When I came to New Zealand, I thought the language would be the biggest problem in finding a job. Well, unless you want to be an English teacher … it’s not. Everybody here seems to be used to have many foreign people around and therefore is very patient with non-native speakers. But there are a few things about Kiwi-English you should know. First of all: It has nothing to do with what you’ve learned at school. Forget about things such as complete sentences or words. Kiwis like their language to be short and simple. When we were looking for a place to stay, we first emailed people, but soon discovered that most of them preferred receiving TXTs (text messages) on their mobiles. So we started txting: “Dear Carl. We just noticed your flat offer at gumtree.co.nz. We (a young couple from Germany) are very interesting in visiting the flat. Could you please give us an appointment? Thank you very much. Melissa”
210 carefully selected characters, answered this way: “mo 7 pm cheers c” No further comment on this … Cheers by the way is a very important word in NZ. You can use it to express all kind of different things. It means Hello as well as Goodbye or Thank you. Another expression you hear really, really often, is to grab. People grab olives at the deli counter, wives send their husbands to grab some milk, I always forget to grab my key when I leave the house. Well, grabbing certainly isn't the nicest sounding word, I've ever heard, but it does its job.
210 carefully selected characters, answered this way: “mo 7 pm cheers c” No further comment on this … Cheers by the way is a very important word in NZ. You can use it to express all kind of different things. It means Hello as well as Goodbye or Thank you. Another expression you hear really, really often, is to grab. People grab olives at the deli counter, wives send their husbands to grab some milk, I always forget to grab my key when I leave the house. Well, grabbing certainly isn't the nicest sounding word, I've ever heard, but it does its job.
Regarding all this, my first impression of Kiwi language was that it’s very rude. Then I started to work at Nosh, talking to customers all day long and soon discovered: NZ English can actually be quite … well … let’s call it … sweet. Because sweet perfectly puts in a nutshell what people here talk like, when they don’t just pass on information but have a kind conversation with you.
Just as Cheers and to grab, That’s sweet and sweet as are expressions Kiwis use all the time. They can tell you that something or somebody is all right or even really cool. So if someone from New Zealand calls you Sweet as you can be sure you’ve got a friend. If the same person on the other hand calls you anything like Darling or Honey, just don’t think about it too much. To my boss, who knows me for about two weeks now, I am Sweetie, many of my customers call me Love – and I really don't think that either my boss or my customers are in love with me. They all just want my cheese.
Just as Cheers and to grab, That’s sweet and sweet as are expressions Kiwis use all the time. They can tell you that something or somebody is all right or even really cool. So if someone from New Zealand calls you Sweet as you can be sure you’ve got a friend. If the same person on the other hand calls you anything like Darling or Honey, just don’t think about it too much. To my boss, who knows me for about two weeks now, I am Sweetie, many of my customers call me Love – and I really don't think that either my boss or my customers are in love with me. They all just want my cheese.
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