NZ uses British spelling variants instead of the American ones we're used to. Colour instead of color, organise instead of organize, that sort of thing. As someone who writes for a living, I found this extremely disconcerting. My first few editorial reviews came back with, 'hey, what's up with all the zeds in your document??' Much like learning to 'hear' the Kiwi accent during the first few post-emigration months, I found that written communication also had to be translated.
So first I got good at compensating. Did you know that Microsoft Word has a spell-check dictionary for New Zealand English? It does. And it's much different than the Australian or British dictionaries. Different as, mate. So I applied it to the template for all my documents. And then, I made an effort to not rely on the spell-checker. To embrace the quirks of my new homeland, to acquiesce to the preferences of the Queen, and to type out 'paediatric' and 'anaesthesiologist' while stoicly repressing my shudders of cognitive dissonance.
And now I have to say I'm a convert. I blithely typety-type out things like 'He recognised that his behaviour was odd...' and just recently I've noticed that I've included things like 'favourite' in my hand-written shopping lists. And that I change my internal spell-checker based on whether I'm writing for an American or Kiwi audience. Still, you may notice Imperial flourishes from time to time.
So first I got good at compensating. Did you know that Microsoft Word has a spell-check dictionary for New Zealand English? It does. And it's much different than the Australian or British dictionaries. Different as, mate. So I applied it to the template for all my documents. And then, I made an effort to not rely on the spell-checker. To embrace the quirks of my new homeland, to acquiesce to the preferences of the Queen, and to type out 'paediatric' and 'anaesthesiologist' while stoicly repressing my shudders of cognitive dissonance.
And now I have to say I'm a convert. I blithely typety-type out things like 'He recognised that his behaviour was odd...' and just recently I've noticed that I've included things like 'favourite' in my hand-written shopping lists. And that I change my internal spell-checker based on whether I'm writing for an American or Kiwi audience. Still, you may notice Imperial flourishes from time to time.
3 comments:
Oh our wonderful plastic brains!
Even after living in the United States for 26 years, I inadvertently write "colour", "theatre" or "organise" in my emails, training manuals and other work related writing. In emotionally charged situations, I automatically convert to my Catholic school, post-colonial English accent! So no matter how hard you try, your American-isms will stay with you for a very long time and pop up unexpectedly.
Hahahhaa! Love it all, Allie!!!
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