I constantly find myself asking “what?” when talking with kiwis. There are small differences that I did not expect in New Zealand English and American English. There are easy differences like “take a shower” and “go for a shower” but the more difficult is the slang. “Mean” is a positive adjective, as in “This sandwich is mean” would mean that the sandwich is good. It’s similar to “lit” in the States. Using the phrase “That’s crack-up” means it’s really funny, like you would crack up laughing. When I go back home I’ll probably be using a lot of the words from here, I can already tell when I talk to my American friends that we are adopting the language.
For one of the clubs I joined on campus, I was chatting with a member online about meeting to hang posters. His name is Regan and when I asked how it was pronounced he said “Like Megan with an R”. In New Zealand, Megan is pronounced like Mee-gan not Meh-gan like in America. So when we met I was pronouncing his name Reh-gan and not Ree-gan. We had a laugh about the mix-up and now I will always remember how to pronounce both names here.
Another really difficult part of the language is the name of cities and towns. They have their Maori origins so they’re often pronounced differently then they are spelled. All wh’s are pronounced with the f sound so Whangarei is pronounced Fang-a-ray. The kiwis can’t seem to decide on a pronunciation either; some will still pronounce wh’s as w’s, making it very confusing as to how I’m supposed to say it.
The “language barrier” is generally just funny here, and the kiwis I have encountered are all really nice about it. Adopting the local lingo is a fun way to embrace the kiwi lifestyle. I really like using “cheers” as a thank you substitute and just throwing in phrases to make it sound like I belong here even with my accent.
