Geysers, bonnets, and silencers…

I love bumping in to word confusions and accents when I travel to South Africa.  I wish I would write all of them down as they happen – they are typically pretty funny…

I wrote a previous article about BG’s accent in Texas.  But there are plenty of other stories…

One of my favorite “objects” in South Africa is the geyser (hot water heater for us Texans).  I don’t know where the term “geyser” came from – maybe a comparison to hot water in natural geysers.  It certainly doesn’t seem to relate to old folks…

South Africans are usually very frugal (a very good trait) so geysers are connected to a switch.  You can easily turn them off when you do not need them.  U.S. hot water heaters run all the time – maybe they shouldn’t…Regardless, I really like the word – it bears no relationship to the actual function (at least to me).

South Africans can have a hard time with words in the U.S. also.   When BG first came to Texas she had a problem with her car muffler – which is called a silencer in South Africa.  And to complicate matters (at least for Texans), the car hood is called the bonnet.

BG went to an auto shop and wanted the mechanic to fix her muffler and also check under the hood.  So naturally she said:  “Would you check under my bonnet?  There’s a problem with my silencer because it’s making an awful noise!”  It took more than one “communication cycle” to clear that one up – and she was lucky he did not call the police…

Maybe I will have some new ones after our next trip to South Africa – I promise I will write them down this time…

What do you think?  Please add your comments by clicking on the above title (“Geysers, bonnets, and silencers”)…


 Raymond Pechacek lives in the U.S. and is married to a wonderful South African lady (BG!). He writes about the people, customs, wildlife, and places of South Africa, runs a consulting firm to help companies improve their global trade processes, and imports products into the U.S. - with an emphasis on supporting South Africa!


October 15, 2009   Posted in: .First Time Here? Some Good Posts To Read, Culture and Customs

One Response

  1. AliciaNo Gravatar - November 5, 2009

    Love the story it makes me laugh. I grew up in South Africa, I now live in Calgary, Canada and have many similar stories. One was when we first came to Calgary I went into WalMart and asked for a “dustbin” bag and no-one knew what I wanted I left empty handed – until I found out its a “garbage” bag.