Navigating British Slang and the Joys of Spanish Speakers Learning English

Ever wondered how to effortlessly toss around British slang like a true Brit? Buckle up for a linguistic joyride as I take you through the winding roads of cheeky banter and iconic phrases. Together with the characters I play and my guest  Walter, we unravel the mysteries of saying "cheers" without a drink in hand, and why someone "fit" might just catch your eye. From the charm of "quid" to the perils of being "skint," we're breaking down the lingo that'll have you chatting up a storm from pub to tea shop across the pond.

But hold onto your hats, because we're not just about the words – we dive into the delightful challenges that Spanish speakers encounter while mastering English. Laugh along with us at the humorous blunders and embrace the expressive power of language in all its forms, inspired by the dynamic performances of Mayumana. As we wrap up our conversation full of giggles and gratitude, Walter and I invite you to join us in celebrating the quirks of cross-cultural communication. Don't forget to hit subscribe and drop us your thoughts – we're all ears for your own tales of linguistic escapades!

Transcript

Learning British Slang for Fluent Conversations

Speaker 1 0:00

Learning a language in a classroom is very good, but you don't begin to experience the language until you know the slang right. Nowhere is this more true than in Britain. It's completely possible that you walk into a British bar or should I say a freezer and don't understand more than half of what they're saying. If you don't want to be this person and you want to be able to converse fluently with your British mate and the president, then I'm here to help you out. Now, the problem with slang is that it is always changing and there are trends, like fashion and clothing style. A word that was commonly used in the 80s or 90s may sound dated, out of place today. I did my best, however, to find the most common and recent example. What I want you to do, to let me know in the comments below how many phrases you have come across. Okay, are you ready? Let's start. Number one would be fit. If you're okay, fit doesn't just mean that you go to the gym a lot. Fit is a way of saying that a person is attractive or sexy. Bad guy is so fit. Should I get his number? Okay? Next we have loo. Yes, this is probably the British slang word. You'll hear a lot if you come to the UK simply because it's the word for turleys, without saying turleys. Okay, can we just stop at a cafe? I really need to go to the loo.

Speaker 1 1:39

Next we have dodgy. I love dodgy. Dodgy is a credible, useful word when British people describe anything we're a bit concerned about. It can be used to mean anything that's low quality, potentially dangerous or unreliable. I wouldn't go there. It can be a bit dodgy later on.

Speaker 1 2:03

Next we have proper. Proper is an adjective. Proper is a difficult word to define, mainly because British people use it a lot in many different things. Doing things properly means doing them correctly, right or in the right way. In the north of England, proper can also be used for emphasise, in the same way as the word verb. Let's think of an example A proper cup of tea needs milk and two sugars. That's a proper, good cup of tea. Quid quid it's a slang word for poundrecht. Can you lend me a quid for the parking machine? Thank you.

Speaker 1 2:44

Next we have skin. Skin means that you don't have any money. Sorry, I can't come out for your birthday. I'm not getting paid until next week and I can. I put it on? It's Keter Snog to snog means to give someone a kiss, but specifically the kind of kiss that is not very romantic. Did you hear that Lisa snogged Keter at the Christmas party?

Speaker 1 3:14

Cheers, so you might know this word for us Cheers when you want to use the toast to your drinks in English. But as the British like to be different, we also use cheers for something else. We use cheers to mean thank you and often, mind you, it can use a little bit sarcastic. I'll give you an example. Do you want to help me clean the car? No, I'm good. Cheers Now.

Speaker 1 3:43

Nafi's used to say that something is lacking in style or good taste. I was about to buy you the pink dress, but I thought it looked a bit nuff. To sack off? To sack off, it means to avoid doing something or to give up doing something, normally something that you didn't want to do in the first place. By the way, give someone the sack. It means firing this person from his or hers last job. I think I'm going to sack off work and drinks later. I'm way too tired.

