Foreign Tongues

(Another great name for a band.)

When I first came to Korea I worked with a bunch of Canadians. (Go figure, I thought I'd be working with a bunch of Koreans.) Naturally I picked up some of their speech from the great white north. One phrase I adopted whole-heartedly was "giver". As far as I can understand "giver" is the Canadian equivalent of "let's do it", "it's all good", and "sure, I'll have another" all rolled into one. It's a casual acknowledgment of the affirmative, then again I might just be a wanker mis-using this word. ("Wanker" is one of the Britishisms I've adopted as well.)

Time has a way of marching on and now days I find myself hanging out with a lot of New Zelanders. They have the New Zeland equivalent of giver: "sweet as". This is supposed to mean "it's all cool," but I don't think I'll be using this phrase very often as it sounds a lot like "sweet ass". This was rather confusing when I asked my friend Craig if wanted to get some dinner. "Sweet as" he replied and then there was this big awkward silence. I wasn't sure if he was saying he wanted to go or if he was coming on to me. Eventually I asked, "Is that a yes?"

I know I should be studying more Korean while I'm over here, it's just that this English language is so hard to master.