Saturday, December 8, 2012

Cultural Miscommunications (or I’m Just Stupid) and Endearing Ghanaian Quirks


When I first arrived in Ghana everyone was saying, “you’re welcome”, meaning, “welcome”.  I kept thinking, but I didn’t say “thank you”.

 Sacked = fired

You’re invited = an offer to share food

Big woman = compliment, as in successful -thought maybe I needed to lay off the fufu.

Finished = Sold out

Whenever something is “finished”, if you ask when they might be getting more in, the response is going to be, “come back at 5:00PM” (they actually have no idea, it could be days, weeks or never).

When you get a phone call, no one says who’s calling.

It’s not unusual for the unnamed caller to ask, “where are you right now?”  First time this happened, I thought, who’s this creeper who knows my name, hasn’t told me his name, and wants to know my exact location?  My bad.

Palms clapped together and then arms opened into a ‘’V” = “that’s it”, “whatever”, “so it is”

“Eh-haaahhh” (“a” is in hat, only drawn out) is interjected throughout speech, mostly as a filler. 

 “Ay” (spoken very fast and with the “y” immediately clipped) = “wtf”, “no way”, “you’re kidding”.

Even in the middle of the night, there is no such thing as too loud.


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