What happens when an Afrikaner and an American live together? The funniest stoep chats!
United States, America (14 January 2026) – When Ray Swanepoel married Hannah, an American, he gained a life partner and a front-row seat to the most entertaining chats.
They’ve been together for more than five years now, and somewhere between learning to braai properly and figuring out why Ray wears vellies everywhere, Hannah discovered that language in South Africa is its own thing.
Because here in Mzansi, we don’t stop at red lights – we stop at robots. We don’t drive trucks – we drive bakkies. We don’t go to gas stations – we pull into garages. Pancakes aren’t fluffy or drenched in syrup either. Ours are flat and dusted in cinnamon sugar like they should be.
And pickles? Nee man. Those are gherkins, thank you very much.
What sounds completely normal to us often leaves Hannah blinking twice and asking, ‘Wait… what did you just say?’
The couple quickly realised these daily misunderstandings were comedy gold, so they started sharing them online in a series they’ve dubbed Stoep Chat. Ray plays translator. Hannah plays confused, although her Afrikaans is actually pretty good!
We’ll leave you with the latest one – Afrikaans translations for citrus fruit.
In Afrikaans, a lemon is called a suurlemoen (literally ‘sour lemon’). An orange? Just lemoen. Makes sense…until you realise the colour orange is oranje. Throw a lime into the mix and you’ve got a lemmetjie. What?
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Sources: Linked above
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