This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 46.
Forget about it.
Four New York City English slang words.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection not perfection when it comes to learning English.
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Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck, coming to you from Portland and Boston, USA.
USA.
Today you'll learn how to sound like a real New Yorker with Michael from Happy English.
Learn four slang words and the best big city pronunciations.
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Hey, Aubrey.
What's going on?
How are you today?
I'm alright.
I'm having a great day.
What about you?
I'm having a fabulous day as well.
And listeners, we hope you are too.
You are in for a treat today.
This is so cool because the last time Aubrey and I were here together we talked about English from Trinidad and you got to hear that really awesome accent.
And New York City vocabulary.
We talked to Michael from Happy English, and he taught us how to sound like a New Yorker.
I don't think I can sound like a New Yorker, but he tried to teach us.
So guys, we're going to share some of that interview with you.
Nice.
This is going to be really fun.
I lived in New York for a little while and I remember all the time just sort of being stopped in my tracks by the fun words they would say.
I loved the accent every now and then, especially if I was in Brooklyn.
I feel like we would like I'd buy pizza somewhere, or I remember getting a lobster roll and then be like here's a lobster roll.
It's just so cute.
And it sounds so different to me.
Maybe you guys listening don't hear it quite as much.
They'll drop their R's.
The vowels sound different.
And it's really fun for us to hear this accent.
It's like punchier.
It sounds more aggressive to me.
It's just like stronger somehow, you know?
Guys, listeners, I'm sure that you have heard this accent before.
There are cats. countless movies and TV shows set in New York, right?
There are so many times when you might have heard this accent.
So when you hear Michael teach us these phrases today guys, I think you'll recognize some of what he's saying.
When I think of the That old Saturday Night Live sketch with Mike Myers when he was coffee talk.
Do you remember that?
Wasn't he being Joan Rivers or something like that or sort of impersonating her?
Kind of.
Oh, that's a great example.
Yeah, I bet he was impersonating her.
Anyway, guys, look up Coffee Talk SNL on YouTube if you want to see.
They're so funny, those sketches.
Anyway.
Let's get to Michael from Happy English, though.
So he's going to give us a great example of this accent.
But actually, in New York, it's coffee.
And I thought I could show your listeners a usual sentence that we would say here in New York, which would be this
I'm going to walk my dog to the corner and grab a coffee for a quarter.
This is so fun.
I loved hearing New Yorkers say coffee like that.
So great.
I feel like it's similar in Boston too, right?
Or somewhere else.
Yeah.
A lot in the East.
Well, to us, we're both West Coast ladies, you know, and I think I think if I'm hearing a New Yorker next to someone from Boston, I might be able to tell them apart.
But I can't be 100 percent sure.
But they are different accents, though.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
A New Yorker will recognize a Bostonian any day.
But for those of us who aren't as familiar, they sound pretty similar.
Yeah, exactly.
I love it so much.
You know, any of the movies set in Boston are also so fun to listen to those accents, even going back to like Good Will Hunting you know such a good movie.
Okay, so let's get into this vocabulary, guys.
We're going to learn some words that you will hear on the streets of New York.
You guys might be going there to study, maybe, or maybe just for a vacation.
So the first word is agita.
Now, I had never heard this word.
Aubrey, have you heard this word before?
No, I haven't either.
Right.
I feel like I lived there a couple of years, but I don't remember ever hearing that.
This is super local.
OK, let's hear Michael teach us this word.
So agita has kind of two meanings.
The first one is it's a heartburn.
It's a way we talk about heartburn from eating something.
If you have a lot of spicy food or some pizza, you could say, wow, that pizza gave me agita.
Okay, so heartburn, apparently it can be used like that.
But he later told us that agita can also describe something super stressful.
Like if the train is late, you could be like, the train's given me agita, right?
Like the train is stressing me out.
What do we like?
Do we have an equivalent for that that might be more common for our students?
Maybe I was going to say the heebie jeebies, but that's more like scared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For stress.
Maybe wigging me out.
That's wigging me.
No, that's more scared, too.
I don't know.
I would just say, like, gave me a headache.
I mean, honestly, like, there isn't one idiom that we would say all the time.
Like, we would just say it's super stressful, right?
Or it's giving me a headache.
Or it's the bane of my existence, if it's something that, like, you really don't like.
So there are other phrases, but...
I mean, honestly, we just say it's super stressful most of the time.
Okay, now the next one is super famous.
This is like the classic thing that you hear at all the mob movies, from Godfather to Goodfellas to Casino one of my favorite movies.
Okay, I'm going to ask you, how do you say this?
Forget about it.
Oh my God, that was great.
That was not bad.
