I thought I’d pass along some local dialect I have been trying (and mostly failing) to adopt. This isn’t necessarily Zulu or English or Afrikaans but rather just the local South African speak.
In South Africa, people and things run on “South African” time, which is, needless to say, not the hurry-up offense we run in the U.S. For example, if you want to say the train is here RIGHT NOW, one would say “now now”. If you want to say the train will be here in about a minute or two, one might say “now”. And if the train will arrive at some indefinite point in the future, from 5 minutes to five hours, one might say it will arrive “just now”. Many of us learned this the hard way when our taxi said they were just now arriving, and came 25 minutes later.
Some others:
Bakkie = pick-up truck
Bonnet = hood of car
Boot = trunk of car
Swimming Costume = bathing suit
Graft = place of work
Fundi = expert
Howzit = How’s it going? (I’ve started using this one)
Izzit = Is it really?
Kombi = minivan
Lightey = youngster
Lekker = cool (nice)
Napkin = diaper (this is a terrible mistake to make…)
Serviette = napkin
Packet = bag (like a plastic grocery bag)
Petrol = gas
Plaster = band aid
Randy = horny (I’m still wondering why this is on our SIT-supplied list…)
Robot = street light
Shame = expression for all sympathy, from a paper cut to a death
Sis = disgusting
Torch = flashlight
There are a lot of different accents floating around here, likely a product of the melding of 11 official languages. Needless to say it’s always an adventure and communication is not always as easy as it may seem.