American slang is cool, right? If you can use it in your office, you are even cooler. However, there is a question for you: How do you know you use cool slang correctly?
Correctly? Am I kidding? No. When you use slang, there is grammar to follow too. What do I mean? Read the following example:
Somehow you have to put ‘the hell’ in the correct position, right? If you say: What is that, the hell? We’ll get lost. Even worse, some of your coworkers may laugh at you. (So, believe it or not, speaking slang at office is about grammar too.) It is not cool being laughed at by others, right?
So the question is: How to speak cool slang coolly? Before you know how to do it, read the following cool American slang that can be used at office:
1. a slave driver
2. a hit
3. Mickey Mouse (as an adjective)
4. on spec
5. out of the loop
You will know what they mean very soon. But the bigger question is: When you learn some cool slang, how are you going to make it your own English?
That is, you watch movies and learn slang and check out the meanings, but you may not be sure how to use it. By ‘use it’, I mean use it correctly so that you will be cool and your coworkers will admire you, not laugh at you.
As you may have already read my another post, you may just take a NAP (a small rest). Yes, ‘take a NAP’ to speak cool English at your office.
How? If you may remember, N stands for nouns, A for adjectives, and P for prepositions. So now, you can go back to the five slang and group them into N, A, or P.
USING SLANG at office: THE N WAY
The first two ones, a slave driver and a hit, are nouns. So, you may use the first one (a slave driver) to complain about your boss. How to do it? Read the following dialogue.
1. A slave driver: A dialogue
You: He is a slave driver.
Your friend: What?You: He is such a slave driver that he makes us work day and night.
In other words, you work as a slave and your boss just keeps pushing you. A piece of cake, right?
But you can add a twist to this ‘N’ way (He is a slave driver). What is it? Just move the noun (a slave driver) to the beginning (of the sentence).
What does it (the sentence) mean? It means he is really really really a slave driver. (You can add more ‘really’ if you like.)
2. A hit: upon finishing presenting your proposal, your coworker says to you:
What does it mean? I guess you have heard of hit songs and hit rates, right? So a hit means something that is successful, something that is loved by others. So, if your proposal is a hit, it is a very good one.
Slang 2
Slang 3
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Picture source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatleydude/5132954852/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifementalhealthpics/8385422957/sizes/s/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829440395/in/photostream
