Hey there. So, you guys probably already know,
my name's Ronnie, and I quite like slang.
It's kind of groovy. Yo. I quite enjoy it. And I like to teach slang because it's fun,
and it's how we normally talk, and it makes you sound more natural in English, and it
makes you cooler. I'm just going to say it.
Okay? If you rock into a place... You go into
a place, you rock into a place, and you know
how to speak the local slang, you're just
going to have a good time. Mm-hmm. If you walk or enter a building, and you're kind
of using language that's maybe older or kind
of weird, you can still charm the people,
but learning slang, it's kind of a way to get to the cool people where you are. So,
you also have to be careful, though. As a person who's learning a new language, slang
can be kind of difficult because what slang
do you use? Like, how do you know what slang
to study? How do you know what to use to kind
of fit in? And there's different things you
have to be aware of. So, first of all, and this is one of the huge things that annoys
the piss out of me, slang is uncountable.
So, as soon as you see people saying "slangs"
on other instructional videos on the internet,
turn it off because it's not "slangs", it's
slang. So, you have to be careful that you're
using appropriate slang, and it's going to
be based on a couple things. The region-okay?-the
area, region or area, or the city, even the
country where you live. I'm Canadian. I have
a flag here. Okay? And the slang that we have
in Canada is very different from American slang. British slang, completely different
from us. And not only is it focused on country,
but area. Where I grew up, Niagara, represent.
Hi, guys. We used to say "mass". Like, oh, dude, that's mass. Cool. And we say "dude"
a lot, too. Now people say "bro", and I'm like, I ain't your bro-bro, dude. So, you
have to be careful about also the social group.
If you're coming to Canada, and you have a
beautiful job, and a nice executive suite, you don't want to be talking like a street
kid. Okay? You don't want to be saying "Can
I axe you something?" when you're in business
meetings. So, you have to be very careful
about your social group. Who are you talking
to? Why? Your social group. Who you're hanging
out with. This constructs your ID. "ID" means
"identification". So, if you rock into a bar,
and you're speaking in Ebonics, which is now
called something like "American African Vernacular",
and you're like, "Yo, yo, yo, hey, what's up,
bro-bro?" and you're, like, a white person in, like, Philly or something, people are
going to be like, "Okay, that's nice. Bye-bye."
So, you have to be careful about how your
language identifies with you. It constructs your ID.
Demographics. Your age. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, if my mom rocked in here, and she started
being like, "Hey, guys, what's up, dude?" I'd be like, "Mom, you okay, man?" Because
your age is deterrent, or it's going to tell
you about what slang you should use and what
you shouldn't use. If you're an older person,
and you're popping off with the young kids,
they're going to maybe make fun of you. So,
be conscious of your age and, you know, what's
appropriate, age appropriateness.
Demographics. This has to do with your job, where you live, your position in society,
if that's a thing. And so, as I said from
the top of the lesson, coming down, I'm from
Canada, I'm Canadian, and I'm going to teach
you some regional, area, country, social group
constructs ID of Canada. Let's go. I like this
one. "Butte". It's a beauty, eh? It's a butte.
If something's "butte" or "beauty", it just means
it's cool, wonderful. It doesn't necessarily
mean it's beautiful. You say, "Hey, that's a butte
car." They're not like, "Oh, I want to shag your car."
They're just saying it's cool or I like it. "That's a butte. I know it's weird."
It doesn't matter if it's weird, I'm just teaching it to you. Okay?
"Giver". When I was first researching this, I
thought this was more American, like "get" or "done",
but "giver" is like "give her" when you break it
down. But don't worry about what it really means,
worry about the slang part. "Giver", this word "chug",
chug, chug, chug. "Chug a beer" means you drink it quickly.
So, let's say you're at a hot dog eating competition,
as you do, and be like, "Giver, giver, giver."
It means, like, eat faster or you're in a beer
drinking competition. "Giver" means, like, drink
it faster, eat it faster, do it faster, do
anything you want. Just do it faster. Go. "Giver".
