Learn the BEST Canadian Slang

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

yet? Okay.

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

to go get her done. I'm going to go get her,

give her, whatever. I'm just gone. Bye.