No Wonder Americans Talk Funny

A few years ago at one of my company sales meetings I was giving a presentation to our regional sales managers from around the world. One of the guys was from France and kept giving me a quizzical look or kept asking me to explain what I meant. He kept throwing me the 'whassup' look. So, in my mind I'm telling myself, "this moron needs to go back to school". Upon further discussion over a beer we 'got down to brass tacks' and resolved the problem. He could understand about every fifth word I used because I spoke in slang. I'd never thought of this before. Now, I know this takes place in different parts of the country; pronunciations and words used, but surely this doesn't apply to me. If I recorded myself I might be surprised at what I say and how I say it. Last evening while watching one of my new fav's; 'Free Agents' the lead actor, Hank Azaria, responded to a statement with, "this ain't my first rodeo". Meaning, 'I'm not stupid'. In recent weeks I've heard this phrase numerous times, mostly on television. So, get set because I believe we'll be hearing it a bunch. Slang phrases in America are sometimes over the top and slammed down our throats so much so that, well, 'Yadda, yadda, yadda, you know what I mean. Just for fun I've added included a----dang!----I forget what I want to call it---click here, though, and you'll see some more phrases, "if ya' know what I mean".