Talking the Talk

South Africa has 11 official languages, Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.  Most people speak English along with one other language.  If you are a white African you likely speak English and Afrikaans which is derived from Dutch.  If you are a black African you likely speak English and a tribal language such as one listed above.  But even if you speak English the culture here uses different words than Americans are used to.  Such as:

Robots are traffic lights.  The word "robot" will be painted on the road with an arrow pointing ahead but no need to get excited it is likely just a green/yellow/red light.

Nappies are diapers.  Even if the package is Pampers or Huggies which are US brands and everything else on the package is in English it will also say Nappie.

Boot is what they call the car's trunk.  When pulling into an estate one time the security guard asked me to open my boot, luckily I had been informed otherwise that would be difficult to figure out.

They refer to your last name as your surname.  When I spell mine out for them, locals always want to put an "S" on the end as "Snyders" is a local Afrikaans name.

Black Africans are referred to as Africans.

White Africans are referred to as Afrikaans.

Mom is Mum.

A garage truck is a rubbish lorry and a trash can is a bin.

A to go box from a restaurant is called a take away.  Strangely enough if you say "to go box" the servers usually have no idea what you are talking about even though it seems fairly similar.

Signs on the side of the roads which would say "to rent' in the US say "to let" here.

French fries are called chips and ketchup is called tomato sauce

A stroller is called a pram.

Clothes pins are called pegs.

Napkins are referred to as serviettes, and female hygiene pads are napkins.  You can imagine what strange looks you can get at a restaurant when asking for a napkin.  When we first arrived we went to dinner and had nachos, I told the male server, "We are going to need lots of napkins" he looked pretty puzzled but then brought out wet wipes.  That was my first clue that napkin may not mean the same to them. 

Gas for your car, stove, etc... is called petrol and a gas station is referred to as a garage.  I have been lost a time or two when calling for directions and they tell me to turn at the garage.  

A pick up truck is called a bakkie and a minivan is called a kombi.

A BBQ is called a Braai.

Pancakes are called crumpets and crepes are called pancakes. 

Tennis shoes/sneakers are called tekkies.

Band-Aids are called plasters.

The lawn/yard is referred to as a garden.  When I spoke with the owners of our home about the "yard" they would look at me as if I was insulting it.  

Your boss is referred to as baas. 

Spicy sausage is called boerewors.

Instead of advertising "tree trimming" they call it "tree felling"

A hot water heater is called a geyser.

A light bulb is a globe.

A text message is an SMS

An orange is a naartijie

A dishcloth is a lapppie 

They call a cookie a biscuit.

A grilled cheese sandwich is a snackwich.

A cantaloupe is called a spanspek.

A popsicle is called a frozen sucker.

The word "shame" is used non stop over here to show sympathy.  Instead of saying "I'm sorry", "that's too bad", or "oh no" they say "shame".  

I love to listen to the locals speak, as every language I have heard is very beautiful.  When speaking English I think they sound like a mixture between someone from England and Australia.  When meeting people for the first time, if I don't speak first they will always speak to me in Afrikaans if they are causacian otherwise they will speak to me in English.  I have found it is easier to understand people in person versus over the phone as their accent comes across more pronounced.  

It has been very interesting learning new aspects of languages while living here. I am sure Adalyn will pick up some different words as well.  Especially since all the toys here have an accent too, it's pretty cute to hear.