British Slang: INSULTS & childish sayings

http://www.engvid.com In today's lesson, I'll share some insults and other fun sayings that children use. You can use this British slang to irritate or annoy someone in a childish way. If you are in school in an English-speaking country, you may hear these insults. So you'll learn what they mean, and how to respond to them! I'm not teaching you these expressions so that you can insult people, but so that you can understand more about English culture, and perhaps even imagine what it would be like to to go to school in England. You can also use these expressions to joke around with your friends. When used correctly, they can be quite funny! Do you know any other childish sayings that I didn't mention in the lesson? Share them with me in a comment! http://www.engvid.com/british-slang-insults-childish-sayings

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade, and what I'm telling you today is expressions and sayings and, in sorts, words that kids use in British English, or at least they did when I was a kid. So I'm just telling you some of the things that I remember. The thing about kids, as I'm sure you know, they can be quite mean, can't they? In a funny way, but they can also be quite mean. So let me tell you some of the things that we used to say to each other when I was at school.

So if you want to insult someone in the playground, you could call somebody a "soap dodger". "What's a 'soap dodger'", I hear you ask. A "soap dodger" is someone who doesn't wash, who's a dirty, unclean person. If you "dodge" something, it means you, like, you run away from it -- run away from it. So a "soap dodger" runs away from being clean and washing.

"Minger." "Minger" is actually a new word. I don't think we had this when I was at school, but it's "childish". It means "ugly person". Like, "Ew, you minger." This one is really bad, actually. I don't agree with this one. Sometimes, people say "ginger minger". And "ginger" is someone with red hair. That's really mean about people with ginger hair.

"Div" means "stupid person". "Oh, shut up, you div." "Go away, you div."

"Weirdo" -- "strange person". "I'm not talking to you. You're a weirdo. No. Go away." Kids like to say "go away" a lot, so I'll be repeating that frequently throughout this lesson.

This will tell you something about British culture, I think, because it's an insult for you to study and try to do your best, basically. So somebody at school who actually cares and does their work, well, that person is called a "try hard", and that's seen as a bad thing to be called a "try hard". Probably -- maybe in your country, that's a good thing. "You try hard. Well done! In Britain, it's like -- nah. It's seen as a good thing to be good without trying -- to be kind of lazy. But for some reason, working hard is not a good thing.

And this did apply to me when I was at school, but I wear contact lenses now. I was a "four-eyes", a "four-eyes" person. I wore glasses. But actually, when I was at school, I don't remember anybody ever calling me "four-eyes", so I was okay. I survived.

A couple of other mean things kids say now. Now might be called -- you might call someone a "loser" if they're the kind of person you wouldn't want to be friends with. Like, they don't do anything good. They're, like, uncool. It's really sad to say it. They're a pathetic person. That's so mean and horrible, but that's what kids say.

You might also be a loner -- someone with no friends. Then, you're called a "loner". That doesn't feel very good if you're at school either.

Also, we use this adjective, "sad". Someone's "sad" if they're just, like, not cool, and they're always, like, saying the wrong things, wearing the wrong things. You can say that person's "sad".

What do you do if somebody calls you a "ginger minger div"? Well, you can come back at them with this. You can say, "I'm rubber, and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you." And that way, like, their words can't hurt you. And then, they'll just be really embarrassed. They'll be shamed with your come back here.

Let's have a look at more general childish expressions now. Moving on a little bit from the insults. Staying there, but slowly moving away from it. Kids are fond of saying this, "Your mum!" It just doesn't -- you can say it to anything. Somebody insults you; you can say, "Your mum!" Or you don't think they're funny or whatever, or you disagree with them; you can say, "Your mum!"

Or if you don't want to listen to someone -- you don't want to listen to their insults, you can say, "Shut your gob/shut your trap/shut your cakehole." They're all the same thing. So that's your -- that could be your "gob"; that could be your "trap"; or it could be your "cakehole". In goes the cake because you've got a big mouth.

Kids are really fond of telling other people to go away as I mentioned before, so here are two ways to do it. You can tell them to "get lost". "I'm not listening to you anymore. Get lost."