American Slang 3: How to talk to your coworker in English

You always want to talk to your coworkers, and you've got something funny, but somehow you don't know how to say it. Your English is the problem, right? Well, not anymore!


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Yet, there is one thing you have to do. What is it? Change your concept, your way of thinking about how to learn and speak English.


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A New Concept for you:

You may have never thought of this before: American Slang, Office English, and babies are closely connected.  How closely is it?  Babies?  Yes, by babies I don’t mean your lovers.  I mean real babies, babies that suck.




Say, you have learned some new words (or terms) from a movie, but how are you going to use it in your office? Or in other words, how to blend your own English with new words learned?  Use a blender? There are, of course, lots of ways to blend them.  But an easy way is to do it with Baby Verbs.  


What are Baby Verbs? Baby Verbs are verbs like is, am, are. (If you read grammar books, they are called linking verbs.) Why are they Baby Verbs? They do nothing at all.  So why do you want it? Because they are sticky. How sticky is it? Read the following examples:

That is a good idea.

(That's a good idea.)



Without the Baby Verb 'is', it is not a sentence in English. That is, it is wrong to say 'That a good idea'.  That's it? There is more when you know what a Baby Verb is.  Babies are not just sticky. They take a NAP (a small rest) too. In the last two posts (American Slang 1, American Slang 2), you have learned ‘N’ and ‘A’.  



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For now you move on to P, prepositions. You think the word ‘prepositions’ is boring?  Okay, let us call it At-On-In. The big thing is: after a Baby Verb (e.g. is/am/are), you can use At-On-In right away. How?  Read the following situations.

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Situation (1) At a meeting, wanting to agree with someone

Your coworker:	Do you think my plan works?
You:	I am with you.

'Am + with' means 'I agree with you'. Easy, right?  But sometimes, 'At-On-In' (prepositions) do things as a team. That is, there are teams of prepositions such as, in total disagreement about and out of (the loop).




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Situation (2)  At a meeting, wanting to disagree with someone



We are in total disagreement about the proposal (made by Mr Suck).



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And what is out of the loop?  How to use this team of  At-On-Ins? Read the following dialogue.


Situation (3) Chatting with a coworker 
(well, in a word, gossiping)



Your co-worker:
   Do you know that everyone in the office is talking about Ms. Gossipgirl’s boyfriend?

You:
   Not really.  I have been busy and out of the loop these few days.


So, what is out of the loop? It is American slang meaning the ways in which messages (including gossips, of course) travel in an office. So, when you say 'I am out of the loop', it means you have no idea what they are talking about.






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Want to know more about Baby Verbs





Picture sources:

http://http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattcameasarat/6037999486/in/set-72157627418563338//photos/skycaptaintwo/247111347/sizes/s/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829534265/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829419407/sizes/s/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gossipgirl/1934554807/sizes/s/in/photostream/