Speak like a Souf Efrikan

When you visit any country you'll find yourself in an unfamiliar culture. It's a fact of life. Just because it's unfamiliar doesn't mean you can't understand it before hand though.

Slang is a fascinating part of every culture and the whole point of today's post is to provide you with some of our favourite South African slang. This way you might be able to avoid some foolish mistakes. As you noticed there, I wrote "our favourite". Well, here at the Tourism Radio office we went around to everyone and asked them what their favourite piece of local slang is. We actually ended up with quite a list!

1. Just Now

"Like, I'll write that email just now"

This slang phrase has caused plenty of confusion the world over when South Africans travel or other cultures come here. Basically it means 'a while', or, with some people, 'whenever I feel like it'.

2. Howzit

"Howzit Maria! How you doing?"

Always a favourite for South Africans, howzit is very simply another way to say 'hello'. That's all. It sounds much cooler though.

3. Ja-nee

"Hey man, I heard your team lost the game, that sucks"
"Ja-nee"

Okay this one can be a little confusing. It's an Afrikaans term when directly translated to English means 'yes-no' which is of course a contradiction and makes no logical sense. When used as a slang term though, 'ja-nee' simply means 'oh well' or 'okay'. It's definitely a handy little phrase to use when you don't want to give away too much!

4. Bru

"Hey bru, you look good! How's it going?"

Bru is a shortened version of the word 'broer' which is Afrikaans for brother. That doesn't mean you're calling someone your brother though, it's actually a term widely used to mean 'friend'. You'll even find high powered businessmen using the word.

5. Lekker

"That party last night was really lekker."

This is another slang term taken from Afrikaans. It simply means that something is 'very nice' or 'great'. So if someone asked you how you are enjoying your holiday, you can respond with 'I'm having a lekker time'.


Those are our top 5 favourite slang terms but if you want to hear some more, check out http://www.tourismradio.co.za and find out how you can tune into Tourism Radio to hear some of our shows.