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How “no worries” infected American English
- weeksie 11y agoLike the flat white, "No worries" really started to take off around the time the work visa requirements for Aussies lightened up. Quid pro quo for Johnnie Howard's support of the Iraq war and all.
- phphphph 11y agoSo basically: Thanks, Saddam?
- nailer 11y agoFor Americans: there's a special E1 visa for Australians that's part of a Free Trade Agreement Australia received for invading Iraq.
- shalmanese 11y agoE3
- steveyolbert 11y agoI think his name is John Howard, he never called himself Johnnie. Unless you were calling him 'Johnnie' to make him sound small. Which would be a breathtakingly childish and hollow rhetorical device. Stick to the meaningful policy debate.
- jen729w 11y agoHow'd this get a downvote?! Perfectly valid point. Australian here. John Howard has never, ever, by anyone, ever, been called "Johnnie". Ever.
- jamespo 11y agoMaybe because the complainer is hiding behind a throwaway
- contingencies 11y agoOf course... and especially not "Little Johnnie, the Deputy Sheriff".
- chris_wot 11y agoSure hope you are being facetious, because Little Johnnie Howard has been called that pejorative by plenty of people from all over Australia. Still gets used to this day!
- vacri 11y ago> John Howard has never, ever, by anyone, ever, been called "Johnnie". Ever. The actor John Howard doesn't (publicly) get called Johnnie, sure. The politician John Howard was frequently called 'Little Johnnie [Howard]' by detractors, and occasionally this was shortened to just 'Johnnie'; "Did you see what Johnnie did today?"-type stuff. Never used in a respectful context, though.
- meric 11y agoOh wow, I've said "no worries" for as long as I remember, I thought that was an English language thing rather than specific to my country. I was even starting to avoid saying it because the "no" sounded negative. Well, forget about that! I'll proudly say: No worries, mate from now on.
- matinchooooooo 11y agoBloody oath
- phillc73 11y agoStone the crows, the kid's a flamin' galah.
- cfontes 11y agoIt matches perfectly with the country vibe to tell you the truth... Very relaxed place in the general sense. Lived there for 2 years (Perth) and I just use it now a lot too.
- chris_wot 11y agoYeah, that's more a state vibe. I can assure you, Sydney is nowhere near as laid back.
- nikdaheratik 11y agoAnd Melbourne is somewhere in between. Probably has to do with number of big financial companies based in a city or something.
- jimmux 11y agoNah, yeah. Negations aren't rare in Aussie speech (see "litotes": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English#Vocabulary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English#Vocabulary). If you're not too fussed about the less than positive implications, you can even use it for emphasis. No reason not to embrace it.
- kanwisher 11y agoYeah growing up in america there was no equivalent phrase so when I heard it 10 years ago or so I started using it a lot. Its strange I wonder if there were some equivalents used before?
- 13hours 11y ago"No problem"?
- forthefuture 11y agoI think I use "all good" (more commonly "it's all good / s'all good") in the same context. I recognize "no worries" from Hakuna Matata but I don't frequently use it in conversation.
- JamilD 11y agoI live in Canada, and have started to use this almost exclusively as a substitute for "you're welcome". No idea where or when I picked it up, or why I've started using it. Would have never guessed it was a relatively new addition to North American English.
- jathu 11y agoI grew up around Toronto and we started saying this in high school back around 2009/2010. I always assumed it was patois influenced, like ever other slang in Toronto, but I guess it's Australian. "yeah, no worries bro", or simply in texts as "nw".
- allengeorge 11y agoI grew up in the GTA and I remember using this in the early 2000s. It wasn't common though (I was one of a handful of people in my social circle who used it).
- err4nt 11y agoI'm reading this article, living in Toronto, and having recently lived with somebody who grew up in Malaysia - I have no idea where I picked it up either but I definitely say it. I don't find small talk super easy - I'm usually deep in thought and so jarred by what's said that I miss the opportunity. Some phrases that have been super useful for me, even though I can remember times I didn't even like hearing them: - "How's it going?" easiest hello - "No Worries" easiest thank you - "Have a good one" easiest goodbye And armed with these phrases I can tackle almost any wild small talk that pops up in my day :)
- hellofunk 11y agoI've noticed the phrase is used quite a lot here in the Netherlands, which isn't even on that list. I don't recall hearing it much in Singapore when I lived there, despite that it's at the top of the list.
- furyg3 11y agoI'm an American who picked 'no worries' up here in Holland. How that happened, I do not know...
- notahacker 11y agoI think I picked it up when I was in Singapore, but I did have quite a few Aussie friends there...
- TeMPOraL 11y agoHah, I'm from Europe and I've been using it for some time. Like other commenters, I thought it's a (somewhat slang) thing in English language.
- rmccue 11y agoNever even realised this was an Australian thing. I kind of assumed it was a universal English thing, with the more Australian variant being "no wuckas".
- gradstudent 11y agoNo wuckas? Now you're just making stuff up.
- sfrechtling 11y agoNope, very Australian, with another varient being "no f$&king wucks"
- phillc73 11y agoNo they're not. It's short for 'No wucken furries', but it's used in a more humorous way and not in polite company.
- chris_wot 11y agoNope, that's often used. I personally don't use it, but I know others who have, frequently.
