American Slang!

[Susan Westemeyer]

Ah, you'd rather make your own mess here?

Ok, another thread to avoid. I worked with politicians when I worked in DC. When I quit and moved to Germany, I swore off politics in any way, shape or form.

Susan

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Ah, you'd rather make your own mess here?

What's the point of keeping all political discussion in the Obama thread when it's basically a never ending debate between just a few people that goes through multiple pages in just a few hours. Please don't start a double standard here. If you are, you'll have a lot of work to do because this isn't the only thread here that has strayed a bit from the OP.

Are moderators not allowed to have opinion? If that's the case please demote me.

Please. This is harmless compared to some of the other stuff that goes on here. We can't help it if you're sensitive to that dirty word "politics". But just let it flow. No big deal really.

If it's any consolation, I say "dude" a lot if you met me in person. Sometimes I sound like Spicoli from Fast Times. I hate it! Really trying to get rid of that vernacular.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I'm afraid you misinterpreted me. I was simply trying to get this thread back on what could be an interesting topic.

Susan

As to mods expressing their own opinions, I would leave that up to each individual to decide. Surely there is no problem in expressing an opinion in the non-cycling section of the forum. I certainly expressed my opinion of politicians in my earlier posting.

 

[Boeing]

Susan;

you could have just called him Hoffam Brick but
after his uncle willy reply I believe it is his wally grout.

Ooops wrong slang

ta

 

[elapid]

When I was living in the US, an American friend invited another Australian couple and myself to dinner. He and his wife later remarked that, despite all speaking English, they had no idea what we were talking about for most of the evening! Slang is a funny thing. It is not only nationalistic, but can also be more localized as well. I know Victorians use slang that people from other Australian states do not use. But now I am in Canada, eh!

 

[TRDean]

When I was living in the US, an American friend invited another Australian couple and myself to dinner. He and his wife later remarked that, despite all speaking English, they had no idea what we were talking about for most of the evening! Slang is a funny thing. It is not only nationalistic, but can also be more localized as well. I know Victorians use slang that people from other Australian states do not use. But now I am in Canada, eh!

You must be loving the hockey!! I know I would be...

I live in NC and there are parts of the state I don't know what is being said...and I am not talking accent either...I worked with a couple of fellows from the shore (Wilmington) and they could go into this "language" that I couldn't understand. Weird...but interesting.

I will say, that whenever I am talking to or writing with friends from the Netherlands...I am amazed at the amount of American slang that they know. Impresses the hell out of me!

 

[cyclopeon]

...
To get back on-topic, much slang seems to develop from the popular media, like tv shows. many of us not living in the US don't have access to these shows, and therefore don't know the slang.

Susan

Do they know just how lucky they are?

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

When I was living in the US, an American friend invited another Australian couple and myself to dinner. He and his wife later remarked that, despite all speaking English, they had no idea what we were talking about for most of the evening! Slang is a funny thing. It is not only nationalistic, but can also be more localized as well. I know Victorians use slang that people from other Australian states do not use. But now I am in Canada, eh!

Atta boy! Run into any Newfie's yet?

 

[BroDeal]

When I was living in the US, an American friend invited another Australian couple and myself to dinner. He and his wife later remarked that, despite all speaking English, they had no idea what we were talking about for most of the evening! Slang is a funny thing. It is not only nationalistic, but can also be more localized as well. I know Victorians use slang that people from other Australian states do not use. But now I am in Canada, eh!

That is like the "Australian thread" on cyclingforums. It's a bunch of bantering aussies, and often it is really hard to understand.

 

[BroDeal]

Was ACF94 actually asking about the meaning of the terms or was it a complaint about the use of slang on a broadcaster's website?

Apparently Australia is now running a safe driving campaign with the motto, "Don't be a d!ckhead." I cannot see a government sponsored campaign in the U.S. using that. Someone would get offended and complain.

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

Can we stick to slang here, please? Go to the Obama thread for politics.

