The Kiwi accent takes some getting used to. I am straining and asking people to repeat quite a bit, apologizing for my Canadian-ness which ironically is very Canadian.
What I have learned so far is that the confusion mostly lies in the use and pronunciation of the vowels. ‘E’s sound like ‘I’s and ‘I’s sound like ‘U’s and sometimes ‘E’s. Examples:
Deck sounds like DICK (I swear – it sounds like dick…if you don’t believe me, watch this)
Kids sound likes KUDS
Six sounds like SEX
And then there is the local slang – New Zealand has its very own language littered with abbreviations, words borrowed and adapted from the UK and completely invented words. Some of my favorites:
Jaffles – grilled cheese
Jandals – flip flops
Togs – bathing suits
Knickers – undies
Mince – ground (as in ground chicken, beef)
Chicken Nibbles – chicken wings
Aubergine – eggplant
Capsicum – sweet pepper
Au – I don’t know…that is what it means. It is like a grunt or sigh…
Bench – kitchen island
Dairy – corner store
Plaster – band-aid
Ta – thank you
Lolly – any sweet or candy
And the butcher has me completely upside down – eye fillet is beef tenderloin, scotch fillet is the rib eye – thank God I don’t eat meat!!
We are finding our way and I actually love this bit of the adventure. While New Zealand is ALOT like Canada – culturally, obviously little language barrier (except those abbreviations!), friendly people – we are literally a world away.