing there again where we've removed the pronoun because it's obvious. You don't have to say 'you' because you're talking to the person. They know you're talking to them. "Didn't run off like a wuss."

A 'wuss' is a coward in Australian English, a 'wuss'. "Nice one", you know. Nice one. Good job. "Mick, still dripping in beer, chuckled awkwardly. Heh. So, is this a normal Friday night?" Is this a normal Friday night? Again, my atrocious American accent. "Davo smiled back. Bloody oath mate. Things always get a bit full on 'round 'ere, around here, but it's all good fun, especially when you're on the piss with mates."

So 'bloody oath'. We use this in Australian English to when you agree with someone. Oh man, it's hot today. Yeah. Bloody oath it is. You know. Bloody oath mate. You're right, it is. You're. You know what you said is true. Bloody oath mate. Bloody oath. "Things always get a bit full on." Things always get a bit intense. "Around here", in this place.

"But it's all good fun", you know, Yeah, don't take it seriously, mate. Um, "Especially when you're on the piss with mates." When you're 'drinking with mates', you guys are 'on the piss together'. You're drinking alcohol together.

"As they settled back down at their tables, Shazza, seeing Mick soaked and looking out of sorts, took pity on him and brought over another beer." So, 'Mick looked soaked'. He was wet from the beer. "Looking out of sorts." So I guess that's sort of like looking a bit sad out of place. Awkward, 'looking out of sorts'.

"Took pity on him", so, felt sorry for him. If you 'take pity' on someone, you 'feel sorry' for them. So she's there looking at him, drenched, and he's just like, Oh, poor dude. I'll give him a free beer.

"And brought over another beer. Don't worry love, this one's on the house, she said with a kind smile." 'Don't worry', you know. 'Not a problem'.

"Love." Now, I wanted to include this because this is how women will often refer to men. Probably women too, in an informal way. It's kind of their equivalent of 'mate', especially in more regional areas. In Australia, if you go into the outback and you go into a shop and there's a woman working there who's selling the stuff that you're buying, whatever it is, she's probably going to call you 'darl' or 'Love'. That would be the stereotype in Australia. She may even call you 'mate', but it's a common one.

Men don't typically use it unless they're talking to women. Women will use it on everyone, if that makes sense.

"Don't worry, love, this one's on the house, she said with a kind smile." If 'something is on the house', the 'house' is kind of like the pub itself. The business, the establishment, the pub. Um, and so if it's 'on the house', it is them who are paying for it. It's free, you know. The establishment is paying for that beer. "Don't worry love, this one's on the house." This one is free.

"Mick grinned, finally starting to understand the rhythm of Australian pub life. He raised his glass with a newfound sense of belonging." So, 'newfound' is like something that you have just found. You have just discovered- he's got this newly discovered sense of belonging. He feels like he 'belongs' in this pub. You know, I'm one of this one of these guys. I'm one of these guys.

"I'm starting to get the hang of this." I think if you 'get the hang of something', you 'start to understand it'. You know, you start to get used to it. You 'get the hang' of things. He's 'getting the hang' of Australian pub culture.

"The next morning, Mick woke up with a pounding headache and and a foggy memory of the night before." So, you know, he's got a really bad headache. His head is pounding. It's going like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

And if you've 'got a foggy memory', the idea is that you can't really remember everything clearly, right? Imagine you're inside. Your mind is full of fog, right? Like smoke, clouds. And you can't see your memories very clearly. You've got a clear memory. Would be the opposite, I guess. Or, you know, sharp memory and a 'foggy memory' is to 'not be able to remember things clearly'.

"He groaned, grabbing his phone and shooting a quick text to Tommo." You can 'shoot someone something'. And this is to 'send'. It's a synonym for 'send'. You can 'send someone a text'. 'Text'. You can 'shoot someone a text'. You could 'shoot them an email'. You could 'shoot them a look'. You could 'shoot them a message', right?

"I'm feeling awful this morning, mate." 'I'm feeling awful'. I'm 'feeling horrible' this morning. "He rubbed his sore head. Ohh. Tommo replied almost instantly. Reckon you'll need hair of the dog?" Sorry. "Reckon you'll need the hair of the dog." Reckon you'll need the hair of the dog?"

Again, we haven't said "I reckon you'll need the hair of the dog". He's just dropped that and just said "Reckon you'll need hair of the dog?"

