Just been browsing the “Are We All Speaking the Same English Language?” post (no, we’re not) and it got me to thinking about our multilingual membership and how we express ourselves when the brain won’t quite engage…
For me, it’s Italian & English, with a bit of Kiswa & English. I take “dawa” rather than medicine, I squash or kill “dudu” rather than insects. I can never remember the word “prescription” so I always have a “ricetta” and I always curse in Italian.
What about you?
I always love learning what other cultures use for common phrases. Where I’m from in New Mexico we use a lot of Spanglish or dichos (sayings) for various things. Still to this day even though I am a born English speaker there are certain words I have to think hard on to recall the proper English word for…Acequias is one of those words. Mesa, llano and ristra are some, loads more that I just can’t think of at the moment. I think we’re the only state in the USA where kids learn the pledge of allegiance in both English and Spanish.
I love how the Brits say lift for elevator and I LOVE how Australians say “Good on Ya” and “Cheeky.”
I love how Spaniards say “no pasa nada” is our Southern California equivalent of “no worries dude.”
Being from South Africa, the main oddity, and one that really springs to mind is the use of the word Robot for Traffic Light. I have to check myself all the time, as people can look at me rather weirdly if I am giving directions. I think it is only in SA that this term is used.
We also often say ‘Yebo’ for ‘Yes’. It is a Zulu word which is way more expressive than plain Yes.
Robot! I remember that now @Therese. And the way you say “hey?” at the end of sentences. When we lived in Kenya we would visit SA quite a bit. Happy times!