New Zealand English

Difficulties faced By new Arrivals to New Zealand with New Zealand Idioms and Colloquial Language.

Mint, a plant with aromatic leaves or a sweet flavoring, or that is what the dictionary says it is. In this modern day, in New Zealand language mostly among youths, it is used as an expression of approval. An idiom is ‘a group of words which when used together have a different meaning from the words individually, or a way of expression natural or peculiar to a language.’ Colloquial is ‘suitable for informal speech or writing.’ Moving to a new country is difficult enough with having to hear and understand a person using a different accent but when words develop new meanings, the situation could become quite complicated.

My objective from my research was to find out if new arrivals to New Zealand found it difficult to understand New Zealanders because of...