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Educational Policy in Australia and America: Comparative Perspectives

1989; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1163719

1935-1062

Geraldine Jonçich Clifford, William̀ Lowe Boyd, Don Smart, Geraldine Jonçich Clifford,

Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism

No worries! is an Australian colloquialism of such broad usage that it has no real counterpart in American English, not even O.K. It covers everything from the literal-There is no problem here-to such conventional niceties as Don't apologize, Don't mention it, I understand-to those grand social lies: The check is in the mail and Of course respect you in the morning. Moreover, it has been said that, whereas the American lives to work, Aussies work to live. So No worries! also means, This is good enough and I'll fix it in my own good time, expressing a deeper cultural trait: that make-do, she'll be right casualness and distractability that passes for the work ethic and craftsmanship among homo australis cottidianus. (This is the country, after all, where 93% of the coffee sold is instant!) Despite its drumming insistence, taken literally, No worries! is no more an appropriate policy for Australia than for the United States-a fact that politicians, industrialists, educators, and would-be reformers periodically throw on the barbie along with the prawns. Despite the practiced insouci