Transcript of AE 1144 - Expression: Read Between The Lines

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 flipping 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, guys. What's going on? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn fair dinkum Aussie English, Australian English, the dialect of English that we use down under. Now, as I said last episode, it does overlap a great deal with all other dialects of English.

So, if you are someone who has learnt British English or American English, South African English, New Zealander English, British- I've already covered British. Irish English, Scottish English, any of these other dialects and you are interested in Australian English and you're worried about, oh my God, if I learn Australian English, will people still understand me? They will definitely understand you.

Obviously, if you learn very, very specific expressions and slang that is unique to Australia, firstly you're going to sound much more Australian and so you will get on like a house on fire with other Aussies. You guys will definitely be besties. But if you were to use that kind of slang and those sorts of expressions with people who aren't familiar with Australian English, they may be left a little confused, right?

So, if you were to use things like "barbie, wettie, reckon, bikkies, brekkie", all that sort of stuff, those slang terms with say your average American, they're probably going to be pretty confused. Anyway, let's get into today's episode, guys.

Don't forget if you want to get access to all of the transcripts for this episode, all of the previous episodes, except for the Pete's 2 cents episodes on the podcast, those are long, and I don't transcribe those because sometimes they're up to like 2 hours long.

But yeah, over a thousand episodes on the podcast, sign up for the premium podcast membership. You can get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. You'll get transcripts for 99% of the podcasts on the Aussie English podcast, you'll be able to read and listen at the same time. You can use the premium podcast player to do this, or you can read and listen, fast forward, rewind, all the text comes up on the screen.

You'll get bonus episodes; you'll get video lessons for some of the episodes. There's lots in there, but this is the membership for anyone who likes to read whilst they listen, which is the most effective way of learning new vocab and retaining that vocab. Okay?

So, if you're really sort of wanting to work on your listening comprehension skills, learn different accents from the people that are on the podcast, you know, the different interview episodes, go and check out the premium podcast. You can get that at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. But yeah, so I got back today. I have just been out at the pool; we went to the local pool.

My son goes there; Noah goes there every single week with his grandmother, and he has swimming lessons. So, as you guys may know in Australia, pretty much everyone here can swim, right, at least everyone who's grown up here. Being near the beach, near water, near pools, just swimming in general is pretty common because it gets quite hot here in summer, pretty much anywhere in the country.

And so, it's important for children in particular to learn how to swim when they're young so that they can stay safe near the water. So, my son's currently doing that. My daughter, she came with us as well. My wife and I went with my mother. My wife and mother were off doing the lesson with Noah, and I was sort of hanging out in the kiddie pool with my daughter. And she is an animal, guys. She absolutely loves water. She is a fish in water.

She just has no fear. It's insane. And she tries running in the water, she was doing that today, but her legs can't keep up with the top of her body because she's not really used to the drag, I guess, from moving through the water.

And so, she kept falling over and going, oh yeah, arse over tit, right? That's a sort of informal expression we use to mean fall over and sort of roll. But she kept falling forwards in the water and plummeting her head, you know, under the water and sort of coming up spluttering, choking, like... (mimicking choking on water) ...with all the water in her mouth, but then doing it again.

So, she was absolutely loving life. She was having a lot of fun. Anyway, guys, without any further ado, let's get into today's Q&A, question and answer. This one comes from Luciana. As I mentioned, guys, in the last episode, if you want to ask me a question, you can do this each Monday on Instagram.

Just search for "Aussie English or Australian English" on Instagram, you'll find my account. I put a story up on Mondays where I will say, "ask me anything" and you guys can ask me any question you want. I then try and reply to all of them the next day, on the Tuesday. And today's question came from Luciana. So, her question was sort of a more broad question, a broader question.

"What do Australians think about immigrants? In general, are they open to them?" Now, this is a really good question. I think, my opinion is that Australians are very open to immigrants, to migrants, to people who migrate to Australia and want to set up life here.

They are very embracing of different cultures, different languages, different people of all different races and ethnic backgrounds and religions, which is why you will see so many people in Australia from all over the shop, right. "All over the shop", meaning an expression; from everywhere.

You know, if you walk through Melbourne you'll see people from Africa, from Asia, Southeast Asia, from Siberia, from Europe, from America, from South America, all over the place, pretty much everywhere except Antarctica. Right. They're from all over the place.

