Sunday 14 October 2012

South African Lingo 2

So after I wrote my last South African slang post I realized there was a lot more I didn't include.  The most common greeting here is "howzit".  I'm still not positive if it is a question that should be answered (like "how are you?") or if it's just a greeting and you reply "howzit" or "hello" back.  So far, I've heard it used both ways.  I guess I'll keep treating it as a question for now.

Another common thing for people to say is "is it?" in the context of "oh really?" regardless of which verb or pronoun should actually be used.  For example, if I say "My mom just won a flight to Cape Town", people will probably reply "Is it?".  Same as if I'd said something like "In Canada we eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches", the reply would still be "Is it?".  It bugged me when I first arrived here, but I've gotten used to it now.

Something else that used to bug me was people saying "just now" or "now now" or even "now" when they mean soon.  For example, if I said  "Are you going to lunch?" and the reply was "Yes, we're going now now" it might mean 15 minutes from now.  I've gotten used to this also and I've even used "now now" when I mean "soon".

If you've seen Invictus, you might remember everybody calling each other "bru".  I guess it means  "bro" or something.  So far, I've only used it to be funny.  I don't think I can use it seriously.  Everyone here though does call each other friend, brother, sister, bru, etc, very often.  Way more than Canadians call each other friend, buddy, or guy.

A final South African word for today is "sharp" or "sharp sharp".  It means cool I think.  So for example, if someone asks you how you are and you say "fine" they might then give a thumbs up and say "sharp".

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