A Good as Gold Post on Kiwi-isms

Now that we have been here over eight months (!) we are starting to feel as if we actually understand most of what the local Kiwis are saying when they are talking to us.  (We understand less when they are talking amongst themselves : )  It really is a very interesting and strong accent, and people speak very fast, and in a definite mumble most of the time. For instance the kids say that their friends  shorten "All right" down to just "Ight".  And, to properly say "Yes" in New Zealand, you remove the "e" so it is really just half a syllable, closer to Ys".  Also, people cut you off quite a bit, so you can expect the answer a "Ys" to your question about half way through.

"Are you guys going to the rugby ma- (Ys!) -tch this Saturday?"

The accent most closely resembles Australian (don't tell a Kiwi that - could be fighting words) but there are some added twists.  First, the Maori and the inland/rural/working class accent is much stronger and they mumble even more.  Lip reading is not as useful, since they don't actually seem to open their lips when speaking.  Haha.  Anyway, since we live in a very diverse and working class small town, we are exposed to a pretty strong accent on a daily basis, specially Jen in her interactions with patients at the hospital.

Second, there is a ton of slang and sayings that make the language really unique.  We will make this the primary focus of this post - our favorite Kiwi-isms.  We will put them in broad categories and follow them up with explanations.  No, it is not April Fools Day, and no, we are not putting in any fake ones (unless Kiwis have conspired with their friends to say these over and over on the hope that they could trick us into believing these are sayings - which is always possible.)  Anyway, we do have Kiwis who read these posts after all, so we will try to keep this as accurate as possible, or they can comment and tell us where we have gone wrong.

To begin, there are lots of ways to say that something or someone is awesome or good, or just to show agreement.
- Sweet As: this is used ALL THE TIME.  Us: "This mate of mine took me fishing and we caught some snapper."  Kiwi: "Sweet as!"
- Good as gold: Us: "You have time for coffee and a pie?"  Kiwi: "Yeah, good as gold"
- Mean:  when something is seriously good (think the use of "wicked good" in Boston), such as "Yum, this is a mean pie!"
- Hard: ditto to the above.  Such as "Oh wow, those are some seriously hard shoes you're wearing!"

We thought "Sweet as" needed to be above separately, but there could be a whole category of "(fill in the blank) As" because Kiwis like to add "As" to just about anything, such as
- Cool as
- Tough as
- Big as
- Fast as
- Smart as
- Funny as
So, if you had an awesome, fast monster truck that also had incredible intelligence, and a hilarious bumper sticker on it, you could say any of the above about it.

On the medical front, people like to refer to you as "unwell" as opposed to "sick"...and a slang term is when people tell you they have been pretty "crook" which means the same thing.

Jen's favorites from work are...
- Box of fluffies: meaning that things are good.  "The patient in room 4 doing OK?" "Yup, box of fluffies."   variation - "box of fluffy ducks."
- Out with the ferries: means someone is confused, or is out of it.  "I tried explaining it all to Mr Smith, but I'm pretty sure it didn't get through, he's out with the ferries you know..."

There are lots of ways of saying they are not to pleased with themselves, and Pete encounters all of them on the golf course.
Far out: We usually think of this in a 1960's sense, as in something is groovy.  On the golf course, every time someone hits a shot that takes a bad bounce and goes somewhere worse, you are sure to hear someone say "Far Out!", as in "how unlucky!"
Bugger:  when someone dribbles one off the tee into the tall grass: "Bugger!"
Bugger Bugger Bugger: muttered in quick succession, this reflects a slightly worse outcome, such as topping a second shot in a row, this time into really deep grass: "Buggah-buggah-buggah..."
Bloody hell: This is definitely worse than the other three, and conveys a mixture of anger and helplessness at your poor play.  Say your mate finds their ball in the bugger-bugger-bugger scenario above, but then they proceed to skull the ball over the green and into the water hazard, odds are pretty good he will exclaim, "Bloody hell!"

Time telling -
- Half-six: this means 5:30  We had never heard this before, in the US we would say half past five.
- Quarter seven: 6:45 (for all we know they are saying "quarter-to-seven" but they talk so fast that we miss the "to"?)
- "we will be meeting for 3PM" where Americans would say, "We will be meeting at 3PM."

And here are some of our other random favorites, with examples of how they are used...
- flash: fancy or cool, "I better get out my flash dress!" or, while someone is showing you there house they might say, "It's nothing flash, but we love the location, and someday we will work on it a bit..."

-yeah-na: means yes, "You going to football?" "Yeah-na."

- good on ya: way to go, "You got first in the 80 meters? Good on ya!"
- Shout: to cover your restaurant bill, as in "I'll shout ya."
- Good as eggs: bank on it! such as, "you think he'll come?" to which someone might reply, "good as eggs he'll be there, there'll be free beer!"
- getting on the piss: to go out drinking beer, such as "50/50 he'll be there tomorrow morning, last I saw he was getting on the piss!"

- she'll be right: conveys that even though the situation isn't totally ideal, it will all work out, such as "I wouldn't have put the apple sauce on top of the pulled pork sandwich, but...she'll be right."

- ta!: thanks, as in us saying "I don't really want these cricket playing cards, do you want them?" lending itself to a reply of "Ta!"
- cheers: I always thought of this as a way to toast people or as a greeting, but here its used a lot more, specially to indicate agreement or "all good".  As in..."See you tonight!?" "Cheers!"
- keen: to be into something.  "I doubt he'll come today...there's a big cricket test match and...he's pretty keen to watch"
- dear: For our Minnesota friends, this means "spendy." For everyone else, this means expensive, such as..."You went to the Taylor Swift concert? Must have been pretty dear, eh?"
- spitting: raining lightly,"Oh, it's only spitting, we'll still have lunch outside."
- growled: yelled at or scolded," I didn't clean up my room and Mum growled me."
- beef: drama, "Those girls always have beef."

And finally, we love the fact that we have been "invited around to tea" on many occasions.  But, this doesn't mean just having a cup of tea.  "Tea" means dinner.  So being invited to tea at someone's house on a weekend is sweet as. Our response?  "Ta.  Good as eggs, we'll be there!"