And I remember when I was studying in Melbourne -- I was at Melbourne University for 11 years doing my various different degrees -- it would be almost more common to hear foreign languages when walking around the campus or walking through the CBD than it would be to hear English. So, there are loads and loads and loads of migrants in Australia and we love them.

That's not to say we don't have issues in Australia with racism and say with migrant populations that come to Australia and don't integrate. You know, there are tensions at times. You can probably look up, I think it's the Cronulla riots that took place in the early 2000s. But by and large Australia loves immigrants, it loves diversity and it's one of the things that kind of defines modern Australia.

So, anyway, that was a long-winded question, a long winded answer rather to your question, Luciana and I hope it helps. So, guys, slap the bird and let's get into today's joke. So, today's joke is, "why does the ghost always need more books?" "Why does the ghost-" Right, like an apparition of a person, someone who has died and is still around, you know, they're sort of transparent. Maybe they can go through walls. They are a ghost.

"Why does the ghost always need more books? Because she goes through them too quickly." Do you get it, guys? Because she goes through them too quickly. She goes through the books. Alright, so a ghost is an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image. Right? Casper the Ghost. The white little kid, Casper the Ghost.

But "to go through something", this is an interesting phrasal verb, it can mean to literally pass through something, right? So, Caspar the ghost could pass through walls. But if you go through something, it can also mean to consume something rapidly, to use something, to complete something quickly, to go through that thing. You complete that thing entirely.

So, you can go through several books, right? Meaning you've read them all, finished them all. You could go through a TV series; you could binge watch that TV series. Recently I binge watched "Better Call Saul". I watched five seasons of that in a week and a half. So good. Absolutely amazing. Good TV show. "Better call Saul". Check that out.

But I went through that TV series very quickly. You could go through all the food in your fridge, right? Meaning you completed eating all of it. You consumed it all. Okay, so that's the joke. "Why does the ghost always need more books? Because she goes through them too quickly." She could literally pass through the book, but she could also complete the book. She could finish reading it.

So, let's go through the expression today, "to read between the lines, to read between the lines". We'll go through the different words in this expression, what it means, maybe where it's from and some uses of it. Then we'll go through a pronunciation exercise and a little listening comprehension exercise at the end too. So, "to read between the lines".

If you "read" something, to "read" something means to look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter, right? By interpreting the characters or symbols which it is composed of. So, "you 'read' a book, you 'read' a magazine, you 'read' a sign." I'm sure you'll know what "read" means. "Between" something, this is at, into or across the space separating two objects or regions.

So, the border "between" Mexico and the United States. The Murray River is on the border "between" Victoria here, the state of Victoria in Australia and New South Wales, it is "between" them. If there are two trees in your yard, perhaps you set up a hammock "between" those two trees. Right? You hang it from one tree to the other, you lie in the hammock, which is, I guess, like a fabric- What would you call it?

It's kind of like a thing that you lie in. I don't know. It's just it's a hammock. It's not really a bed. It's not a chair. It's a cloth sort of half bag that you sit in "between" two things. "A line. A line" is a long, narrow mark or band. Okay. So, you might draw a "line" with a pencil. But when we're talking about reading and say a book, "a 'line', to read a 'line'" would be a "line" of writing.

So, the writing on a page on some paper is a "line" of writing. So, if you "read between the lines", this expression means that you look for or discover a meaning that is implied rather than explicitly stated. So, it's kind of like you, I imagine you would be reading a book and it says something in the book, but you have to kind of interpret what's being said to work out what it actually means, right?

So, the writing is implying something, but not explicitly stating it. So, you have to "read between the lines" of text on the page to work out what's being said, right. So, you discern a meaning which isn't obvious, which isn't explicit, it's implied. So, I went over to phrase.org.UK, this is a great website if you guys want to look up the origin of different expressions, where they came from and some examples.

And I looked for the origin of "read between the lines" and it said, this expression derives from a simple form of cryptography in which a hidden meaning was conveyed by secreting it between lines of text. It originated in the mid-19th century and soon became used to refer to the deciphering of any coded or unclear form of communication, whether written or not.

For example, one might say, "she said she was happy to go to the party but didn't seem concerned when it was cancelled. 'Reading between the lines', I don't think she wanted to go in the first place."

