WK Vocab

When first got to Waterford, I was deeply confused by all the acronyms and slang that people tossed around - a mix of IB acronyms, Southern African slang, and Waterford idioms. Mostly, this was because I hadn't read the handbook that the school emailed and honestly didn't have much of an idea of what IB consisted of, let alone the acronyms used. I got most of the Southern African slang, but Waterford slang took a bit longer. In the hopes that some incoming first year might find this blogpost, I've compiled a short list of WK vocab.

IB acronyms:
EE or E squared - the Extended Essay every IB student has to complete as part of the diploma
TOK - Theory of Knowledge, a mandatory philosophy type course for IB students
CAS - Creativity, Activity, and Service. The three central components of the IB
IA - Internal Assessment, essays that are graded by your teacher, rather than an IB examiner

Additional slang:
Guans - I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to be spelled? Essentially guans are rumors. You can use it similarly to 'tea' - "spill the tea," "spill the guans"
Tap - to kiss. This one took some getting used to, coming from a North American context where tapping someone typically means sex. At Waterford, tapping someone means you made out.
Yebo - acknowledgement, yes
Dop - alcohol, to drink
Jol - party
Hectic - extreme, stressful
Deep - serious, intense
Eish - (pronounced 'eye-shh') exclamation of surprise, resignation, annoyance
Exeat - students can sign out for the weekend to a friend's house or a backpackers on an exeat - you just have to provide the address and a phone number
Make - (pronounced 'Mag-kay') form of address in Swaziland for women older than you - literally means, 'mother.' On campus, you refer to the female staff members and the female Swazi teachers as 'Makes'
Babe - (pronounced 'Bah-bay') equivalent of Make for men.
Sisi - I'm not sure if this spelling is correct, but the Swazi staff members will use this to refer to female students. I believe it means sister. The makes will also refer to female students as 'my daughter.'
GIB - General Information Book, lists school rules and the like.
NC - Students who applied to UWC through their countries National Committees
DA - Direct Applicant; student who applied directly to Waterford
Ex-form - students who attended Waterford in the forms, which do the IGCSE curriculum before starting the IB
DC - disciplinary committee, for students who breached a major rule in the GIB - (like if you went to a jol on an illegal exeat and had a bit too much dop before coming back to campus, a DC would be convened.)