Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Though Kiwi and I had been long time friends before we met in person, we had only begun to chat via Skype video in the early days of our "courtship" in late Spring of last year. I had known Kiwi was from New Zealand but even still the first few times we spoke (or rather he did) was amusing to me because of the accent.

Since then my amusement has lessened, but every now and again I will giggle when a foreign word pops up in his dialogue. I've noticed, since arriving in Canada, Kiwi will unknowingly confuse strangers or friends with these words. In some cases I've even had to translate if I see they do not understand.

The most common translation I seem to offer is not even a foreign word at all. Kiwi's surname has given him the most trouble, not by unfamiliarity, but by pronunciation. As a Canadian, the kiwi accent can often be mistook for an Australian or even English if you have not been exposed to it much. The "ar" phonics in Canadian converts to "ahh" in a kiwi accent. For example, in Canadian, "Where's the carr?" Kiwi has noticed that Canadians put a lot of emphasis on "r"s. In a kiwi accent, "Weere's the caa?" And even more confusing in Australian, "Wiiis the caaa?" So when providing information to a stranger, Kiwi will sometimes forget to end his surname with an "arr" instead of an "ahh" and hilarity ensues. To hear him attempt a Canadian "arr" is like someone doing a terrible cowboy impersonation.

We will often have cheeky battles regarding words like the cliche "toe-matt-o" instead of "toe-may-toe" and "zebb-rah" instead of "zee-bra."

Kiwi's words have integrated into my vocabulary and I find myself using them more than the Canadian counterparts. I am unsure if it is for his convenience or for the small joy of knowing we share a secret language.

Some of my favourites:

Trolley = Shopping Cart
Faff = Fool/Kick around
Purse = Female Wallet
Egg = Idiot (or something equivalent)
Fanny = A woman's genitals. You can imagine my amusement when he told me the story of when he and his sister first saw the intro to "The Nanny."

I've noticed our differences have brought us closer than our similarities. The small things we learn about one another each day have a stronger significance than if we had all the same favourite movies. Each day we grow a little closer and a little more in love.




-Strawberry