To get back on-topic, much slang seems to develop from the popular media, like tv shows. many of us not living in the US don't have access to these shows, and therefore don't know the slang.

Susan

I have access to a lot of American shows, but I still have limited understanding of what the Versus website is trying to communicate with all the slang.

Fire it up = top of the page, I think. Okay, why? Pick a side = leave a comment, I think. Again, why? The page that featured the preliminary start list for RVV, I could "Start the Smack talk" - which I think is leaving a comment too - under either "I'm In", or "No Way".

Perhaps other people were just as confused as I was, as no comments had been posted.

 

[elapid]

Atta boy! Run into any Newfie's yet?

Yep, work with a number of Newfies. Always fun to hang some s**t on, even if I am an Aussie!

 

[elapid]

Was ACF94 actually asking about the meaning of the terms or was it a complaint about the use of slang on a broadcaster's website?

Apparently Australia is now running a safe driving campaign with the motto, "Don't be a d!ckhead." I cannot see a government sponsored campaign in the U.S. using that. Someone would get offended and complain.

While not slang, it is interesting how different governments operate. In Australia, car registration costs also include insurance so that your medical bills are paid for if you are injured on the road (bike, car, whatever). That's why they have such aggressive marketing and policing campaigns, such as "If you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot".

Road tolls are published daily in newspapers and reported on the TV, and compared to previous years in an attempt to lower the road toll. State and national road tolls are broadcast at major holidays (Christmas and Easter) to coincide with road safety campaigns.

These campaigns target speeding, drink driving, fatigue on country roads, seat belts, motor cyclists, and young drivers.

The police use red light cameras, speed cameras, and breathalyzers. And they're strict. Drivers rarely drive more than 5-10kmh over the speed limit in 100-110kmh zones because of the prevalence of speed cameras, less in city areas where the speed limits are < 60kmh.

Forget sobriety tests. The police set up booze buses and breathalyze all drivers. If you're a younger driver and blow above zero, you're walking home and have lost your license. If you have been driving more than 3 years and blow > 0.05, you're also walking home and have lost your license. So drink-driving is also uncommon.

See http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/content/NavigationController.do?areaID=13&tierID=2&navID=65F72F947F0000010137812C06A4C537&navLink=null&pageID=1819 for more details on TAC's road safety campaigns.

Compare this to the US and Canada where I have been breathalyzed once in 9 years and regularly drive 30kmh over the limit on highways (and have passed police in doing so) without getting ticketed.

According to Wikipedia, the road fatality rate per 100,000 people is 7.8 in Australia, 8.8 in Canada, and 11.2 in the USA. According to Swivel, the road fatality rate per 1 million people is 81 in Australia, 85 in Canada, and a whopping 145 in the USA. Per 1 billion km traveled, it is 7.9, 9.2 and 9.0, respectively. There were almost 34,000 deaths in the USA in 2009 on highways alone (I presume this does not include other types of roads).

When you look at the economic impact and emotional toll road-related injuries have, it makes sense to me for governments to target and attempt to reduce injuries and fatalities on the road. Australia obviously has a vested interest because of they way the system is setup, but I still find these kind of differences between countries interesting.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Was ACF94 actually asking about the meaning of the terms or was it a complaint about the use of slang on a broadcaster's website?

Apparently Australia is now running a safe driving campaign with the motto, "Don't be a d!ckhead." I cannot see a government sponsored campaign in the U.S. using that. Someone would get offended and complain.

I wanted to know what they meant but also I have never seen slang on an australian website like that before. Us aussies can use the australian language properly. Their has been many complaints. Their are many ranga jokes on the ad which has caused a little uproar but I know rangas who just think it's funny. The reason the U.S wouldn't put something like that on their ads is because they are so politically correct.

