Things people say...

…and what they actually mean here.

Every language/culture uses phrases that are specific to them but mean something completely different in another country/context.  Here are a few that have tickled me:

Phrase:  Short call

Use:  Where can I make a short call?

I’ve often wanted to respond, ‘you can make it just here or over there, anywhere you want really.’  But then that wouldn’t be a very pleasant sight.

Meaning:  To go to the toilet (for a number 1/pee/wee…)

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Phrase/word:  Serious

Use:  He/she is not serious

To me, this means to be somber, deep in concentration – or as the Americans have popularized it, to affirm a certain notion – ‘seriously?’

Meaning:  Honest/diligent/dedicated/devoted

- It’s often used when a student has stolen something from the TRC or not handed in their homework or failed a ‘quiz.’

The best use of it here:  S/he is somehow not serious

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Phrase/word:  Somehow

Use:  It is somehow bad

Meaning:  To emphasize a degree of the adjective it complements – similar to ‘relatively.’

It reminds me of living in Japan where all yes/no answers were preceded by ‘maybe’ – maybe yes, maybe no.  There is never any certainty in an answer to avoid making a mistake or any form of commitment.

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Phrase/word:  pick

Use:  Why didn’t you pick me?

This is just lazy English and used across Africa.  The use of prepositional phrases is obviously not taught here.

Meaning:  pick-up/collect:  ‘Why didn’t you answer/pick-up my call’

‘Can you pick me up?’ becomes, ‘You can pick me.’ – I’ve changed it from a question to a statement because so often, people do not request out here, they just state.

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Word:  flu

Use:  I have the flu.

Influenza to me means being bed-ridden, achy bones, congested…

Meaning:  I have a common cold (if that) – (ready to be shot here…) man-flu.

Language use out here is often very technical and very direct.  As mentioned previously, there is no word for ‘please’.  Perhaps that’s the English way, I’m so used to asking a straight forward question using too many words – ‘would you be so kind as to pass me a pen please?’  Whereas here, it would simply be, ‘give me pen.’  I was a stickler for correcting my students before but here I am far more lax about the use of ‘please’ – although some students have learnt to use ‘please’ and ‘could/can/may you’ to request things from me.

Technical terms are often used in everyday speech which often confuses me.  (I’m not sure why.)  Instead of using ‘dig’, the word ‘cultivate’ is preferred; or ‘farm’ would be ‘agriculture’; ‘copy’ = ‘imitate’ or ‘transmit’…maybe that’s a result of English being learnt through books.   Written English is certainly different to spoken English and I am not complaining about the use of it here.  After all, Rwanda only changed from a Francophone country to an Anglophone country apparently overnight in 2008 - which is crazy considering how far they have come but also the mass of problems this has caused (but that's another blogpost in itself!)

I’ve found myself speaking far slower and articulating every word carefully, using no contractions and pretty much sounding robotic, just to be understood.  I’ve turned into the person that I used to loathe – someone who thinking I didn’t understand English would SHOUT and over-emphasize every syllable in a word and repeat themselves, getting louder and slower each time to simply be heard (and not necessarily understood.)

But then again, saying that, most people tell me that my English is pretty comprehendible, only they have to shut their eyes to listen to me because they can’t marry my Chinese appearance to the voice/accent coming out of my mouth.  Racists!  :)