Now and Later
Most everyone in South Africa speaks English, so you wouldn't think Katie and I would have to overcome a language barrier. Sometimes, though, we're knocked for a little bit of a loop when it comes to trying to understand people. The English spoken here is a bit different from the Amurican we speak back home. For example, the word "now" in many cases does not actually mean "now" at all.
Most of the time, the language difficulties we encounter are easy to overcome. The first time the waiter looked askance when we asked for the check, I realized that people here say "bill." When someone stared, uncomprehending, when I requested the bathroom, I understood to ask for the "toilet" or the "loo" if the need ever arose again. When Katie got in to a long, circular argument with the woman from the phone company while trying to ascertain the method by which the telephone invoice is sent to us, and then ended up on the phone company's list of potential fraudsters, Katie stopped using the word "mail," when she was meant to say "post."
In that same vein, my interest was piqued by a question posed in the "Notes & Queries" feature in yesterday's Mail & Guardian. (And no, I don't know why a newspaper can be called the Mail, but the stuff you put a stamp on and drop in a box can't be.) The Notes & Queries column is a place where people write in with their questions, and the next week, the editor of the column prints the most insightful, or most amusing, answer sent in by a fellow reader. One of the answers this week was to this question:
Why doesn't "now" mean "now" in South Africa?"
The answer, sent in by "Jack, via e-mail" struck me as probably quite wrong. Essentially, he said, when we all lived in caves, the people who lived in colder climes had to work harder for their food and had an "inborn sense of urgency." Thus, to them, now means now. For folks in warmer climes, life wasn't so pressing.
But, as far as I can tell, it's the white folks here who use "now" in the way that's so wrong to my ears. The way they do it is to say, for example, that they'll get to something "just now." That could mean a lot of things, but it doesn't mean "right away." Depending on the context, it could mean an hour, by the end of the day, or by the end of the week.
If you're looking to speed things up a bit, you might say just now isn't fast enough. You would say that you need it "now now."
But "now now," according to a poll of five South Africans that Katie and I conducted last night over pizza and beer, doesn't mean right away, either. It means something like "soon," or "next," or "in about five minutes."
Our survey group, though, said that now--solely now, without the "just" or an added "now"--really does mean now. Not later.
Most of the time, the language difficulties we encounter are easy to overcome. The first time the waiter looked askance when we asked for the check, I realized that people here say "bill." When someone stared, uncomprehending, when I requested the bathroom, I understood to ask for the "toilet" or the "loo" if the need ever arose again. When Katie got in to a long, circular argument with the woman from the phone company while trying to ascertain the method by which the telephone invoice is sent to us, and then ended up on the phone company's list of potential fraudsters, Katie stopped using the word "mail," when she was meant to say "post."
In that same vein, my interest was piqued by a question posed in the "Notes & Queries" feature in yesterday's Mail & Guardian. (And no, I don't know why a newspaper can be called the Mail, but the stuff you put a stamp on and drop in a box can't be.) The Notes & Queries column is a place where people write in with their questions, and the next week, the editor of the column prints the most insightful, or most amusing, answer sent in by a fellow reader. One of the answers this week was to this question:
Why doesn't "now" mean "now" in South Africa?"
The answer, sent in by "Jack, via e-mail" struck me as probably quite wrong. Essentially, he said, when we all lived in caves, the people who lived in colder climes had to work harder for their food and had an "inborn sense of urgency." Thus, to them, now means now. For folks in warmer climes, life wasn't so pressing.
But, as far as I can tell, it's the white folks here who use "now" in the way that's so wrong to my ears. The way they do it is to say, for example, that they'll get to something "just now." That could mean a lot of things, but it doesn't mean "right away." Depending on the context, it could mean an hour, by the end of the day, or by the end of the week.
If you're looking to speed things up a bit, you might say just now isn't fast enough. You would say that you need it "now now."
But "now now," according to a poll of five South Africans that Katie and I conducted last night over pizza and beer, doesn't mean right away, either. It means something like "soon," or "next," or "in about five minutes."
Our survey group, though, said that now--solely now, without the "just" or an added "now"--really does mean now. Not later.
posted by Erik at 6:36 pm
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