James

I have a staff member that calls me " Mister Ndlovu" (not sure of the spelling). To this day he won't tell me what it means, but I am pretty sure it is not complimentary. He always has a smile on his face when he says that.

The only Xhosa words I know is :

Bogonja e sloti

Which I sincerely hope means : Gaan kak in die sloot?

The word "vaktap" was interesting, as it is obvioulsy derived for the English "Fucked up", I just never saw the Afrikaans spelling till someone sent me a whatsapp. I was looking at the word and cound'nt quite fathom what it was, and then it dawned on me.

The other word that I spoke about was used, I must add, quite extensively in her daily conversations, to the point where it is now almost soft on my ears, and not that harsh sound when you hear something really profane. Only problem is that when you spend time in someones company, you actually start picking up the lingo, so I have to force myself not to incorporate this word in my daily vocabulary.

But then they say that imitation is the purest form of flattery ?

Deamon

Out of my Army basics :

Corporal to troops :
Sien julle daai takkie. Weg is julle, bring dit vir my.

Off we go, 1 kilometre further picking the one takkie that you think is right, proudly running back and presenting it.

Nee jou dom troep, nie die een nie. Die een langs hom. Weg is jy !!

No swearing !!!!

Was the best of times that you never want over again.

English please. Dankie.

The plaintive rendering of
"O boereplaas, geboorte grond" to the accompaniment of the harmonica still reverberates in my head.
I heard it sung often in my youth.

Some Afrikaans words have been incorporated in the local black vernacular.
To clean up, to make things tidy in Afrikaans is "Om skoon te maak".
In Sotho it is "ke koonoomaka".
Or the Afrikaans word for orange is "lemoen".
In Sotho it is "namoen".
As in "kya rekisa dee namoen".
Which means I'm selling oranges.

And my all time favorite.
I can likes to smok you stikkend.
Or you are so vertraag.

I have a word that makes for describing when you are really over the top ANGRY. That word is "GATVOL" Just think that their is no other word that describes when you have had enough of something or the other.

LOL Peterbucks -- yes the army days were quite funny -- and entertaining. One morning on parade, a soldier was having some trouble with standing at attention. The Sergeant stepped up to him and said: "Troep! Ek saag jou borskas oop, kak op jou longe en dan kla ek jou aan vir stink asem! Het jy my so?"

It simply doesn't sound the same in English: "I will saw your chest open, defecate on your lungs and then charge you for having smelly breath."

Direct translation was also a hit, and I spent some time in a few temporary bases North West of Messina. It was just bush and wild animals for hundreds of miles around. In the pub I overheard an obviously Afrikaans NCO telling his English friend about the "camel-horses", and "shallow-pigs" that they saw whilst on their mission. The very next day he spotted tracks of a "lazy-horse" around one of the foxholes.

Condom- wanneer het julle laas die woord efel, reensakkie gehoor.