The first example that I can find of this being used in print is from The New York Times in August 1862, as, quote, "Earl Russell's dispatch does not recite the terms of the note to which it is a reply, the letter assumes a somewhat enigmatical character, and the only resource we have is, as best we may, 'to read between the lines' of this puzzling but important communication of the British foreign secretary."

So, there you go. Let's get into three examples of how I would use the expression "to read between the lines" in day-to-day life.

So, example number one: Tinder has been around now for like ten years, right? Tinder, the dating app. And it has sort of completely changed the way that people date all across the globe, whether for better or worse. You know, I'll let you guys be the judge. So, dating culture has rapidly changed in the digital online era and a new behaviour has kind of started to become common.

And this behaviour is called ghosting, to ghost someone. Ghosting. So, this is when two people have say matched on a dating app online like Tinder or Bumble or whatever, you know, different app there is. They start chatting, maybe they get along initially, and they start going out on a few dates, but if one of them stops replying to messages, blocks the other person or yeah, just refuses to see them anymore, they've been ghosted.

Right. That person has ghosted the other person. It's like they've become a ghost and disappeared. They've suddenly vanished. They've disappeared without telling the other person they're not interested anymore because, you know, the digital world now makes it really easy to just block someone or unfollow someone.

So, when this happens, the person has been ghosted and they have to "read between the lines" and work out that the person they're chatting to is no longer interested.

So, I definitely remember when I was on the dating scene six, seven, eight years ago, and beforehand I definitely got ghosted a few times when using apps like Tinder or, you know, meeting people from online or through friends, if they were no longer interested, they would just no longer talk to you and wouldn't actually say, I'm not interested anymore, but thanks, but no thanks.

Example number two: Many kids get pocket money from their parents in Australia. So, I used to get like $5 a week, when I was growing up my parents would give me $5 a week, whereas other kids I knew would get like, you know, $50 a week, depending on how loaded, how rich their parents were.

At the time I used to save up all my money, all the pocket money that I would get from my parents, and I'd buy toys or games or spend the money on junk food, you know, fish and chips and lollies and stuff at the local milk bar, a corner store that sells this stuff. It's a milk bar in Australia.

If I ran out of money I'd be in a bit of a bind, I'd be in a bad situation and I might have to come up to my dad with my cap in my hand and be like, Dad, do you mind if I have a bit more money, I seem to have used all of mine? But if I didn't want to be this explicit, I might want to be a little more subtle.

I might say something like, oh man, I really want to get this game, but I don't appear to have any money. What should I do, Dad? What should I do? And he would probably "read between the lines" and be like, Pete, you spent all your money, you're just going to have to wait until you got some more. So, deal with it. Tough. Too bad. Tough luck, princess. No money until next week.

Example number three: Imagine you're in a relationship with someone and it's become a bit rocky, right. So, it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride. It's been up and down. It's sort of been all over the place. And you're feeling like things need to be addressed and fixed or the worst might happen, and you guys might split up, you might break up, you might part ways.

If you come to your partner and say you're worried and stressed out, your partner might "read between the lines" and realise it's because of the friction that you guys have in your relationship. If you come out and just say, our relationship needs work or we'll end up separating, there's no need for your partner to "read between the lines" because you have explicitly said what the problem is.

So, if you imply the problem, like, I'm a bit stressed out about things at the moment. Do you mind if we have a chat? Your partner might "read between the lines" and infer that you're talking about the relationship being a problem. So, there you go, guys. Hopefully now you understand the expression to "read between the lines". This is to look for or discover a meaning that is implied rather than explicitly stated.

Right. So, to discern a meaning, to discern something which isn't obvious, which isn't explicit, it's implicit. So, those are two good words you can use. "Explicit" is very obvious and said directly. "Implicit" is not obvious, not said directly, it's implied. So, as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where you can work on your Australian pronunciation.

I will read out the expression, we'll do a little word pyramid where I'll do one word at a time and add it into the entire line of "to read between the lines" and then we'll conjugate through, "I'm going to have to read between the lines. You're going to have to read between the lines, etc." So, it's a long one today, but there's quite a few good contractions in there that we'll get to work on.

So, you ready? Let's go. "To. To read. To read between. To read between the. To read between the lines. To read between the lines. To read between the lines. To read between the lines. To read between the lines." Good job. Now quickly before we go through the sentence, we'll conjugate out, "to read between the lines". Can you hear where the stress is?