Speaker 1 4:20

Bunter Bunter is a word to use to mean joking or teasing someone that is meant to be friendly but often isn't. So don't get offended, it's just a bit of a bunter. Next we have my favorite bonkers. It can mean either crazy or angry, depending on the context. For example, someone can be completely bonkers or can go bonkers meaning losing your temper. Pissed. Now in the United States pissed means angry. Right In the UK pissed means drunk and pissed off means angry. So it's a little bit confusing. I'll give you an example. I was so pissed off when I saw how pissed she got at the party. Okay, melt, I want a slang word to describe someone who is a wimp or a coward. Just go and ask them out, stop being such a mouth. And here we have cheeky. Probably you heard this word.

Speaker 1 5:25

Cheeky has long been used in the UK to describe something like hearted but a little rude. However, it is now used to describe any activity that is a little bit naughty or nice, like do you fancy a cheeky pint after work? To mug off. To mug someone off is to take advantage of someone or make a fool out of them. Totally not nice. That guy at the football kept laughing at me for wearing an Arsenal shirt. Told him to stop mugging me off, mate. So mate. British slang for a friend I'm not good Means I'm tired. Here's a good one Bloody. This is a very British thing to say, meaning very, that was a bloody good show. Rubbish. It could mean garbage or nonsense, depending on the context. Rubbish Blimey is similar to the American wow Blimeys used to describe something that takes you by surprise. Blimey Blok Blok is similar to a guy. In America it is a blanket term to describe a man in general. Here's another good one Bollocks, one of the more well-known British terms.

Speaker 1 6:48

It actually has a multitude of meanings. It could be used to symbolise disbelief or just to talk about a man's private heart. Fortnite. Some of you may already knew this term Means two weeks in time. Here's an old one Hunky Dory, normal to say final, fine, cool.

Speaker 1 7:13

Posh, another well-known term that stands past of borders. In Great Britain Posh means something that is fancy or she speaks Posh To nick, to take to steal Boot. When talking about a car, the boot is the trunk Broly. We just slang term for umbrella. Here's another good one, but not nice one, not a compliment deem. This is used to describe someone that is not very smart, also a myth, meaning being annoyed, and the word fag. In American English fag is an insult meaning and very mean to say to someone who is gay. But in British slang, however, it just means a cigarette. I'm going outside for a fag, are you coming? Very nice, fag Granny means grandma, and television we say telly. And if you want to say to someone wake up, you just say wakey, wakey, boozer.

Speaker 1 8:16

Boozer means a pub, a cupper what does it mean a cupper? Cupper comes from the phrase cup of Meaning and pay attention is cup of tea. Because we love, we love tea, and sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason. The word tea is not actually needed. You only need to make it clear if it is a cupper of coffee or cupper of anything other than tea. Would you like a cupper? Yeah, I'd love to. Okay, then I'll get the kettle on. Bevy, the short for the word beverage. Usually I'll call it most often beer. Now you give it a try. And how would you say in British slang this line Pay attention, are you ready? So grab grandma, turn off the television, grab your umbrella and let's go to the pub for a drink. Let's hear you. Okay, wakey, wakey, granny, turn off the telly, grab your prolly and let's go to the boozer for a bevy. That's it, mate. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. And what can I tell you? Cheers.

Speaker 1 9:29

A taxi or even booking, one could come to a fast-trating task, especially if you are visiting big cities like New York, paris or London. Taxi drivers have something in common all over the world they are a special species with the way they behave or talk. British cup drivers, however, have their eudique way of talking. In this episode, you are about to meet three guys working in a central London taxi station Ali, the taxi dispatcher, who is trying to find an available taxi driver on a busy day. And if you noticed a few slang words, don't worry, I get to it later with the meanings, of course. Meanwhile, please download, click, like and share this podcast series on a playlist or with your friends. Also, I invite you to join my YouTube channel. Look and Listen English Lessons with Sharon Fay. You won't regret it, I promise. So sit back and enjoy your listening.

Speaker 2 10:50

Taxi tower health station. Hello, ali is speaking. How can I help you?

