When I was teaching about New Zealand in my Western Culture class in China, one of the activities I did with my students was a translation of some Kiwi English. I found the following paragraph on the internet, put it up on a Powerpoint and then let the students work in pairs to see if they could guess the meaning of the words they didn't know using context. I thought the activity would be kind of fun, but I also wanted to emphasize the fact that English can be quite different from one country to the next in both vocabulary and pronunciation just like Chinese varies from province to province (no matter how much the government requires and drills the required 'standard' Chinese in all schools). If you have a minute, give it a try and see what you think:

"Kia ora! I'm off to New Zealand to meet my rellies. I've been absolutely knackered! So I can't wait to be kicking around in my togs and jandals. And I'll get to wear choice new sunnies. And when I get back from New Zealand everything's going to be hunky dory."

"Hi! I'm going to New Zealand to meet with my family. I've been absolutely exhausted. So I can't wait to be relaxing in my swimsuit and flip-flops. And I'll get to wear my awesome new sunglasses. And when I get back from New Zealand, everything's going to be just great."

Here's the Powerpoint that I showed in class (the format got a little strange when I put it on the blog, but you get the picture):






I received two emails from former Chinese students this week. The emails were filled with lots of Chinglish - another entertaining form of English. One of my favorite phrases used in an email I got yesterday was one used in closing. It reads, "Wish you guys laugh like you slept with a hanger in your mouth!" My best guess at translating this is something like, "Hope your days are filled with lots of laughter and huge smiles (?)." Language is fun.

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