English backpacker shocked to find Aussies don’t like being called ‘champ’

There’s one word you should never say when travelling Australia, which is getting certain visitors into hot water.

An English backpacker has found himself befuddled by various aspects of Aussie culture after moving Down Under – from our sense of humour to our obsession with early morning exercise.

Most recently, he has put our aversion to a seemingly inoffensive word in his smartphone’s spotlight, putting a video out on TikTok asking others to explain what is so offensive about it.

Speaking through hair so floppy it would put a storage disk to shame, the backpacker named Kyle said: “If you call [Australians] ‘champ’ they’re going to want to punch you in the face.”

“Australians: explain it to me in the comments because I found out but I didn’t exactly get the reason why and it’s very interesting,” he said.

English backpacker shocked to find Aussies don’t like being called ‘champ’. Picture: TikTok/kyle.sula

Australians were quick to explain that, over here, calling someone a “champ” or “boss” is generally considered over familiar at best, and patronising and condescending at worst.

“Champ is passive aggressive to Aussies,” one social media user said, while another added: “Champ is like belittling; it’s patronising like buddy.”

Others claimed the word champ started out on prison yards as a word of disrespect, but that in everyday use “it’s all about tone”.

“Champ, legend, hero, dog [are] all fighting words,” one Aussie added.

@kyle.sula Maybe im just really not funny #fyp #australia #traveltok #backpacking #funny ♬ original sound - SULA

This linguistic quirk – where praising someone is offensive – makes more sense when you consider one other aspect of Aussie culture: for some Aussies, being savagely rude to each other is the highest watermark of friendship. It’s almost a term of endearment.

Kyle has also noted that the Aussie sense of humour is very different from his British one.

“You try to throw a little one-liner in, have a bit of banter, and you’re just met with the most stone cold face in the world,” he said.

He’s not the only one to notice this: there has been a spate of TikTok videos lately calling out Aussies for our inability to grasp sarcasm.

A British backpacker named Harry who is currently bouncing around Australia recently warned fellow travellers to “know your audience” when making jokes in hostels.

“I couldn’t even count on my fingers how many times I have gotten myself in squabbles and let’s say heated debates over comments I’ve made,” he said in one video, adding (in the comments section): “They [Aussies] can’t differentiate the difference between being rude and being sarcastic.”

This article originally appeared on Escape and was reproduced with permission