Speaker 1 10:55

Hello, yes, yes, hello. May I book a taxi to Heathrow airport please?

Speaker 2 11:01

Where from?

Speaker 1 11:02

I need to be picked up from Savoy hotel.

Speaker 2 11:06

What time is it for, madam?

Speaker 1 11:08

Aha, when is the soonest I could book for?

Speaker 2 11:12

Please hold on, madam. Let me check who is available to Savoy butterfly Uwe. Can you read me, mike? Mike, can you read me Uwe?

Speaker 1 11:25

Radio. Hello Ali Over. Wow, I've got a cock and a hat stuck in the circus tonight. Try with Harry. You know Uwe, hold on Uwe, harry, mike over, free, free as a bird. I'm cruising for an hour. So here you go, pick and drop Savoy hotel to the flyer. Let Ali know you're on it. Oh, you're a life saver, that's great. Cheers, mike.

Speaker 2 11:59

Cheers, mike. Yes, hello, madam, are you still there? Yes, yes, hello, madam, the taxi is on its way in 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 12:10

Well, I suppose it's okay, but if you'll be late I'm taking a different cabbie. Well, thank you. Oh, wait, hold on, how much will that cost? Hello, hello, well, that's so typical. Hi, there, listeners pay attention. The famous London taxi are actually called Huckney Carriages, but in London we just call them black cabs or taxis. Now, what about? Huck in the Hand? It means male and female passengers riding together. To the flyer means London Heathrow Airport Circus, meaning the Piccadilly Circus. Cabbie or Huckie it means a taxi driver. Thanks for listening, to Look and Listen. English Lessons broadcast To continue improving your English. You are welcome to join my channel and watch the videos on different topics and levels. Till next time. Bye, bye, hey Walter, hey mate, hi, how's it going?

Speaker 3 14:00

Everything cool. How are you?

Challenges for Spanish Speakers With English

Speaker 1 14:03

I'm fine, so great to have you here with me. So thank you for joining us, walter. We thought, when we met a week ago, to talk about the challenge of Spanish speakers with English, the struggle they have with English speaking, and also we said that we're going to discuss the clash of British slang and Argentinian slang. Right, so we're going to get to it later, but first, because of who you are and because I adore Mayumana I'm your fan, your biggest fan I want you to tell us a little bit about this company, dance Company.

Speaker 3 14:57

Okay, mayumana is in a theater company. Mayumana the name is coming from Mayumanut, niswa and Ibru. It's a world that means abilities and for a big part of the company you need to have a lot of abilities like drumming, dancing, acting, acrobat a lot of things together. This is the magic of Mayumanut you can do everything together with a lot of energy and coordinate.

Speaker 1 15:35

Exactly so. You're using all kinds of stuff and you do those percussions right and using all kinds of things. What kinds of things are you actually using?

Speaker 3 15:50

We use buckets, burials, flippers, tubes, and the body is the first instrument that we have in there.

Speaker 1 16:07

I can't hear you. Can you do it again? Can you do it again faster? Why can't you? Oh cool, oh, this is cool, like like, uh, how do you say Castanet, castanet, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 16:22

And I continue to work with this. I do classes, workshops, a lot of activities with corporate activities, team building, and I share all my what I learned in Mayumana with a lot of people.

Speaker 1 16:39

Right, so so, uh, let's, let's you mentioned the, the workshops that you, that you do, we, what kinds of people do you work with and what, and how do you think that, uh, um, the abilities that you mentioned before can contribute to to people, let's say, that have block in the communication, Because when I teach drama in English, for, for instance, I help people that have this kind of block in speaking English Uh, so, can you, can you share with us what, what can you contribute with dancing and and percussion and everything that you teach in your workshops?

Speaker 3 17:29

Okay, I go, I I'm going to try. First of all, uh, it's a good communication. When we start to play, the one of the first thing you need to to have is listening, and this is something that we need in all the, all the things in the, in the life and in the companies. It's, it's very important how to listen, learn to listen.