"Dog hair? What are you talking about now, Tommo? Mick asked, confused. The hair of the dog, mate." Gotta get my voices straight. "A drink in the morning to get rid of the hangover."

So 'hair of the dog' is when you are drunk one night. You go home, you wake up hungover. You feel like shit, right? You got a headache, you're hungover, you feel, you know, just under the weather. The- I don't know if it's true or not because I've never really done it, to be honest. But the myth is that you just start drinking alcohol again and you don't feel bad. It sort of clears up the hangover. And we call it 'hair of the dog', 'the hair of the dog'.

I don't know if this is unique to Australia, probably isn't, but that's what it is. 'Hair of the dog' is when you have a drink after a night out drinking, and you're hungover, right.

"Hair of the dog, mate. A drink in the morning to get rid of the hangover." To get rid of something, to, uh. I'm trying to think of a good synonym, to stop that thing from being. Being here to throw it away, to get rid of it. Yeah.

"Tommo replied. Meet us at the pub later for a recovery drink." So the idea here being that he's going to drink some more beer or some other alcoholic drink, I guess you could have an OJ, an orange juice, to recover. It's a recovery drink. "Mick chuckled despite the throbbing in his head", throbbing, like, pounding that doof doof doof.

"He was still learning the ropes, but after surviving his first piss-up, he knew he was well on his way to becoming one of the locals." If you 'learn the ropes', it's like you 'learn the rules'. The way that things work at a job, in a location, to learn the ropes, you know. And 'to feel one of the locals', to feel like one of the locals, to become one of the locals is to start being treated as or feeling like or understanding the people from that place, the locals.

All right. So now let's have a listen to that story one more time through. Keep an eye out, look at the vocab and see how much you understand. Hopefully a lot more this time. Let's do it.

Mick pushed open the door of The Rusty Roo, feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves. It was his first Friday arvo at an Australian pub, and as an American, he wasn't sure what to expect. The place was already chockers filled with blokes and sheilas all having a proper piss-up.

Mick had heard about the legendary Australian pub culture, but nothing could have prepared him for what lay ahead. As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Mick spotted two blokes at the bar, Tommo and Davo, both dressed in high-vis work shirts, clearly having knocked off after a long day already a couple of drinks in.

They waved him over with big grins plastered on their faces. "G'day, mate. You're new around here, eh?" Tommo greeted, raising his glass. "Let's grab a brewski. It's time to get on the piss." Mick furrowed his brow, trying to keep up. "On the what?"

Davo chuckled, leaning in close. "Means we'll be drinking tonight, mate. On the piss all night long." Still unsure of what he'd gotten himself into, Mick nodded, eager to fit in. Tommo had been quick to take charge, ordering the first round of beers for the group.

As they waited, the barmaid, Shazza, zipped past them with a full tray of beers, expertly weaving through the crowded pub like it was second nature. She looked completely swamped, barely keeping up with the mountain of orders that just kept coming in.

"Bloody hell, Shaz is flat out like a lizard drinking tonight," Davo remarked, casually leaning against the bar. "The place is going off like a frog in a sock!" Moments later, their drinks arrived, three pints of cold beer, each glistening under the warm pub lights.

Mick grabbed his pint and with a grin raised his glass. "Cheers!" "Good on you, mate!" Tommo cheered, clinking glasses with Mick. "Ah, a pint's just what the doctor ordered. None of that schooner or pot stuff tonight. You Yanks love your oversized drinks anyway, right?" "Yeah, you could say that," Mick replied. They all took long, satisfying sips, and Mick felt the tension in his shoulders melt away as the beer settled in. It was only when Tommo set his glass down and looked at Mick with a grin that he realised something was coming. "All right, Mick, you know the rules, right?" Tommo announced with a hearty slap on Mick's back.

"It's your shout next!" Mick blinked, confused yet again. "My what? Why do I need a shout?" Davo burst into laughter. "Not shout as in yell. If it's your shout, it means it's your turn to buy the next round of drinks, mate. No tight arses allowed in this pub." Mick chuckled nervously, trying to mentally calculate how many rounds he'd be expected to buy before the night was over.

Before he could ask what to order next, the door swung open with a loud bang and in stomped Big Pete, a massive bloke with a reputation for causing trouble. He was the kind of yobbo everyone knew to avoid after a few drinks.

