foormusique.biz: Canadian expat on the Gold Coast shares the words shes stopped using after moving to Australia

A Canadian woman who has been living in Australia for seven years had revealed which words she had to stop using when she moved Down Under. 

Ioana Dragnef, from the Gold Coast, had to phase out her North American vocabulary to make way for Australian words and phrases.

The expat had to stop saying things like ‘bell pepper’, ‘candy’ and ‘garbage’ and instead start using ‘capsicum’, ‘lollies’ and ‘rubbish’. 

‘I hated this word even when I was living in North America, what the heck is a candy bar?’ she said before correcting herself to the Aussie phrase ‘choccies’. 

Ioana swapped saying trash and garbage for rubbish bin and rubbish. 

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‘What the hell is Candy? Lolly or lollies,’ she said. 

‘Stop this immediately,’ she referring to the US word ‘French fries’.

‘They’re chips. Chippies, mate.’

Ioana also traded the words bell pepper, sandwich and chocolate milk for capsicum, sanga and choccy milk respectively. 

The expat shared her newfound vocabulary in an online video leaving Aussie viewers in stitches.

‘You’re one of us now, there is no turning back,’ one viewer said and another agreed: ‘Okay, you’re invited to the barbecue’. 

‘Also an American here for six years. Very relatable, also pram or nappy, even creche,’ one mum said.  

‘It’s called candy bar in America because American ‘chocolate’ doesn’t have enough chocolate to actually be called chocolate,’ someone claimed. 

Some wondered if Ioana had made some other Australian changes.

‘Do you say the H in herb now?’ someone asked and another wanted to know: ‘Do you say taps now instead of faucet?’

‘Not sunglasses, instead sunnies,’ added another. 

Ioana has built up a large following online for sharing her observations about Australian culture as an expat. 

Previously she made thousands laugh with her roast of Australian winter fashion. 

Ioana dressed as what she thinks Aussies from all over the country wear in the chilly months. 

She mocked ‘rich Sydney mums’, people from Perth and Brisbane who rug up when temperatures dip below 24C and those from Canberra and Victoria who still wear shorts despite frosty conditions. 

Ioana, who’s now living on the Gold Coast, poked fun at Tasmanians who don’t wear a jacket in winter and Queenslanders who still don shorts and thongs despite complaining about cold weather. 

Australians loved Ioana’s impressions deeming them ‘accurate’ and were left in stitches at her takes.

In a TikTok clip, the Canadian dressed as a ‘rich Sydney mum’ who she said wears a puffer jacket with branded athleisure, is ‘needlessly aggressive’ and ‘ready for brunch’.

Next she showed the ‘Perth/Brisbane special’ and bundled up for temperatures below 24 degrees.

For the ‘Melbourne commuter’ Ioana dressed in skinny pants, laced boots, a scarf, long cardigan and over-ear headphones.

‘Is this outfit black enough?’ she wrote. 

The ‘nah I’m fine mate’ person from Canberra or Victoria ‘stubbornly’ wears shorts, slides and a light jumper in winter. 

The ‘I don’t need a jacket, I’m from Tasmania’ person, Ioana thought donned a ‘fisherman sweater’ and occasionally a Kathmandu jacket. 

Finally, Ioana put on the ‘official Queensland uniform’ wearing a puffer jacket, shorts and thongs.

She joked people in the get-up usually complain it’s ‘not warm, hey?’. 

Ioana’s clip amassed more than 563,700 views and left Australians impressed by her ‘on-point’ impersonations.

‘Yup it dropped to 24 degrees in Perth the other day and I was ready to put the heating on,’ one viewer said.

‘Love it. My teenagers here in Melbourne have just done the winter upgrade from one hoodie to two hoodies (each),’ a mum added. 

‘A puffer is essential in Tassie. Sometimes with shorts. It’s a Tassie tuxedo,’ another wrote.

South Australians and people from the Northern Territory had a gripe for not being included but Ioana admitted she has never visited. 

‘I was gonna do a full bikini for NT but no one needs to see that!’ she joked.

They were quick to inform the expat what winter dressing looked like where they lived. 

‘I’ve seen thongs, shorts and singlet but WITH A SCARF in Darwin on a rare sub 24 day,’ laughed one woman. 

‘Flannel for the morning/evening over the singlet. tied around waist during the day. jeans or shorts and thongs,’ another added. 

An Adelaide local said: ’10 years ago everyone discovered puffer jackets and now they’ve taken over the city’.