Which words and with the word "between" where there are multiple syllables, which syllable is being stressed? So, I'll say it a few times, just have a listen. "To read between the lines. To read between the lines." So, you might hear that pattern, that rhythm of (repeats rhythm).

Right. So, it's that second hit on each syllable in this line that's getting stressed. "To read between the lines". And "to", and the "B" in "between" and "the" or get the schwa. "To read between the lines." So, practise that. And now we're going to go through the phrase, "I'm going to have to read between the lines" and I want you to pay attention what happens to "going to and have to" in this phrase. Okay?

So, I'll say it and then we'll discuss it. "I'm going to have to read between the lines. You're going to have to read between the lines. He's going to have to read between the lines. She's going to have to read between the lines. We're going to have to read between the lines. They're going to have to read between the lines. It's going to have to read between the lines." Great job.

Now, as I always tell you guys with "I'm gonna. I am going to." We can contract this to just "I'm gonna", so you could say "I'm gonna have to read between the lines." But quite often in Australian English we'll take it a step further and instead of saying, "I'm gonna" we'll say, "I'm 'onna, I'm 'onna, I'm 'onna, I'm 'onna have to read between the lines."

And then with the rest of the different pronouns and sentences there, it's going to be "your gonna, he's gonna, she's gonna, we're gonna, they're gonna, it's gonna." So, "I'm 'onna" and then "you're gonna, he's gonna, she's gonna, we're gonna, they're gonna, it's gonna." Okay. So, hopefully that makes sense. But these are some really cool rules that if you can learn these and learn to use them, you'll sound much more natural in English.

So, what's happening to the word "to" in these sentences? "Going to, have to." It combines with the previous word, so they join together. So, you'll get "gonna" instead of "going to" and "hafta" instead of "have to". The interesting thing with "hafta", when these join together, you will notice that the /v/ sound, the voiced /v/ sound becomes an /f/ sound. /f/.

An unvoiced /f/ sound, so you'll hear "ha/f/ta, ha/f/ta. I'm gonna hafta read between the lines. You're gonna hafta read between the lines." And the ends here, "gonna, hafta", because they're within a sentence the /ə/ sound is the schwa. "Gonnə. Haftə. Gonnə. Haftə. Gonnə. Haftə. I'm 'onna hafta read between the lines. You're gonna hafta read between the lines."

So, there you go, guys. Hopefully that's helped you with connected speech, with rhythm, with stress, and with what happens with the spoken contractions in English. Learning this sort of stuff really helps, makes you sound much more natural in English and will make you sound more Australian.

And don't forget, if you're wanting to sound more Australian, check out my Australian pronunciation course. You can go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. Sign up for that, you'll be able to learn the IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. You'll go through all the different lessons about the different vowel sounds and consonant sounds in English. And then there are 25 advanced lessons on the Australian R on linking the dark L, everything like that.

So, go check it out. Anyway, last section here today, it's been a bit of a long episode. So, I just realised that I've included "Wolf Creek" twice in a row, so forgive me for that guys. I'll try not to do it again in the future. I wrote these episodes one after the other over a period of weeks. Anyway, so Wolf Creek, again, we had it last week. I'll save you the excerpt. You can go listen to last week's episode if you want to hear about this.

It's effectively a horror TV show set in the Australian outback. Okay, so the rules of the game, guys, I'm going to play a clip for you two times. Your goal is to listen and write down what you hear being said.

This is 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 on the website or if you have the premium podcast membership, just look at the transcript and the words will be in there.

Okay, so are you ready to go? Here's the first playthrough. "I got the gear to fix this back at my joint, right, so I can tow you back there, we can do the business and then you're on your way, ey? What do you reckon? It's up to you."

How'd you go? Did you get it all? Time for a second playthrough. "I got the gear to fix this back at my joint, right, so I can tow you back there, we can do the business and then you're on your way, ey? What do you reckon? It's up to you." All right, well, that's it for me today, guys. Thanks for joining me.

Don't forget, if you want to read whilst you listen, check out the premium podcast membership. Again, you can get that at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast, all my other courses and the academy and all the other information's up there. And besides that, guys, if you could please leave a review for the podcast on whatever podcast application you're using to listen to this on, it will really help me.

So, if you're enjoying the podcast, please give it an honest review and leave a little written review. You know, say g'day and I might start reading these out on the podcast too. So, thanks so much, mate. It's been a pleasure, and I will chat to you next time. Tooroo!