Speaker 3 17:58

And in the music is one of the first thing. What we we need to do and we do a lot of exercise, like I asked something with the rhythm and you need to ask to to to answer the same, the same phrase, and this is a lot of exercise, that we need to learn how to listen and how the body can express themselves to to say the what I feel or what I express.

Speaker 1 18:35

Can. Can you give me an example of something that you do in your workshop? Okay, let's say that I'm a little bit shy now. I'm scared to do something like this, but can you show me something like a first first class?

Speaker 3 18:53

Okay, let's, I'm going to answer this. This exercise, this in a, in a round everybody walk in the same time, like in the same pools, it's, it's. It's good also to to feel each other. This is a good exercise to feel each other, and everybody knows to walk. No, everybody knows to. We do like walk in the same place. And I start to ask you I do, for example, and you answer, okay, I do something different.

Speaker 3 19:36

Okay, if you are in the same place, I can. I can hear the set there. I can hear you more but, it's okay. It's an exercise to to what I'm here, I can express with my, with my body. This is one of the exercises.

Speaker 1 19:53

Wow, this is wonderful. I think it can be really, really helpful. Also, in drama lesson we have something similar to it, because we do lots of things with our body and, you know, let's dive right into the thing that we said that we're going to talk about, and it's the challenge for Spanish speakers with English. So do you have any kind of example, maybe from your experience with, you know, with difficulties with English, do you have difficulties in English that you want to share?

Speaker 3 20:35

I think the harder thing in Spanish speaker face when learning English is the pronunciation. English has so many different sounds that don't exist in Spanish.

Speaker 1 20:50

The thing the Sounds like the yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 20:58

We don't have in Spanish.

Speaker 1 21:02

So what do you have instead of the?

Speaker 3 21:07

No, we have another. I don't know Right now, but we have the they, they or the, the Tomato, the Then, but it's different, it's it's. It's hard to meet the same. It's a, but it's, it's okay. We need to practice and to feel comfortable with the pronunciation.

Speaker 1 21:36

Absolutely, absolutely. What else do you think people will find difficult when they speak Spanish and they try to speak in English?

Speaker 3 21:50

Other difficult Spanish and English, have different words, other birds, things and even different Generous. Generous For no, no, yeah.

Speaker 1 22:06

No.

Speaker 3 22:09

Try to apply in Spanish grammar rules to English can lead To minimum More Different, difficult world. Like Minutes there's.

Speaker 1 22:26

You remember I don't know if you, if you saw this show, it was like back in the 70s on the BBC 40 Towers With John Cleese from Monty Python. Yeah there was. There was a guy there. He was A waiter Emmanuel.

Speaker 2 22:46

Do you remember?

Speaker 1 22:48

And and I wow, I remember this episode. It was really really so funny. It was hilarious. When 40 is telling Emmanuel to take the butter to to the dining room and he said, and 40 always was bragging as he as, as if is he speaks Spanish, but instead he was. He wasn't really a Spanish speaker, okay, he was British. He couldn't really say properly and Emmanuel obviously didn't know English. So once 40 came out with yeah, take the butter to the dining room. And and Emmanuel was Boro, boro, boro, boro, and he said Boro and I'm, I'm mucho Boro, ali. Something was stupid, you know, and until his, his wife came and you know, everything started to come in place. But it was really funny, you know, emmanuel, yeah, yeah, it's so different.

Speaker 3 23:59

Also, in the Spanish it's not the same from from us to Mexican, argentinian, I don't know, costa Rica, that we have a different accent, different words of to say the same thing. We say different Like hold on.

Speaker 1 24:26

I mean the grammar. The grammar that you use for Spanish, for Latin Spanish, is the same grammar that you use for Spanish in Spain said it's yes, but we use what when you, when we, when you talk, you talk in different way in Spain.

Speaker 3 24:48

It's not the same, like in Chile, like we understand we, we. The accent is different, maybe the words are different. In Spain, the, the avocado, they say avocado, and in Chile they say the same thing and in Argentina, and in Argentina is avocado. For example, in Mexico is avocado.