Yeah. I guess at work, in a business meeting,
you're not going to be like, "Hey, Bob, giver."
Bob's like, "Giver what?" So be careful. Business meetings, not too much.
I love this one. Okay? People say... I'm from
Ontario. People say, "I'm going to go out east"
or "out west". You're like, "Why are you going out?"
"Out east" means you're going to the east coast
of Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New
Brunswick. Oh, PEI, good at geography. And "out
west", it's British Columbia, it's BC. There's
other places out there, but predominantly,
they're just going to BC to hang out. You go to... Go to Alberta, I guess.
Then we have "up north". "Up north", "up north".
"Up north" is basically... Most of the population
in Canada lives in the south part. North
is, like, super cold, but you'll hear people
say, "I'm going to go up north for the summer."
You're like, "Where are you going, man?
Like, the Arctic Circle?" They're like, "No. Two hours away on the highway." Oh.
So "up north" basically means, in Ontario, northern Ontario. So we've got "up north".
We don't say "down south", "going down south". It's
weird. Nobody goes down south. It doesn't happen.
No. I like this one. "Housecoat". It's a coat
you wear in your house. You might know it as a
robe or a bathrobe, or even a dressing gown.
So when I was thinking about this lesson,
I was doing a survey on a McGill University
website about how Canadians pronounce different
words and what words they use for things, and
this was one of them, and I thought, "Huh.
Someone asked me, like, "Ronnie, what do you
say?" And I say, "Hmm. I definitely say "bathrobe"
because it's... No, sorry. I definitely say "housecoat" because I'm like... I'm in my
house, definitely going to wear a coat. And
"bathrobe", I don't know. And "robe" I think
is more American. "Dressing gown" is what
my mom's going to say. It's older. "Oh, mom,
you're not that old." But it's more formal. It
might be more British, too, because everyone's
just sitting around in gowns in England. Yeah, that's what's happening.
So, any of them you use is cool, but apparently
this one is more common in Canada. "Housecoat",
you can say "robe", "bathrobe", "dressing gown". It's up to you. How fancy are you?
What are you doing after you get out of the
bath or the tub? "Please take a shower." And
I just went, "Gitch"? Oh, man. I use this
all the time, like, "Oh, man, got to get some
new gitch." It means "underwear". It's for
male and female. We don't get... Have to get
into the panties, teabag, thong conspiracy,
here. "Gitch" is "underwear", and use it all
the time. "Oh, man, nice gitch. Good." Like,
"Hey, can you guys show me your gitch now?"
"Oh, I like it. Yeah, good." Okay.
"Geek", this is cool. I think originally this
is from hockey, because, you know, Canada and
hockey... I don't play hockey. Don't like
hockey, either. "Deek" is a verb, and it means,
like, to move quickly out of the way. Maybe
it's a football thing, but, like, "Oh, I deek
the puck." It means you moved out of the way
of something. Like, "Oh, man, I just deeked
this guy on his bike." It means you didn't hit them. Move out of the way. Do it. Deek
it. Deek it. If you're playing dodgeball,
you got to deek the ball. Someone's throwing
a ball at your head, you got to deek that.
Get out of there. "Deek", that's a good name
for a child. If any of you are having a child,
male or female, do me a solid and name it
"Deek". "Hey, Deek, what's up? Ready for kindergarten?"
"Kiddie Corner", I like this because sometimes...
And I just had this debate yesterday. My friend
was saying that there's a new store that opened
up across the street, but not across the street,
and basically it came down to the store opened
up diagonally, which is, like, up and down
like this, across the street. So we don't actually have to say, "The new store opened
up diagonally across the street." We say, "Meow, meow."
"Kitty Corner", I don't know why it has to do with a cat. Why isn't it "Puppy Corner"
or "Doggy Corner"? I don't know. But "Kitty Corner" means that something is diagonally
across the street. That's cool. Thanks, Canada. I like that one.
