-->
I stare at her, open-mouthed. Shocked that such a word has come out of the mouth of this chic French girl with her typical red lipstick and perfect hair. “What did you just say,” I ask. “Kif-kif,” she responds with a slight accent. “It’s a very popular slang word in Marseille…” she continues, explaining the word to the other American students around us, but I have stopped listening. I already know this word. I heard it for the first time six months ago in Morocco but, while it quickly became on of my favorite Moroccan expressions, I never imagined I would be hearing or using it much outside of Morocco. I knew Marseille was a diverse city, but before this experience, and others like it, I just didn’t understand the true character of the city.
The meaning of kif-kif is equivalent in Morocco and Marseille; it literally means “the same.” So if your friend orders a coffee at a café and you would like one as well you simply tell the waiter, “kif-kif.” Or if you show up to school wearing the same shirt as another student you laugh and tell everyone you are “kif-kif” fro the rest of the day.
In Morocco you could say kif-kif to anyone and be understood. In Marseille, it’s popular with university and high school students and, of course, in full use among the immigrant families themselves. It is thanks to them, after all, the word entered the city’s vocabulary in the first place. But it’s due to the unique character of Marseille that “kif-kif” achieved its popularity.
The city is a blend of Mediterranean cultures and has a lexicon and dialect all its own. The rest of France tends to make fun of Marseille with its long “a” vowels and crazy foreign words but I find such integration one of the city’s best qualities. Marseillians themselves don’t consider it strange to incorporate Italian, Spanish, or Arabic words into their conversations. If you question them about their use of a non-French word they will say, “Yes, but I am Marseillais.”
It is this attitude that I couldn’t comprehend before living here. The personality of Marseille is so strong that it overtakes even nationality. And while there are some problems in such a diverse city, there is a such distinct sense of “Marseille” that joins everyone together. So it makes sense the word “kif-kif”(the same) would be in vogue in Marseille. The Marseillans wouldn't have it any other way.
