Thread: UK slang

Although I speak British English, I do not use a lot of slang, for the reason that 1) I am not a native British person and, like I said, most slang is either regional or class related. I don't fit firmly into any British category. Secondly I am a woman and and as such I use less slang, and particularly not the type of expressions that you are after (Like in "Lock, stock....")
I am not aware of anyone who is a regular user of the forum who speaks cockney. In England, people who speak with these type of accents usually know no language other than English, so you would not find them on a language forum. One more thing; people who speak with these types of accents ALSO speak grammatically incorrect.
Basically, when you learn a foreign language, you should leave the accents, slang and swearing for LAST when you are like a native speaker.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Basically, when you learn a foreign language, you should leave the accents, slang and swearing for LAST when you are like a native speaker.

Hanna is right.

I wouldn't recommend slang or cussing in a target language unless you lived in a country where the target language is the primary language, and only after you have a firm grasp on it. There may be some exceptions, I've met some people who were amazing with picking up English but have never been to an English-speaking country.

But from personal observations, when I went to Kiev, I talked with quite few people around my age (early to mid 20s) who spoke alright English, and they could use slang well enough in some circumstances. But there are so many nuances to slang and cursing, that inevitably they would say something that a native American speaker would find to be either very strange or possibly offensive.

Although, I guess there's not much of a problem with learning the slang and all of that if you're not intending on using it, but rather recognizing it. I've read and learned a bit of матерный язык, I know the words and how they're used, but I've never spoken them, and I don't intend to. When I visited Russia on a different occasion with a class of mine, one of my friends thought he was cool because he'd read an article over русский мат and could cuss in Russian. The only thing cool afterwards was the bag of ice over his face after he tried using some of the words around Russians he didn't know.