To write this post I actually searched on Google and ended up deciding to use a very South African cliché which Google didn’t find it for me: Just now.
I have never heard this expression anywhere else but in South Africa, it is a total cliché and the interpretation of it is very dependent on who is saying it, to who it is being said and in response to what.
Just now can mean in 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, an hour or even “I don’t want to deal with it right now, I will let you ask me again and again”. At work every now and then we have people visit from the French HQ and I remember once one of them come to me to ask for something to which I replied “just now”, meaning “I am just finishing this then I will come to you”. He just stood there with a confused expression on his face until I “translated” my just now.
We take for granted that clichés are the same everywhere and it is in this kind of situation that we realise that it is not really this way.
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