In Language, Size and Culture
Today as I went to Cash Converters to buy a cell phone that I could use in NZ, I noticed everyone staring up toward the sky. Turns out there was a man up there threatening to jump.
“The police are trying to talk him down.”
“Oh yeah, someone did it last week. It must be the place to do it.”
“Probably the easiest building to get to the roof.”
“If he hasn’t done it already, he’s not gonna do it.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking of going out and giving him moral support. ‘Hey, what are you waiting for!'”
I figure I should list a few differences between New Zealand and the US, so the next unsuspecting travelers to these two far away islands will be able to suspect some things.
Well first of all, there’s the difference pointed out by the American in my last entry.
Vocabulary (that I can remember off the top of my head):
1. toilet = public bathroom (if you ask for a bathroom, you’ll get a funny look)
2. bathers = bathingsuit (not hard yet, ey?)
3. sweet as = sweet (slang)
4. cutlery = silverware
5. papers = classes (as in courses)
6. canoe = kayak
7. canadian canoe = canoe
8. kumara??? = sweet potatoes
9. ????? (some weird name) = bell peppers
10. ???? (another weird name) = zuccini
11. porridge = oatmeal
12. “give way” = yield
13. ceche = daycare???
14. lecture theatre = lecture hall
15. the 5th of the 7th = July 5, etc
16. cheers = hello, goodbye, thank you, your welcome, etc
17. cool = like (in the sense that it is used innapropriately often)
18. college = school for little people (usually private)
19. tramping = hiking
20. swiss ball = the big balls you use to do exercises in certain gym classes
21. jelly = jello (so when “jelly wrestling” is advertised outside a strip club, you know what they mean)
22. jam = jelly or jam
23. Vegemite = the most disgusting spread for toast ever invented (made from yeast)
24. uni = university
25. tea = dinner
26. afternoon tea = lunch
(this is only brushing the surface)
Maori terms:
kia ora = hello, welcome
Aotaeroa = New Zealand
tapu = sacred
pakeha = white person
te marae = the sacred ground in front of the meeting house (i forget its name)
Maui = the ancestor who fished New Zealand up out of the sea
te = the
o = of
And now let’s get into societal:
America: — New Zealand:
US: loud, outspoken —quiet, shy, reserved
everything’s free (or included) — pay for your ketchup seperate from french fries
—49 cents/min to call from my pre-paid sim card anywhere in NZ, UK, US, or Ireland
—15 cents/gigabyte when using internet
—8 cents+ per sheet of paper to print
—10 cents to buy shopping bags in some grocery stores….. etc
AC/central heating/insulation —none of these, space heaters, pay your very high electric bill or freeze
drive on the right —drive on the left
biggest city is 13 million —biggest city is 1 million
300 mill people —4 million people
food is cheap —meat is the only cheap food
every race represented —Asians, Europeans, and Maori represented
highest homicide rate —highest suicide rate
wasteful —environmentally conscious
about US75 cents = NZ$1
uptight, impatient —take their time
everything open late —everything closes at 5pm
prudish government —bar in the parliament building
football and war —rugby
Oh and I probably ought to mention that they switch their e’s and i’s when they talk. For example:
bist = best
siven = seven
pin = pen
fex = fix
mit = met, etc
Ok I think the list is long enough for now, and I haven’t even listed the half of it.
Tags: 1A. New Zealand
Drea
Creche (the word you were looking for) is daycare, from the French; but in the years I’ve lived here, dinner is dinner and lunch is lunch. Surely zucchinis are zucchinis in New Zealand, too? I don’t recall them being called anything else. A college is a high school, not a school for little people, though some private colleges have a primary (elementary) part. Come to Wellington, where a lot of places do not shut at 5 p.m. Tapu, meanwhile, is usually used for the word curse, rather than sacred.