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So, as most of you probably know I am Australian and I probably know less about America than you know about Australia.
This is problematic, because my current WIP has a character who is demanding to be American (no idea why, that’s just how he is). Specifically he is from Ohio. Now I kind of need to know about Americans, what slang they use in particular. My character does not talk, because he is deaf and communicates using ASL, which is problematic because I knoe of very few Australians who would use ASL, thus he communicates in writing to them.
The bottom line is that I’m bad at explaining things and that I want to write an American character who is not a bunch of American cliches.
Now let me tag some random people who might be able to help.
@jenwriter17 @alia @rochellaine @catwing @ariel-ashira @skredder @daeusFeel free to join in anyone who wishes to aid me!
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
@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?
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
No, its for my third Infinity book, so its set in the future, but since my Australian characters are fairly modern Australian the Americans will be too.
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
@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.”)
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
I think the feeling is mutual 🙂 Australians also make fun of American English (I remember the first time I was confronted with the word Mom).
I’ll remember that though. He will tease mpeople by calling them bloke
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
@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. 😛
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
Ditto what Rochellaine said. She knows more about slang than I do, cuz I’m suddenly drawing a blank. 🙂
Maybe, if you can, watch American movies (or maybe read books?) and that should give you a pretty good idea of us. 😉
and THIRD INFINITY BOOK?! *fangirls* 😀
Are there anymore specific questions you have? then I may be of some more help.
I'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.com@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.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
@seekjustice I agree with Jen that you could watch American movies, but for slang, and not cultural norms. Hollywood does not depict normal American life. 😀 So, you can listen to the speech patterns and they might be similar to normal Americans, but what the people do in the movies and their mannerisms and reactions to things are not necessarily (and not usually) the way real life in America works.
Do you agree, @jenwriter17?
One more question: How old is your character? That will have a big impact on what type of language he will use. My brother talks very different from my dad.
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
@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.
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
@rochellaine Yes, I agree. 🙂
I'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.comThe first thing you should know about Aussies, should you ever visit us, is that we make fun of everyone and everything. Usually Americans 😀
And yes, he is deaf and doesn’t speak, so everything he communicates would be by writing, and though I think people do write more formally than they speak, I actually think he probably would have developed his own short hand/slang sort of way of writing. But I guess “slang”, as in individual words wasn’t so much what I was meaning just the general way different cultures speak/write differently, even when they’re using the same language.
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
@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. 😛 )
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
Okay 😀
Thank you 😀
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
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