I’m from the American South, and nobody I know says that. It’s usually “soda” around here. Maybe it’s a regional difference within the South?
c_carol: Take a look at the link I posted above for “soda” vs. “pop.” It maps out those usages, and has “coke” as a generic term as well.
Based on the map, I’m guessing you live in Florida, Virginia, or North Carolina…
Where in the South, C_Carol? I’m from Tennessee and I’ve always heard it referred to as Coke.
I’m from North Carolina. Thanks for the map link, Wumpus, that’s pretty cool.
I knew it! I always figured there was a relationship with how close you were to Atlanta to whether or not you call it coke.
In my family, we tend to call it “soda pop”. (I grew up in Colorado, my parents are both from near Chicago.) My husband, who grew up in Virginia and Florida, calls it “Soda”. (However, that might be a deliberate choice on his part, as he purposely lost his southern accent after he moved out here.)
Sorry to ask again but where in North Carolina? The reason I ask is because I am from Cleveland, a small town about forty minutes from the NC border and I’ve never heard a lot of people refer to sodas as … uh, sodas even though I myself do.
I think this is an “Americanism” because I’ve only ever seen it here on this board.
Anyway, “Go Figure” is an expression which really annoys me. I don’t even know why it does, because if it means what I think it means, like" work that one out" it says the same thing but more succinctly. Usually I’m in favour of brevity, but in this case it makes my few hairs curl up. Go figure. Yuccch. 
One thing that annoys me even more than Americanisms, is the mistaken identity as Am-isms…the particular case that riles me is writing the date as “March 22 2004”, which is typical of Victorian England. But you’ll get people complaining that it’s an Americanism. And it’s not. MM/DD/YYYY is an Americanism.
Texas is pretty well “Coke” country, as evidenced by the map. I usually say “soda” nowadays but I grew up calling every brand of soft drink a “Coke”. One common to grandparent age Texans: “sody water.” Still ocassionally used for comic effect.
Another new Kiwi (formerly Aussie) here.
I love colloquialisms and I think they, along with each individual country’s culture should be encouraged and nurtured.
Unfortunately American TV shows flood our screens as they probably do in most western countries so we are exposed - over exposed to their culture and our young people tend to pick up on these things. To make matters worse, many of these shows are already a couple of years old by the time we see them. Why don’t we just show our own? We do and some damn good ones but it’s much cheaper for the networks to buy American shows than it is to produce and air our own.
I had not realised Mad Max had voice overs for the American audience, I agree TitoBenito it is insulting. I knew The Castle had some words changed - am I really supposed to believe that American audiences couldn’t work out what a rissole was? If not too bad. American movies are not changed for us to understand. Is this still happening today? Are British movies changed in any way for American audiences? I would think not as I recall someone posting quite recently they had a problem understanding the accent in “Bend it Like Beckham”.
I like the way this thread has suddenly turned into a debate about soft drink.
It’s not soda or pop or coke! It’s fizzy drink (or sometimes soft drink) 
Thank you all for taking my OP in the spirit it was intended. I know we talk funny but I like it. Nice to see that nobody thought I was attacking anyone.
Good point! Only we make crap TV so we watch your crap mostly. If we didn’t watch American, British and Australian TV we would be down to one pretty bad soap opera and half a dozen reality TV shows (same as yours, just remade with people who talk funny). We just ain’t good at making TV. Movies we can do though 
Please note I was not ranting at Americans nor do I think they should change anything. I was ranting about Kiwis who think it is somehow cooler to use American (or others) words then perfectly good Kiwi words.
I know you do. The crisps thing is a Britishism. When we were deciding what we would call things, some bright spark decided that what you call chips we would call chips and that what you call fries we would also call chips. Confusing, yes. But we muddle through.
I’m glad the whole world is prone to this. Seems it is not just Kiwis who are sheep
And yes my child like thousands of other should watch less telly.
Me too!
There are only 4 mill of us stuck all the way down at the arse end of the world, so any push to be the centre of the universe will probably have to wait a few years.
In the mean time I will pack some fizzy drink in the chilly bin. Put my togs and jandals on and nip off to the beach.
stares drools Does it mean: I will go put some soda in the cooler, put my shoes on and go to the beach?
Well done Only not shoes. I think you call them either flip-flops or thongs, or maybe something totaly different. Oh and togs are a swimsuit.
Yay! I am smart! And I just learned 2 new words! Togs andJandles
If you spread them far and wide maybe NZisms can take over the universe : evil cackle :
stares at calm kiwi, and slowly backs off…
I’m in Winston-Salem. “Soda” or “soft drink” sound normal to me. “Coke” for a non-cola drink sounds very old-fashioned and exaggeratedly “country”.
No, there’s also the Welsh. Oh wait, who are sheep.
Nevermind.
Well, that doesn’t look right. I don’t think you should go around explaining how you hope NZism will take over the world.
grumble grumble bloody sheep fornication jokes
See that is why we will never be able to take over the universe…I’m a blabber mouth.