- vacri 11y ago'No wuckas' is nowhere near as common as 'no worries' in Australia. 'No wuckas' is only when you're being blokey and making a point of the phrase; raising the 'ocker' factor. Most day to day usage is 'no worries' - in most retail shops, for example, if you thank the staff for help, they're not going to say the 'wuckas' variant.
- rmccue 11y agoAbsolutely, it's a much less formal term, primarily due to the origin.
- davidgerard 11y agoJust wait for the Americans to start saying "no wuckas", and see how long it takes them to work out how it came about. (don't post spoilers, Australians!)
- interfixus 11y agoIn my backpacking days in the eighties, I was at one point offered a bartending job at a local cinema premiere. It sort of didn't really fit my plans for that particular evening, so I turned it down. What I did instead, I don' remember. A report did reach me later. It had been a great event. The star of the movie didn't care that much for red carpet, and had been hanging out in the bar, downing a few beers, and having a chat with the guys behind the counter. Superb move. I had turned down the world premiere of Crocodile Dundee, Sydney 1986.
- VeejayRampay 11y agoI don't really understand the use of the word "infected" here. It somehow paints the whole phenomenon with a pejorative brush. It's nice that languages and dialects evolve and influence each other like that. It's an especially important subject for me as a native speaker that has a very hard time taking steps away from its past (French).
- visakanv 11y ago> I don't really understand the use of the word "infected" here. It somehow paints the whole phenomenon with a pejorative brush. If it bleeds, it leads. Anything that sounds negative gets more clicks, views, shares than its identical, neutral-sounding counterpart.
- oxplot 11y agoIt indicates distaste of the phrase, in eyes of the author I assume. I personally don't like "no worries" either, mostly because I'm a very literal person and words that unnecessarily imply things bother me (ie someone who's thanking you is rarely worried about the matter).
- VeejayRampay 11y agoI took to "no worries" fast when I was in Canada because the intensity of the thanks you get for minor actions in North America was overwhelming for me at first (before I realized it was a nice façade that helps smoothing the social rapport). I remember my first few days working at a tech shop in the suburbs of Vancouver, I made a pot of fresh coffee and told one of my colleagues so that he could get a cup had he wanted to. The way he thanked me, you could have sworn I had cured cancer or something. It made me feel like it was WAY too much for just being a decent person (I want coffee, I make a pot for everyone) that "no worries" was very handy, a way of saying "You don't need to put too much heart in your thanks, it's nothing really, I feel it's bordering on praise and I don't think it deserves it".
- oxplot 11y agoI see. My response in that kind of situation would be one of: "sure thing", "don't mention it", "sure", "my pleasure".
- kasey_junk 11y agoI worked for an Aussie company for a few years a long time ago. I've used "no worries" ever since then. That one gets remarked on way less often than "good on ya" which I also still use. My favorite phrase I picked up was "bouncing around like a blue assed fly"...
- protomyth 11y agoI thought it was mostly the result of advertising done by Australian tourism and the Outback Steakhouse. Crocodile Dundee mostly brought the phrase "that's not a knife, this is a knife".
- itsjustjoe 11y agoI think saying "no problem" is kinda rude, but it's so ingrained in me / the people around me, that I've found it easier to replace with "no worries" instead of "You're welcome".
- ArnoldP 11y agoWhy do you think no problem is rude?
- chrisseaton 11y agoIt sounds a bit rude to my ears. It's like 'fine'. Nobody who says 'fine' is actually fine.
- nikdaheratik 11y agoyeah, "no problem" in this context is more like "no biggy" than "it's fine (go away now)".
- stretchwithme 11y agoDoes it really mean "you're welcome"? I used it to let people know they needn't be concerned about some perceived imposition. I'm not worried, so you shouldn't be either. It's a great expression.
- chris_wot 11y agoIn Australia, that's pretty much what it means.
- jmilloy 11y agoYes, it really does, and it was surprising at first because I used (and interpreted) it in the same sense you do. Another one is "you're alright" to also means "you're welcome" (at least where I was in Queensland). Yeah, I am alright, and I'm also thanking you! Takes some getting used to.
- rmccue 11y agoThat one also gets shortened further to "you're right", and can be combined with "nah, yeah" to get an sentence like "nah, you're right".
- vacri 11y agoIt doesn't literally mean "you're welcome", but it's used in the same context. It does mean what you think it means, which is also what "you're welcome" means: don't worry about that perceived imposition.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- m-i-l 11y agoIn the UK there has also been the relatively recent arrival of the "upward inflection", i.e. making statements sound like questions, which may also have arrived from Australia: "in the UK many people take it as a given that the speech pattern arrived from Australia, going so far as to dub it the Australian Question Intonation. Some laymen go even further and trace the shift in British speech patterns to the arrival of soap opera Neighbours on British television in 1986."[0] [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28708526 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28708526
- jghn 11y agoI had a kiwi boss in the early aughts and picked it up from him. People here in the states would generally had no idea what I was saying or would ask if I spent time in Oz. Cut forward a few years and everyone seems to be saying it. It was definitely a sharp incline of usage
- anExcitedBeast 11y agoI spent a few months in Australia last year. In Queensland, I heard a lot of Aussies say "no drama's" in the same context.
- poppyloostork 11y agoI doubt they said "no drama's". Maybe they said "no dramas"?