I taught college economics for over 25 years. After I quit that I thought about making a book with ‘pages’ of video clips that could be shuffled in any order. I even got a patent on the idea! One day, one of the ‘pages’ in the book had some slang phrases in it. That was the start of Slang4US.

American Slang is the vocabulary you didn’t learn in English class. It is ‘informal’, some might say not ‘proper’. It is often playful. Sometimes slang is downright rude; not the polite sort of thing to say in public. And say is important to slang. It’s more often spoken than written.

Slang4US is a large collection of American slang phrases. Each language has its own. You can order dinner in a restaurant with the English you know now. But, if you want to have a conversation with an American and understand it and respond well, you must know the slang.

We Americans can’t talk without it. So, Slang4US is a school for slang.

But Slang4US isn’t About Us, it’s About You. If you are going to talk to an American or even just listen to one, you’ve got to know some slang. Otherwise, what we’re saying won’t make any sense.

In the simplest case, Slang4US is just a collection of video flash cards of slang words. One phrase used in a conversation and then a video explaining it. In some cases it may be a longer list of slang expressions all meaning the same thing. The most fun was making little stories built around several slang expressions. These may be a bit more work than the one-word slang flash cards. But, I hope they are more fun.

Remember, I’m a teacher. So, I’ve got to teach. Slang4US is more than simple slang phrases. There are some aphorisms (sayings like “The early bird gets the worm.”), maybe a few simple vocabulary words thrown in, some interesting (?) history about the origin of some slang phrases, and some English lessons. But, at the end, you’ve got to think “I’m glad they did that. That’s good to know. That’s fun.”

Slang4US is meant to be fun. We hope to have thousands of slang videos for you before long. The only way for you to learn much from these is if they are fun. Watching them and learning new slang expressions will only work if it is a pleasure.

We won’t know if Slang4US is a pleasure – whether you’re having fun – unless you tell us. We need your feedback to make these slang ‘lessons’ even better. Which one was good? Which one was bad? Why? How could it be better? Were you ever embarrassed by misusing or not understanding a slang phrase? Tell us about it. Do you have some slang phrases in mind that you don’t see on our list? What are they? Some day I hope you can shoot some slang videos for us; send them to us and we’ll post them with your name attached! Won’t that be fun?