I Need Help with My American Character

@seekjustice I LOVE studying slang!

First, a couple of clarifications: American slang and idioms are very diversified depending on what part of the country we live in.  In certain parts of the country we have even almost different dialects altogether. 😛 So, thanks for saying he’s in Ohio.

But…secondly, what time period is this?  Is it for your WWI story?  In that case most of the modern slang will not apply.  I made a study of WWI era American slang about two years ago, so I’d love to tell you some of what I learned. 😉  But if it’s not, what time period is it?

@seekjustice Okay, cool.  Too bad, because I love WWI slang, but it’ll be easier for you, probably. 🙂

Hm, let me see… number one, Don’t let him say “bloke” for the first while, but he will definitely say it as a joke at one point!  Americans love copying and making fun of other English dialects and slang words we’re not used to.  (It doesn’t have to be bloke.  I’m just using that as an example, meaning that he will try to copy and make fun of, in a nice way, the Australian “slanguage.”)

@seekjustice Okay, I wasn’t sure, since I have never met any Australians. 😉  I know a few Canadians and British-educated people (not actually British, but African or Pakistani) and they don’t seem to make fun of language differences as much as we Americans do.

Another “don’t” is don’t have him say “y’all.”  I don’t know if you’ve heard the term before, but it’s a famous slang word from America, but only from the South.  Northerners only use it as a joke, really, and probably wouldn’t in Australia, since he wouldn’t be likely to bring up the South, unless he was talking about Southern friends.

Wow, this is really hard, since I don’t know what you say in Australia, so I wouldn’t know if a certain phrase we use would actually be different for you!  Hmm.  I think we use the word “big” a lot.  Everything is big.  You could “mess up, big time,” be or not be “big on mushrooms,” or things like that.  Do you say that in Australia?  (The reason I thought of that was because I burst out laughing after listening to Prime Minister Netanyahu say “big time” in his speech, because I didn’t expect a big person – oh, there I said “big” again, I guess it can also mean “important” – like him to say something so loose and slangy.)

Okay, there are so many clarifications in that parentheses I don’t even know if it makes sense.  Please tell me you understand what it says!  But if you say “big” in Australia too, I guess it really doesn’t matter. 😛

@seekjustice I really think it depends on when your character became deaf as to what slang he uses. If he was born deaf or became deaf really early I don’t think he would use a great deal of slang except any slang used by ASL users in particular. The later he became deaf the more he would use slang.

@seekjustice Oh, haha!  I forgot he was deaf!  Second what @skredder just said.  In ASL he wouldn’t use as many slang words, but if he knew them before he got deaf he might write them.

Though writing slang isn’t as common, since most people tend to be more formal in writing than in speaking.

However, since he’s in Australia he might just decide to kid the Australians by using extra slang in his writing that he wouldn’t normally use.

@rochellaine Yes, I agree. 🙂

@seekjustice Okay, well I’ve been thinking about it, and maybe the best thing to do would just be write him the same as you would write an Australian, and then let your beta-readers tell you if there’s anything that sounds weird.

It’s hard for us to think of specific instances of slang or whatever, and if we could, you’d have a hard time keeping track and making your character use it.  So why don’t you just write him, and we’ll read it and say, “Oh, an American guy wouldn’t do this, or say this,” and that’ll just fix your problems.

Most of what your characters do and say isn’t all that different from Americans.  (We can’t hear your characters leave off their “r’s” when we’re reading. 😛 )