Big Pete's eyes immediately locked on to a man sitting across the pub- Gazza. With a smug grin, Big Pete made a beeline for him. "Oi! Gazza!" Big Pete hollered, his voice booming across the room. "You old bludger, still supporting that useless footy team of yours?"

Gazza glared up at him, clearly unimpressed. "You're full of it, Pete. Don't you start taking the piss out of my team." Mick, feeling lost again, turned to Tommo. "Wait, what does taking the piss mean? As in taking his beer off him?" Tomo smirked. "No, mate. If someone's taken the piss, they're making fun of you. We Aussies love a bit of piss taking." Before Mick could respond, Davo leaned in with a grin. "And while you lot are watching Big Pete take the piss, I'm off to take a piss." He winked at Mick as he strolled off towards the bathroom.

Mick turned to Tomo with a quizzical look. "So I gather Davo means he's going to the bathroom." Tomo chuckled. "Spot on, mate. There's a huge difference between taking a piss and taking the piss." Mick smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. "You Aussies really love the word 'piss', don't you?" Too right!" Tomo replied with a laugh. "After all, it's a pisser of a word."

Meanwhile, the pub started to buzz as the banter between Gaza and Big Pete heated up. Mick could feel the tension rising, but Tommo and Davo seemed completely unbothered. "She'll be right", Davo reassured Mick as he returned from the bathroom. "Happens every week."

But the argument suddenly escalated. Before anyone could stop it, Big Pete lunged at Gazza, swinging a fist at him and knocking over a full tray of beers in the process. A full-on biffo erupted in the pub, with blokes swinging punches left and right.

"Crikey! Pete's as mad as a cut snake tonight!" Davo shouted over the chaos, clearly enjoying the spectacle. Mick froze, unsure of what to do. He'd never seen anything like this back in the States. Punches were flying, beer was spilling everywhere and the pub had turned into a battleground. "Just another Friday night, mate," Tomo yelled over the noise. "Things always get a bit loose after a few rounds!"

As Mick ducked under the bar to avoid the chaos, a pint of beer splashed all over him, drenching his shirt. One bloke in the corner was already blind drunk, stumbling around completely out of it.

That's when Shazza had had enough. "Oi! Knock it off, everyone!" she shouted. "Rack off, Pete or you're banned for life! I'm not cleaning up this mess again, you drongo!" Shazza marched over her face red with fury, glaring at Big Pete as she added, "Now piss off!"

Realising he was seconds away from being banned from the pub for good, Big Pete backed down, muttering one last insult as he stormed out. "Oh, you're weak as piss, Gazza." The fight fizzled out and the pub slowly returned to its usual rowdy but slightly calmer state.

Tommo slapped Mick on the back laughing. "Fair dinkum, mate, you handled that well. Didn't run off like a wuss. Nice one!" Mick, still dripping in beer, chuckled awkwardly. "So, is this a normal Friday night?" Davo smiled back. "Bloody oath, mate! Things always get a bit full-on around here. But it's all good fun, especially when you're on the piss with mates."

As they settled back down at their table, Shazza, seeing Mick's soaked and looking out of sorts, took pity on him and brought over another beer. "Don't worry love, this one's on the house," she said with a kind smile. Mick grinned, finally starting to understand the rhythm of Australian pub life. He raised his glass with a newfound sense of belonging. "I'm starting to get the hang of this, I think."

The next morning, Mick woke up with a pounding headache and a foggy memory of the night before. He groaned, grabbing his phone and shooting a quick text to Tomo. "I'm feeling awful this morning, mate." He rubbed his sore head. Tommo replied almost instantly. "Reckon you'll need the hair of the dog?"

"Dog hair? What are you talking about now, Tommo?" Mick asked confused. "Hair of the dog, mate. A drink in the morning to get rid of the hangover," Tommo replied. "Meet us at the pub later for a recovery drink." Mick chuckled despite the throbbing in his head, he was still learning the ropes, but after surviving his first piss up, he knew he was well on his way to becoming one of the locals.

All right mate. Don't forget to grab today's worksheet down below. The link is in the description. Remember, you'll get the full transcript of the story. You'll get the vocab glossary, and you'll have the 20 question multiple choice quiz right at the bottom to test your listening comprehension skills. And um, yeah, I hope you enjoy it.

Besides that, don't forget to comment below and let me know what story you would like me to do next. Remember, we're going to do one next week on camping in the bush with loads of different animals and other things going on. So I hope you're back to see that one like and subscribe. All that good stuff. And besides that, I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!