Learn American Slang

Listen to me read this post


One of the challenges to learning American English is slang and other informal phrases.  In casual conversation, Americans use a lot of non-standard words and phrases. But most English classes and text books don't cover this part of the language. So, how are you suppose to understand it? It's not like you can look up these words or phrases in a dictionary.  Or can you?   



At UrbanDictionary.com, you can look up slang words the same way you would look up other words in a standard dictionary.  If you hear or read a word or phrase that you don't understand, try looking it up at UrbanDictionary.com.  The link will be in the shownotes.  It has an alphabetical list of words and each word or phrase has a definition and examples.  This site is made up by contributors so alot of the words have many definitions and examples.  Some definitions might be better than others.

So, UrbanDictionary is good if you hear a word or read a word and you want to know what it means but what if you want to learn how to use slang.  Where do you go? 

There are websites for that as well.  But before I give you those websites there are some things you should know.

When we talk about slang, generally we mean words and phrases used in casual conversation.  Some are words used in casual, everday conversations by most Americans.  Most people would call that slang because it's informal language. These are common words and phrases used everyday and these are the things you should learn and be familiar with because you will hear them often.

Even though they are widely accepted and used, these words and phrases are informal. They are they types of things you say in casual situations to your friends.  That means you shouldn't use them in certain situations such as formal meetings, essays for classes, or speaking to someone respectfully.

A good site for learning these types of casual words and phrases is    http://www.learnerstv.com/Free-Language-Video-lectures-ltv203-Page1.htm.   And don't worry if you didn't get that it will be in the show notes.  At this site you will find a series of video lessons on American slang. 

However, Some slang words are only used by certain groups of people.  For example, teenagers living in the city or words used in a certain part of the country.  These words and phrases are not often used outside of those geographic areas or groups.  This type of slang is not very useful to learn unless you will be spending large amounts of time in these areas.

Also, slang can be difficult for non native speakers of English because it can be offensive or have sexual meanings that you are unaware of.  So, keep that in mind before repeating things you hear from native English speakers or from songs or movies.    

And that brings me to my last website recommendation slangcity.com.  Just to warn you some of you might find this website offensive.  It has lots of sexual slang.  But my favorite thing on this website is translations of songs and movie quotes.  They take the lyrics of a song or a quote from a popular movie and translate it into common English.  They explain what the words mean and also explain the cultural references. 

Because culture is a big part of language.  When Americans talk they refer to people, places and things that are familar to most Americans but might not be familiar to people who grew up in other countries.  So, this might be why you don't always understand what English speakers are talking about, even though you understand all the words they are saying.    So, check it out slangcity.com.

Ok, that's it for today. Go take a byte out of American slang but use it at the right time and place.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

Show Notes
www.urbandictionary.com

www.learnerstv.com/Free-Language-Video-lectures-ltv203-Page1.htm

www.slangcity.com