Speaker 1 25:19

Okay.

Speaker 3 25:21

What did you? Say what did you come?

Speaker 1 25:25

again Palta, palta, palta is avocado in. Argentina. Wow, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 25:31

Yeah. That's awesome and a lot of things like Pina in Mexico, I think they say Pina, or in Colombia, and we say anana, ananas, ananas.

Speaker 1 25:46

Americans say ananas and pineapple. Okay, so now let's move on to something else. We promise to discuss a little bit about British slang and Argentinian slang. Walter, can you teach me something Argentinian slang? Let's say I don't know how do you say in Argentina when someone is cool.

Speaker 3 26:13

Okay, in Argentina, when something is cool, we say someone is cool, we say grosso, like grosso.

Speaker 1 26:23

We say grosso yes it's super cool.

Speaker 3 26:32

Additionally, we use a lot of re re grosso sometimes.

Speaker 1 26:39

Wow, yeah, like Italians, let me try Super cool. You say it's what? Come again Grosso or re lindo. When something is cute or re lindo. Okay, what else we say it's brilliant or mint. Can you repeat after me?

Speaker 3 27:07

Is that again Brilliant? It's brilliant.

Speaker 1 27:11

Yeah, it's brilliant. Or you can say mint, mint, yeah, mint, uh-huh. And if they find, let's say, if you find, something that it's really really funny, right, and you might say, oh, it's hilarious, yeah. Or you can say, uh, cracking up, it's cracking up Cracking up. Yeah, it's all about the quirky expressions. If we quirky expressions, I am very expressive with my face, right.

Speaker 3 27:52

Absolutely. Here in Argentina, when something is funny, we say it's a rice cake, Como it's Cago de risa Cago de risa.

Speaker 1 28:08

Hold on, hold on. Uh, it's Me cago de risa, me cago de risa. Yes, did I say it okay.

Speaker 3 28:16

Yes, perfect.

Speaker 1 28:18

Okay, which later?

Speaker 3 28:19

I translate to I am louthing my butt off.

Speaker 1 28:28

So, yeah, it's a bit more colorful, right? Yeah, Definitely. So in speaking of colorful, did you know that the British have a slang word for someone who is annoying? Yeah, you know they. You might say that um, here's um plonker. It's quite amusing, isn't it? A plonker?

Speaker 3 28:57

Plonker.

Speaker 1 28:58

Yeah, plonker is a plonker. Do you know any plonkers? Do you have plonkers in your life? Walter, I have plenty of plonkers.

Speaker 3 29:09

Sasham. But yes, we have here in Argentina. You know, we have one word, it's boludo.

Speaker 1 29:21

Boludo? Yeah, I know this word, yeah, so what does?

Speaker 3 29:23

it mean Okay, it's like an idiot.

Speaker 1 29:26

Yes, I know many boludos, lots of.

Speaker 3 29:30

But we say also in a friendly way like yeah, boludo. When you call someone like I am a brother, we say in the good way also.

Speaker 1 29:43

Yeah, like mate. But you say boludo, although mate is, you know, is a friend, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So boludo can be a friendly way to talk to someone that you really know well.

Speaker 3 29:57

Also when we play soccer.

Speaker 1 29:59

We say hey boludo.

Speaker 3 30:01

We can use like a good way or a bad way, wow.

Expressions of Gratitude and Recommendations

Speaker 1 30:07

So it's really fascinating how languages can be so different yet so similar, right yeah, in expressing emotions and connecting with others. This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing your insight, walter.

Speaker 3 30:29

Thank you, charlotte. My pleasure, this was very, very, very funny, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 30:35

Yeah, thank you so much and I hope people will like this video. Thanks, walter, that was really really fun. Thank you guys for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it and I recommend that you watch this video that is all about British slang as well and don't forget to subscribe. If you haven't done so, leave us a like and comment and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.