 

[BroDeal]

I wanted to know what they meant but also I have never seen slang on an australian website like that before. Us aussies can use the australian language properly. Their has been many complaints. Their are many ranga jokes on the ad which has caused a little uproar but I know rangas who just think it's funny. The reason the U.S wouldn't put something like that on their ads is because they are so politically correct.

Urbandictionary.com explains everything.

fire it up = To light up a joint or a blunt
smack = Verb, referring to the act of thizzin, or popping an ecstasy pill. Derrived from the moment when the Ecstacy comes into affect, it feels like you were just smacked in the face.
pick = to buy weed, marijuana, cannabis

Now you know why the Versus cycling commentators are so out of touch with reality.

 

[Lifeshape]

Sometimes our slang can be a little much, I agree. I remember a few years ago watching The animated tv sitcom "King of the Hill." There is that skinny drunk guy, what I would presume to be a "redneck," babbling about something no one can understand. One rare night while drinking several warm Budweiser beers (the more I drank the colder they got!) I actually picked up what he was talking about (I can't remember now, sorry).
Anyways, living in Atlanta, I hear new stuff daily. Such as "Turnt up" as in the radio is all the way turned up; or "lemme git sumpfin" as Let me get something.

 

[usedtobefast]

in Texas we spoke in one word phrases. "geat"= did you eat?
"goinontomomaneems?"=you going over to mom and thems?

 

[Spare Tyre]

Was ACF94 actually asking about the meaning of the terms or was it a complaint about the use of slang on a broadcaster's website?

Apparently Australia is now running a safe driving campaign with the motto, "Don't be a d!ckhead." I cannot see a government sponsored campaign in the U.S. using that. Someone would get offended and complain.

I don't think anyone is too upset about the use of the word d!ckhead in any of the ads, but there have been a lot of complaints about the way in which redheads are singled out because of their hair colour.

Here's a link if you want to see the ads. They only go for a few seconds.

http://www.youngandgrumpy.com/2010/03/vic-roads-safety-ads-dont-be-***.html

Gotta say there have been a lot better TAC ads over the decades. (Or p'raps I'm just getting old, and they don't "speak" to me any more.)

 

[auscyclefan94]

Urbandictionary.com explains everything.

fire it up = To light up a joint or a blunt
smack = Verb, referring to the act of thizzin, or popping an ecstasy pill. Derrived from the moment when the Ecstacy comes into affect, it feels like you were just smacked in the face.
pick = to buy weed, marijuana, cannabis

Now you know why the Versus cycling commentators are so out of touch with reality.

yes, but they aren't referring to that

 

[Hugh Januss]

yes, but they aren't referring to that

How do we know that?

 

[auscyclefan94]

How do we know that?

yes, they are really going to use "drug slang" on a sport website

 

[BroDeal]

This thread is lame. I am going to choose sides in the pro cycling forum and fire up the smack talk.

 

[usedtobefast]

FYI it's "smack down" as in "beat down". and you "talk smack"
i think i'll fire up a "blunt" and "chill" instead.

 

[rhubroma]

It's interesting the organic nature of language itself, which tends to evolve, idomatically, based upon locality and cross-cultural interaction.

Perhaps with all the latino-spanish spoken in the States now, in a couple of centuries American english will be totally incomprehensible to a Brit. Whereas in Europe, within each single nation usually several or more dialects are already spoken.

In Italy, where I live, if someone from hinterland Sicily goes to hinterland Piedmont, and the guy from Piedmont talks to the guy from Sicily in his local dialect, the guy from Sicily actually doesn't know what he's saying.
In the same linguistic multiplicity concept, there are some villiages in Puglia which speak Albanian, whereas Austrian german is often spoken before Italian in the Trentino Alto-Adige region.

It will be interesting to see how much telecommunications can act as a linguistic glue, in the future, to close the gap between the natural dialectical and therefore slang developments.

 

[Anonymous]

From the way-back machine...

This thread is lame. I am going to choose sides in the pro cycling forum and fire up the smack talk.

I know your wig is gone!