Slang
By Lorraine
@RaineyR (213)
February 24, 2016 4:07pm CST
Hi everyone, whats the craic?
Some of you may not need a translation for this, but in Ireland where I come from, this is a pretty widespread way to ask how things are with someone!
We recently had visitors from Australia staying with us, they had a hard time understanding some of our conversational slang! For example 'banter' means fun or 'going 90' means going fast.
I thought with this being a worldwide site with lots of variation, it would be interesting to hear some slang from your neck of the woods that is unique to your area?
7 people like this
8 responses
@Shiva49 (26686)
• Singapore
25 Feb 16
Not only the slang the accent too can be tricky. I could not understand Alex Ferguson in his Scottish accent at times as the words sound different.
Indian newspapers and legalese use old English terms that are discontinued elsewhere. Then the local languages influence the English language which borrows words daily dime a dozen. Then we have abbreviations that are unique to countries and frankly I am not conversant with emoticons - I take all of them as a compliment! siva
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26686)
• Singapore
25 Feb 16
@RaineyR I have said it before. I had a British colleague in Indonesia years ago. And I recall him switching to cockney accent just to bemuse me but I thought he was overdoing it!
I was helping him with conversational Indonesian and he had no more of it after I told him "air" meant "water". He said - Siva, I have to go back to England and I will be asking for "air"! He did likewise when he was learning Greek as no sounded like" okay"! siva
@JudyEv (340256)
• Rockingham, Australia
24 Feb 16
We're Australian but have a son in Ireland who lives there permanently now. I would have known 'banter' and 'craic' but not 'going 90'. I've used 'dinkum'. 'taking the mickey' and 'slinging off' in posts and had to explain them. It's hard to know what people know and what they don't. It can sound patronising if you explain something that is universally common.
1 person likes this
@RaineyR (213)
•
25 Feb 16
I have never heard of dinkum? What does that mean? I never meant this post to sound patronising, I am just genuinely interested in how different countries take the English language and make it their own. After all this is how new words are formed and how it eventually evolves over time!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (340256)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Feb 16
@RaineyR Your post wasn't patronising at all! I just feel a bit patronising if I explain stuff that doesn't need to be explained. It's a fine line sometimes. The expression is usually 'fair dinkum' and means 'true' or 'real'. Fair dinkum, he's a good bloke = believe me he is a good man. We even have differences between the Australian states. As you say, it's very interesting.
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
26 Feb 16
I am not very good at understanding slang. My co workers used to call me a square. 
Square because I didn't know anything.
Square because I didn't know anything.
@CVanBoerdonk (197)
•
24 Feb 16
Not sure about slang we have here, although we do talk about going to Tims a lot which is not a person's house it's Tim Horton's for a coffee.
1 person likes this
@CVanBoerdonk (197)
•
24 Feb 16
@RaineyR I don't drink coffee but I am obsessed with their apple cider!
@tarotmore (112)
• Seattle, Washington
25 Feb 16
I just learned something new! Here in the States to the best of my knowledge, banter isn't a slang word, and refers to friendly and playful chatter. One slang word that's unique to my region/the west coast, US is "hella". Example: "Guy, that performance was hella beautiful." Note, that "guy" here is also a slang word and is similar to the slang word dude. I believe it may also be unique to my region, although I'm not positive about that.
