Every country has it's own slang and they use it with pride. Usually, you'll even have cities or towns within one country that have their own distinct colloquialisms and it can sound like gibberish to someone in the next town over.
In Australia, we have plenty of sayings, phrases, words and slang that gets us by. You say you'll 'chuck a U-ie in the ute to buy some ciggies and avo down at the servo this arvo' and someone might have no clue what you're saying.
But it seems like our slang is getting in the way of proper communication between Aussie soldiers and visiting American troops in the Top End.
Record numbers of US soldiers have descended on the Northern Territory to practice in high-end war fighting activities with local troops.
While it seems like everyone is getting along well, the Americans seem to be getting lost in translation, despite us both speaking English.
Air Force Group Captain Stewart Dowrie told 10 News: "We have lost in translation moments more than you would realise.
"The time to figure that out is not on the battle field when the bullets are flying.
"Classic phrase 'lucked out' - for some people it means you get lucky, for others it didn't happen. So you start using colloquialisms and all of a sudden you have complete misunderstandings about whether something is going to happen."
You certainly don't want to be in the heat of battle and not be able to understand your fellow soldier.
Imagine an American asking an Aussie soldier if they can see the enemy approaching and they respond with the classic local phrase of 'nah, yeah'. The Yank would have no clue if they meant yes or no, which is understandable for someone who doesn't get our slang.
One person who does understand our phrases is legendary documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux.
Aussie BBC presenter Julia Zemiro decided to test whether Theroux was able to decipher our code, and he didn't do too bad.
He nails 'arvo' being short for afternoon, so, because that was a bit easy, Zemiro ups the ante by testing if he knows what 'cozzie' is. He doesn't even flinch and says it's slang for a costume or bathing suit.
Louis took it one step further and said: "You might wear it in a ute."
Ahh, unless the ute was filled with water and you were having a ute pool party then you probably wouldn't be wearing your cozzie back there. But we have to give credit where credit's due, it was a good addition.
Here's where his linguistic knowledge seemed to slip a bit, though, as Julia pulled up a card that says 'Dinky-Di'. Despite the Aussie repeating the word like she was on one of those televised spelling bee competitions, Louis looked perplexed.
Featured Image Credit: ADF