Stuff and Things

Various terms Australians use to confuse international visitors

This last year gone, I had the privilege of hanging with Koreans to read the bible and discuss things in English, we discovered a few words that make life difficult for them:

Definitional words:

Stuff

Aussies tend to use this for anything without a clear category: (i.e I made some lentil stuff – I hope its okay),

or words that have a clear category but which we don’t bother referring to: (i.e I bought all this stuff for work ( meaning clothes, why not just say clothes?)

Things

We Aussies often use the word things to describe objects/events/life: (i.e How are things? Are those your things? Those things have been happening for years now)

We often use stuff and things interchangeably when talking about objects: (I.e Can you get me that stuff over there and put it with these things?)

My question is, does our sloppy use of language help or hinder when talking of the things of God, or the stuff of obedience to Christ? I suppose they have to get used to our obtuseness eventually…