British woman reveals Aussie greeting that baffles her

A British woman has taken to TikTok to request “help” over how she should respond to this very common Aussie greeting.

It’s safe to say us Aussies have a very particular vernacular.

We use “no worries” as a response to absolutely everything and refer to someone we don’t like as “mate” … while using a very rude four-letter word for our best friends.

British woman Louise Collett recently moved to Adelaide and shared on TikTok the Aussie “slang” that was leaving her confused.

“When an Australian says, ‘Hi how ya going’ – and you don’t know whether to just say hi or actually answer the question,” she asked in a video shared last month.

“That isn’t even a saying in the UK, but everyone says it here. Please help.”

The woman went viral for revealing the Aussie greeting that confuses her. Picture: TikTok/@louisecollettx

Louise’s video has since been viewed more than 120,000 times, with Aussies happy to explain the particular expression.

“Say good thanks or hey how are ya,” one person suggested.

“I just reply yeah, not bad, yourself?” another helpfully added.

One person said it was perfectly fine to just say hi back as “we won’t take offence”, while another stressed, “Never say ‘good thanks’ or ‘all right’ if they only say hello.”

Others said they too were confused by the Australian greeting, with one person admitting: “I’ve lived in Aus for almost 13 years and honestly I still can’t figure it out.”

The British woman recently moved to Adelaide. Picture: Instagram/@louisecollettx

“I know exactly what you mean,” another commented. “Someone asked me that once and I said, ‘Going with what?’”

But several Aussies pointed out that there was an equally confusing British greeting.

“It’s like when Brits say, ‘You all right?’ and it makes me wanna cry,” one person joked.

“My UK friend would say, ‘You all right’ as a greeting and would send me into a crisis thinking I didn’t look all right,” another commenter said.

It’s not the only Aussie expression foreigners may have trouble understanding, with one US woman revealing on TikTok how the word “travelling” left her confused.

A US woman who lives in Sydney previously revealed how the word ‘travelling’ confused her. Picture: TikTok/@StraySulli

@StraySulli said she had been left scratching her head after an Aussie friend who had promised to pick her up for an outing sent her a “confusing” text asking: “How are ya travelling?”

“With you?” @StraySulli replied, adding: “In my head I was like, ‘We have talked about me travelling with you.’ What the heck, was she already there?”

When her friend turned up they explained to @StraySulli that “how are you travelling” simply meant “how are you going”, clearing up the confusion.