So he would talk, or ask someone to do something, and they would give him this blank look, and I would have to step in and say, "that means XYZ." I finally created a G-Money translator and when we would hire a new person, I would include it in their welcome packet. You think I am joking? I am not. We even distributed it around the office from time to time when someone was having a lot of trouble. Here are a few things that used to get a lot of questionable looks when he said them, along with their translations. Some of these are also used in other countries such as the UK or Australia, but the US folks were stumped. Disclaimer: he also grew up in Malaysia and went to British school, so some of these may be more British that Kiwi.
* Sweet as. No, not sweet ass, although it sounds similar. This means great, awesome, perfect, sounds good.
* Rubbers. Obviously in the US, these are condoms, or maybe a pair of boots you wear in the rain. In NZ, they are erasers (as in pencil).
* Diarize. No, not write in your journal. This is "to schedule" or "put on the calendar."
* Umming and awing. What we would call hemming and hawing.
* Rub it out. This one got the 20-somethings giggling, but it just means to erase the board.
* Crikey-dick! Something you say when surprised, like "oh my goodness!"
* Made redundant. You may know this one, but in the US, we would usually say "laid off."
* Chocka. Otherwise known as chockablock or full.
* Bugger. Dang it, usually preceded by "oh" or followed by "that" or sometimes by "that for a dollar," as in bugger that for a dollar.
* Bugger. Dang it, usually preceded by "oh" or followed by "that" or sometimes by "that for a dollar," as in bugger that for a dollar.
* Two shakes of a duck's tail. That's right; despite having a lot of sheep, no lambs for the Kiwis!
* Happy as Larry. The same thing as, "happy as a clam."
* The wops. The sticks, the middle of nowhere. "They live in the wops."
* Have a squizz. Take a look. Like, once you are done, I will have a squizz at it before we give it to the boss.
* Keen. Interested. He would say, "are you keen to go out for a drink tomorrow?"
* Heaps. A lot. This was usually used when we ordered food and he would exclaim that someone else got heaps!
These are not even all of them! He would also say Kia Ora every morning, which is hello in Maori. Last but not least, my favorite one, and one that he said A LOT, was...sucking eggs! Before I explain, does anyone else use this phrase? It is basically the equivalent of "you probably already know this/did this, but just in case you didn't....." and is used when you basically want to double check that someone did not forget to do something obvious. Like you may say, "sucking eggs, but did you turn off the oven?" or something like that. It's almost like a little bit Capitan Obvious though, and is usually a bit insulting to the person being addressed, as if they are too dumb to have done the obvious thing without being asked. So we used to laugh about it, as you knew you were going to basically be insulted as soon as you heard the phrase get started.
Another thing that is interesting is when you have people from different countries, states or areas, and we don't realize that the other places do things differently. Like when Elisabeth did not know that we in the US have to pay to have our garbage picked up (do you pay for garbage removal where you are from?). Or when Melissa talked about her streaming services in Australia, such as Stan and Binge, which I have never heard about (do you have these where you are from?). The thing is, if you have lived in the same place for a while, you do not know that other people have something different. Yet another reason why I think traveling can really broaden your horizons!
For example, I remember going to Japan in the early 2000s and the place we stayed (with a friend) recycled EVERYTHING. I mean, they had like 8 different boxes for each different kind of thing. I was amazed! I think at the time we may have had a separate can for recycling, but to be honest, I am not really sure (and I was living in San Francisco where you would think they would be environmentally conscious). Even if we did, it all went into the same bin! Mind blown!
Or when I lived in France, and saw that everyone eats with their fork in their left hand and their knife in their right and they would cut one piece and put it in their mouth, then cut another and eat it, and cut another, and so on, and never put the two utensils down. Where I came from we would have our fork in our right, and our left hand in our lap. If we needed to cut something we would put our fork in our left, pick up the knife with the right, cut everything, then swap back and spear the smaller bits with our fork (held in the right hand), putting our left hand back in our lap. I was told before leaving for France that if I did this there they would think I was playing with myself under the table!
Or did you know that in China their lucky number (because it sounds like the word "wealth") is eight and the number four is unlucky because it sounds like the word death. So when you turn 44, you better watch out. Also the number 14 sounds like "must die" and the number 24 sounds like "easy to die." Also in India, I ate my nan bread with both hands until I realized I was being looked at, and found out that they wipe with their left hand. Faux pas indeed!
Anyway, it is interesting to see how things are done differently and I love learning what the differences are.
So tell me, in your culture or area or family, what things do you find normal that you have later learned are not done the same way by everyone? In your travels, what new thing or way of doing things has intrigued or amazed you? Which of the Kiwi phrases have you heard before, or used yourself, and which ones did I miss?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
