Yoshi, a Japanese student in New Zealand, meets his Kiwi friend, Geoff, to talk about what they might do this coming weekend.

 

Geoff:  “Hi, Yoshi, how’s your day been?”

Yoshi:   “Pretty good but I’ve got a heap of homework to do!”

Geoff:   “Let me know if you want a hand with that, eh?

Yoshi:  “Sure, bro’.  Awesome of you!”

Geoff:  “You got time to catch a movie this Saturday?  There’s that new release just out they do student prices before midday.”

Yoshi:  “Hey, why not?  Can’t work all the time!”

Geoff:  “O.K., text you to confirm session time.”

Yoshi:  “You’re on!”

 

 

Conversational language is very different from “book English” Kiwis often speak more quickly than other English speakers, they don’t always speak clearly and their accent can be hard to understand if you’re used to an American accent.

 

You got time to catch a movie?  It is common to leave out some words such as:  “(Have) you got time …”

Or (I’ll) Text you to confirm (the) session time.

 

Kiwi English also uses words like “eh?” to end a question.  This is the same as a tag question (have you? can’t you? are you?) in other forms of English (e.g. “You don’t like rock music, do you?”)

It can also be used as a very informal way to say you haven’t understood what was said.  Other forms of English would say “Pardon?” or “Sorry, I don’t understand”.

 

bro’ is used amongst friends and is short for “brother.”  It is largely taken from Maori but is used as a friendly term by most New Zealanders.

 

“awesome” is used by most younger people and is an informal term to describe something (or someone) that you approve of (e.g. “That was an awesome party, bro’!)”

 

“heap of” very informal meaning “ lots of” or “a lot of” (e.g. “He’s very popular, he’s got heaps of friends!”）