"Snowbirds", mmm, with "snowbird". A "snowbird"
is a person. Yes, it's not a bird. And they
actually don't like snow. We shouldn't call
them "snowbirds", we should call them "winter
hater people", but "snowbird" sounds nicer. "Snowbird" is actually a kind of airplane
that has groups and does flying things. No, it's not. "Snowbirds" are people, usually
older, retired people who escape winter in
Canada. They go to Florida, they go to Montana.
I don't know if they go to Montana. I've just
made that up. They go down to the southern
part of America, because it's close, right?
If you look at a map, if you look at Toronto,
meow, and you go as far south as you can
without getting the ocean, you're in Florida.
So, a lot of people go to Arizona, they go to Florida, they go to warm places during
the winter, and they're like, "Bye, I'll see
you in the springtime." So, as soon as November
hits, airplane, staying in the Florida Keys,
getting a nice orange tan going on, and then
they come back for the springtime.
The birds. They're the birds. Okay.
Hydro. If you're renting a place and it says
"hydro included", you're like, "Whoa, they
got some hydroponics equipment going on free
in this place?" It is Canada, after all, but
unfortunately it doesn't mean hydroponics,
it means electricity. Because our electricity
supply is powered by hydro, which means water,
hydroelectricity. Niagara Falls, that guy,
that girl, they're giving us the power. I got
the power. So, hydro is actually electricity,
but instead of saying electricity, we call it
hydro because it's powered by water. Confused
This one's fun because I'll tell you why.
Click. Kilometre. In Canada, we don't have miles. Well, we do, but we don't talk about
them. Okay? Don't talk about the miles. We measure things in kilometres, or km, and I
was teaching my student, and instead of saying
"kilometre", he said "tequila metre", and
I was like, "Oh my god, dude. That's going to be my new slang." It's like, "How many
tequila metres does it take to get to the next
bar?" Because I'm like, "It's five tequila
metres, three tequila metres, perfect." You can make up your own slang. That's the fun
of it. So, you can say "click", you can say
"kilometre", or you can say "tequila metre".
Mm-hmm. Not a vodka metre, it has to be tequila metre. Okay? I like this one, too.
Okay. Oh, I didn't write a definition. Bad
teacher, I'll tell you. Okay. "Hang a Larry".
My friend told me this, and I was like, "What
the hell? Larry? Why are you talking about
Larry again? He's so popular." "Hang a Larry"
actually means... And let me get a marker
for this one. "Turn left". Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. So, "Larry" apparently means left, and
can you guess what "Roger" is? "Roger" is a
person, it means "turn right". So, if you...
If someone says, "Hey, hang a Larry", and then
it's on the kiddie corner, they're saying,
like, "turn left", and if they say, "Hang a Roger", it means right. Which kind of makes
sense, that's good, it's not opposite. So, "Hang a Larry" means "turn left", "Hang a
Roger" means "turn right". I think those are
cool. I don't know why it's... Why does it
have to be men? Doesn't matter. And this is a good one, I like this. "It's my champagne
birthday." It's not, I actually had that a
couple years ago, but basically your champagne
birthday is this. Let me get the marker out for this one. "I was born on the 22nd of a
month." I'm not telling you what it is. I'm so secretive. So, when I turned 22, on the
22nd, that is my champagne birthday. So what
you do is you take your birth date, let's
see, you were born on the 19th, let's see, you were born on the 36th... Oh. No, never
mind. So, it only works when you're young. Okay?
Up to 30, after that, you get no champagne.
You're getting straight tequila. Okay? So,
champagne birthday is the date of your birth,
and then your age. And that makes your birthday
super special. So you hear people say, "It's
my champagne birthday." It's like, dude, the
calendar doesn't have 40 days. What's going
on over there, Larry? Oh, you're lying about
your age. Okay. It's not your champagne birthday.
Okay? It's like your beer-gut-molson-muscle
birthday, Larry. Okay? So, when's your champagne
birthday? You take the date of your birth and your age, and if it's the same, you're
going to have some champagne on it.
There's a lot of new slang happening, and
you can tune into this channel and I'll teach
it all to you. I'm going to go... I'm going