Well, this is it. The last episode of The Idiom. It feels like we should talk about the biggest topic of all, the one we put off until the end (the real end). Death! There are oodles of idioms about death. From pushing up daisies to hitting a deadline, it seems our language is peppered with them. Which makes sense, death is one of the few truly universal experiences across all cultures.
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20:05
A weight off my shoulders
Here in Australia, we’ve been slowly getting better at talking about mental health. But it’s not the same story across all cultures. For many, discussion of mental fitness remains cloaked in idioms, or worse, silence.
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20:49
Saving for a rainy day
We’re not comfortable talking about money in Australia. You don’t go to a dinner party and ask people their salary. But why not? Money is something we all need and want. We've all got money on our minds, so why not share? Rune goes in search of answers, and the idioms we use to skirt around money talk.
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18:52
How ya goin'?
Do idioms and language get in the way when you’re trying to participate in a new culture? Idioms add spice to the meal of conversation and Australians use them a lot in daily conversation, but they depend on a shared cultural understanding. In a society as multicultural as Australia, is that a problem?
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18:37
Spinning a yarn
We know that language shapes how we see the world, and storytelling has the power to preserve cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. Storytelling and yarning is at the heart of First Nations cultures and communities in Australia. Stories have been passed down for thousands of years, connecting Indigenous peoples with their culture and land. So how does language - including stories, slang and idioms - preserve First Nations cultures? And what is the impact of colonisation on this tradition of handing down culture through language? This episode of The Idiom is all about deep listening, with guests Taryn Marks and Dr John Davis.
The Idiom is a podcast that explores weird and wonderful idioms from Australia and around the world. Join host Rune Pedersen on a journey of cultural discovery through the quirky little phrases that pepper our everyday speech. We’ll chat with language professionals, cultural experts, and self-professed language nerds to find out how our words shape the world around us. So sit tight, bite the bullet, and jump on the bandwagon with The Idiom, produced by Think HQ CultureVerse and SBS Audio.
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