I saw the movie Bang Bang Club this past weekend. I thought it was pretty good actually. I've read a few criticisms of it, which I think are valid. But it was also good to see some of the things that were going on during that period, and to remember what we got through.
But this post is not about any of that. This post is about non-South African actors playing South Africans. The accents in this movie were a bit weird, but then I think contrived South African accents will probably almost always sound weird to actual South Africans. And they weren't the worst, as South African accents go.
But was what truly funny was their slang. I assume some sort of South African accent coach must have told them that South African men use the slang words "bru" and "china." Which is true. But the characters seem to fit them into nearly every sentence. Really.
So as the world produces ever more movies set in South Africa, I am putting forward a list of alternative South African slang expressions. As a service to humanity.
I can only think of a few for now, but please feel free to add as you think of any...
(as I was writing this list I found some lists of SAfrican slang online, on wikipedia for example. You'd think the movie directors would have done a google search ;) )
South African slang
-------------------
china
bru
boetie
hectic
eish
Ag
tjommies
dinges
woes
kiff
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Talking to people
Do you sometimes find words coming out of your mouth, and even as you are saying them you are cringing and a part of your brain is crying out "why are you doing this?!?!?!"
Well, that happens to me sometimes, and one recent occasion was at a student conference in Stellenbosch. I had ditched some of my fellow students who were still out drinking, and come home around 1am-ish, so that I wouldn't be an absolute vegetable at the conference that day. We were staying in res accommodation at Stellenbosch so there was a Stellenbosch student on duty to at the front desk. I chatted to him briefly on my way up to my room, asking him what he was studying. He was a theology student, doing a Master's thesis on something about the Christian response to poverty.
This was when I opened my mouth and had the "what the heck are you saying Laura??" experience, as I asked him why he would choose to study theology as Stellenbosch, in the actual actual department where apartheid was conceptualized? (He was coloured, maybe that makes my question make more sense.)
Anyway, outside of my instant mortification at having asked such a question, we had an interesting chat about it and he said some very thought provoking things.
One of the things he said was that he wouldn't be there if he didn't believe that people had the capacity to change. Isn't that quite profound?
Well, that happens to me sometimes, and one recent occasion was at a student conference in Stellenbosch. I had ditched some of my fellow students who were still out drinking, and come home around 1am-ish, so that I wouldn't be an absolute vegetable at the conference that day. We were staying in res accommodation at Stellenbosch so there was a Stellenbosch student on duty to at the front desk. I chatted to him briefly on my way up to my room, asking him what he was studying. He was a theology student, doing a Master's thesis on something about the Christian response to poverty.
This was when I opened my mouth and had the "what the heck are you saying Laura??" experience, as I asked him why he would choose to study theology as Stellenbosch, in the actual actual department where apartheid was conceptualized? (He was coloured, maybe that makes my question make more sense.)
Anyway, outside of my instant mortification at having asked such a question, we had an interesting chat about it and he said some very thought provoking things.
One of the things he said was that he wouldn't be there if he didn't believe that people had the capacity to change. Isn't that quite profound?
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Blue collar
So here is another embarrassing story from My Life.
When I was in the higher grades of high school I was thinking about what career I wanted to embark on, and what direction I wanted to take after school. I thought it through, reflecting on the fact that I like methodical work, I like structure (I liked accounting at school), but that I also have a bit of a practical streak, and I like doing things with my hands. So it occurred to my young brain that perhaps the perfect thing for me would be to work in some sort of production line in a factory. Methodical, practical, structured, sounded like my kind of thing!
I went to my mom and told her that I wanted to be [to quote] "a blue collar worker." Se told me that I didn't know what that meant. I responded that I did, that it meant working in a factory, and that is what I wanted to do.
Of course, in retrospect, I didn't know what it meant. Well, I knew that it possibly meant working in a factory, but I didn't know that it meant working very heard to earn a pittance, probably without benefits, probably without job security, and being the bottom rung in the employment food chain (or near to the bottom rung).
Now that is just something I can't get my head around. There has to be something terribly wrong with a society where people can work hard all day, making or processing things that society needs, and earn barely enough to live on (possibly not even enough to live on). Whereas some guy in an office can come up with "angry birds" and make a gabajillion dollars, and some other guy with a connection in local government can make a gabajillion on a tender for chair covers for official functions, or unnecessary water purifiers for hospitals. That he just buys from a supplier and makes a killing selling at a massive profit.
I would never argue for a society where we all just earn a flat rate of money, there needs to be room for people who work harder to earn more, or people who take up more responsibility to earn more.
But really, someone who works hard for a full day, in an office block or in a production line, should go home with enough to live in a decent place and provide for their families in a decent way.
When I was in the higher grades of high school I was thinking about what career I wanted to embark on, and what direction I wanted to take after school. I thought it through, reflecting on the fact that I like methodical work, I like structure (I liked accounting at school), but that I also have a bit of a practical streak, and I like doing things with my hands. So it occurred to my young brain that perhaps the perfect thing for me would be to work in some sort of production line in a factory. Methodical, practical, structured, sounded like my kind of thing!
I went to my mom and told her that I wanted to be [to quote] "a blue collar worker." Se told me that I didn't know what that meant. I responded that I did, that it meant working in a factory, and that is what I wanted to do.
Of course, in retrospect, I didn't know what it meant. Well, I knew that it possibly meant working in a factory, but I didn't know that it meant working very heard to earn a pittance, probably without benefits, probably without job security, and being the bottom rung in the employment food chain (or near to the bottom rung).
Now that is just something I can't get my head around. There has to be something terribly wrong with a society where people can work hard all day, making or processing things that society needs, and earn barely enough to live on (possibly not even enough to live on). Whereas some guy in an office can come up with "angry birds" and make a gabajillion dollars, and some other guy with a connection in local government can make a gabajillion on a tender for chair covers for official functions, or unnecessary water purifiers for hospitals. That he just buys from a supplier and makes a killing selling at a massive profit.
I would never argue for a society where we all just earn a flat rate of money, there needs to be room for people who work harder to earn more, or people who take up more responsibility to earn more.
But really, someone who works hard for a full day, in an office block or in a production line, should go home with enough to live in a decent place and provide for their families in a decent way.
"Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty." James 5:4
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