To not be able to bring myself to say uni for university

[Maquiladora]

It makes me cringe.
DNiece is in her 2nd year and DNephew is applying.
Their parents say uni, my friends say it but to me it just sounds so fake-Aussie. It's bad enough the young uns saying it but when my contemporaries say it, it's sounds as though they are trying to be cool.
Just say university FFS!

AIbU

YANBU. See also indie for independent.

YANBU I can't do it either.

Unreasonable - in that you're prepared to use 'uns', 'DNiece' and FFS. Consistency is key.

And it's nothing like indie for independent.

YABU - we called it uni in the 80s, and I still do now at 50, as ds is at one.

It was uni in the 80's, it's uni now,but call it what you want just try not to do it pointedly

It wasn't uni in the 90s, which is weird if it was in the 80s!

I thought the same before I went in the 90s but soon found myself using it too. You'll get used to it.

YANBU. I can't bring myself to say it either.

YABU.

Uni is perfectly appropriate.

abigamarone - but I wouldn't say those things in RL, just on the Internet. Whereas everyone seems to be saying uni and it makes my toes curl. It certainly wasn't used in the 80s - unless you were unduly influence by Neighbours.

I blame late 80s Neighbours. Possibly, I could even narrow the blame down to Plain Jane Super Brain.

"Maquiladora

It makes me cringe.
DNiece is in her 2nd year and DNephew is applying.
Their parents say uni, my friends say it but to me it just sounds so fake-Aussie. It's bad enough the young uns saying it but when my contemporaries say it, it's sounds as though they are trying to be cool.
Just say university FFS!"

I think it's not in the least bit cringeworthy. Do you think "varsity" would be a better abbreviation? I hope not...
I dislike the expression "young uns" more.

Why is 'uni' wrong? I'm Australian and know no different - 'university' is so long it's as though the speaker is trying to sound smarter. What's wrong with 'uni'? (genuine question!)

I went to uni in the early 80s and it most definitely had nothing to do with any Australian imports. It had been referred to as that in Scotland since the dawn of time as far as I knew. In fact anyone calling it "university" was regarded as pretentious!

It's a useful shorthand. It doesn't imply anything about the speaker. It's the common argot now - and was back in the 90s when I went to uni.

And that uni was the University of Oxford and most people called it uni even if they were frightfully posh.

I wouldn't abbreviate it to varsity because I don't need to shorten it to anything.

And everyone who's ever been to Oxford says so, they never refer to it as uni or university!