Feb 9, 2010

Stuffed

Qusay Culture 14 Comments

I learned how to read and write in English before I knew how to read and write in Arabic, and due to that, I do not remember having any major problems either understanding or being misunderstood when communicating in English.

American slang was not much of a problem since American media with the music, movies, shows, and sitcoms make a person with square eyes catch the phrases and words, I can even understand Ebonics and Texans … but I do not think anything could’ve prepared me for the Australian slang.

I was in the locker room at the gym, and a guy comes in after his workout, his locker is right next to mine and he says  “I’m stuffed” me perplexed “what you had too much to eat?” him realizing I am not Australian “no I worked too hard”… I just smiled.

I knew that diapers are called nappies and strollers are called prams, but “morning tea” was another one of those things that got me as we were looking for a kindergarten (kindy) for our son, the first place we visited the lady said “we give them morning tea” and I said “you give them tea?” in my mind I just saw jumping kids jumping everywhere and toddlers hyper due to caffeine. She then explained what morning tea was…. a snack break.

I understood bickies (biscuits), undies (underwear) and even cuppa (cup of tea) without the need for explanation, brekkie (breakfast) needed a little thought, and so did arvo (afternoon)… but smoko I had to ask what that was.

Then there were budgie smugglers (you have to google this one), Sheelas for ladies and blokes for guys but I had heard the latter from poms I encountered and the former from a postcard in a souvenir shop.

Most of the people I know think that Australians speak with a British accent, and most think that everyone in Saudi speaks with the same accent… but that is not the case.

My family is from Jeddah while my wife’s family is from Makkah, our families use different words for things and/or different pronunciations and these are two cities that are only 70km apart with deep ties between them. One of my friends got married to a lady from Madinah and he told me he would involuntarily laugh at how her and her family would pronounce some words, but they of course would laugh at his pronunciation… so they were even

Language is a beautiful thing… it keeps on evolving and people use new words and abandon old words and make up new ones all the time.

*Stuffed: A euphemism for the “F” word, you say you’re stuffed whenever a situation is looking pretty grim. For instance, if you’re in the middle of the outback and you run out of gas, you’re most definitely, severely stuffed. (source)