Words

A true adventurer adapts to the language of their newly found people. 

As I write school assignments, I am constantly reminding myself to spell organize with an 's' and behavior with a 'u'. As I write this post, I spell those words with the British-English spelling and I get the red underline, reminding me that my audience is based mainly in the USA. A friend of mine has the song 'Worst Behavior' by Drake saved in his phone as 'Worst Behaviour'. I find it quite amusing. My friends tease me at school about the way I write things and how I pronounce certain words. I have pretty much adjusted to the way they speak. I wanted to share some of the words and phrases I hear daily.

Words that have British Influence and/or are South African Made:

Eish - Wow or That Sucks
Yo- Used when someone is surprised or shocked
Yebo - Yes
Sharp - Okay or I'm Good
Keen- Up for (as in"are you keen to going to the store?")
Queue - Line (as in "I am waiting in the queue at the store")
Must - Used in place of 'have to' which seems normal but it is used a lot more than in the U.S.
Borrow me your pencil - Can I borrow your pencil? (I used to think of this statement as rude but I find myself using it now.)
Lit - Crazy
Brew - Bro, Brother
How's it? - How's it going?
Airtime - So in SA most people don't have contracts on their phones, and if they do they usually end up exceeding the monthly amount. Airtime is purchased in minutes that can be converted into data. You can purchase airtime nearly anywhere. You get a receipt with a code that you plug into your phone, and voila, you can make calls, send Whatsapp message, and buy data. The concept of airtime was very hard for me grasp when I got here. Airtime is expensive, so you will frequently hear the question 'do you have airtime?'.
Bum- Used in place of 'butt'
No ways - 'No way' in plural form
Finished - Example sentence: 'He was finished.' Translation: he was drunk
Ma boy - Are you serious?

Awe - Pronounced 'aweh' and meaning 'Get outta here' and can be used as a greeting
Clever - Instead of describing a student as smart. Here, the word 'smart' describes  he way a person dresses 

Neh?- Right (as in 'You did the homework, neh?')
Robot - Traffic Light
Is it? - Isn't It
Lekker - Nice in Afrikaans
Sir/ma'am - At my school, we address most of our teachers by their first names, and if we don't use their first name, we say 'sir' or 'ma'am'. I don't know most of my teachers names because I have been using sir and ma'am so much.
Queries - Questions 

Usale kahle (Goodbye in Zulu)