Learning to speak Kiwi!

I am slowly getting my head around the different New Zealand words for things so thought I’d share some with you. I have seemed pretty dim to most people here who are surprised I don’t know what these words mean, especially the children at school!

Kiwi - slang for New Zealander so refers to any thing/person from New Zealand. This is quite confusing as there is also a native flightless, nocturnal bird called a Kiwi and the fruit, which is never called a Kiwi but always a Kiwi FRUIT!

Eh – at the end of every sentence which means ‘don’t you think/agree’, e.g. it’s pretty cold, eh?

Sweet/sweet as – cool/very cool

Bro - mate

As – really, e.g. hot as=really hot, cheap as=really cheap!

Jandals – flip flops

Singlet – vest top

Ice block – ice lolly

(I thought my housemate was talking about a glacier when she first mentioned an ice block!)

Lollies - sweets

Twink – tippex

Vivid – permanent marker

Bach – holiday home

Dairy – corner shop

Football – rugby (confusing, eh?!)

Gum boots – wellies

Getting smart – teasing

Poking tongues – sticking out your tongue (odd as we only have one tongue!)

Tramp – bush walk/hike

There are probably loads more that I haven’t remembered but these are a few that have confused me!

Also, there are things I say which people don’t understand like brolly, poorly (they just say sick here for any illness), sweets (see above), mucky, wellies (see above ) etc.

Something else they do is to say dates as the number of the day, e.g. my birthday would be June twenty one instead of June twenty first – sounds odd to me!

Also, most people don’t say half past/quarter past when telling the time but always say in digital, i.e. 8.30, 2.45, etc.

And so concludes my NZ language lesson! ;)