That was so good.
So it's just forget about it.
But again, like all these words are put together and Michael says it means no way.
Which I like.
Like I like hearing that direct translation because I don't think I was super clear before what it was meant, what it was meant to say.
So what's an example of how a New Yorker might use this?
Yeah.
So if someone asks you, oh, you want to eat pizza here?
And they'd be like, forget about it.
You want me to walk all the way over there?
Forget about it.
No way.
It's so good.
So it just means no way.
Like, nah, no way.
I love it.
So let's go to the real New Yorker Michael, and hear the next phrase for how he would give his opinion.
Not for nothing is a phrase that we use when you want to give your opinion about something that you believe is true and maybe the listener doesn't know or doesn't realize it.
And it's usually followed by but.
For example, not for nothing, but you guys have the best English podcast.
Cool.
Now, Aubrey, you lived there.
Have you heard people use that phrase?
I don't feel like I heard that one either.
I think it's interesting how seldom you actually chat with a local New Yorker when you live there right.
I was teaching.
I was in the Bronx.
My students didn't use these phrases.
They were from the Dominican Republic and Cuba and Puerto Rico.
So they weren't, it's like, you have to be like third generation New Yorker to be using these.
So I've definitely heard not phonetic on TV and in movies, but I don't remember hearing anyone say that one.
Stay with me.
I've only heard it on TV and in the movies.
Yeah.
You know, they just came out recently with a new Sopranos movie.
And I think like that was one of the first, you know, amazing prestige television shows, guys.
And I think you'll definitely hear all of these phrases in that show, super famous.
Um okay, now this is the next one.
Guys, scooch now.
To me, if i say scooch, it means like move over, like scooch over, just a little bit, like move over so i have room to sit down.
Um, but that's not how michael uses it.
Can you take a guess?
Like what do you think that means?
Oh man, I have no idea.
I use it the same.
Instead of scoot over, we'll say scooch over.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
Scooch.
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say this is when someone is carrying their dog around in a purse and they call the purse a scooch.
Oh, my God.
I wish.
Let's just say that's it.
Let's just decide.
No, guys, that's not...
We need a word for that.
I know, we do, right?
That's my favorite guess, though, of yours.
So Michael told us that it actually he uses it to describe something or someone that's annoying or bothersome, which is very interesting.
So let's hear Michael use it in a sentence.
Sometimes my dog is a scooch.
When I'm trying to work, she always comes here and she wants to play with me.
I say, Happy, stop being a scooch.
Oh my gosh, that's so cute.
Now, we've already told you, Aubrey and I don't use scooch like that, right?
We use it as scoot or like move a little bit.
What would we say in this case, though?
Yeah, maybe a nuisance or a pest.
I do love that.
I just at least got that he, you know, he talked about a dog.
So I feel like I was in the general vicinity.
I know.
That's awesome.
I was surprised when you said that because I knew what he was going to say.
So that part was really impressive.
All right.
So again, guys, Michael says that all of these phrases are super common in New York City.
He said it's actually everyday English there in the Big Apple.
So these are phrases that he uses all the time because he grew up there and he still lives here.
And what's really cool about all these phrases is guys, you'll never get these words in a textbook, right?
But you'll hear them on the streets of New York.
So Aubrey, I think we should try and do a role play right now using his New York words.
What do you think?
Yes, we'll try to sound like real New Yorkers, you guys.
And then, if we don't, you can just laugh at us when you watch one of these movies watch Goodfellas or something and compare our accent to theirs.
I'll tell you right now, my accent will be terrible, but just so you know.
All right.
Here we go.
Hey, I haven't been to this neighborhood before and I'm starving.
Where's good to eat around here?
Not for nothing, but the pizza place right around the street has the best pie in the city.
Forget about it.
No way.
It's not better than pasties pizza in my neighborhood.
Patsy's pizza in my neighborhood.
Forget about it.
I've been there.
Gave me agita.
Don't be a scooch.
That can't be true.
Just come on.
Let me buy you a slice and you can see for yourself.
You have a little Joan Rippers there.
Okay, that was awesome.
I did not try to have an accent at all, except for the New York word.
So that was fantastic, Aubrey.
So guys, Michael is still talking. churning out amazing content for you guys all the time.
He has a fantastic podcast.
Go check out his website, guys.
He's written tons of books.
I actually just reviewed his last book for Amazon, and I highly recommend it.
So definitely check out Michael at MyHappyEnglish.com.
Amazing.
So many great resources over there and more New York English.
Yeah.
All right.
Awesome, Aubrey.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for your New York accent today.
Yeah.
Forget about it.
I love it.
Okay.
Bye.
See you next time.
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