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Conversational Vocabulary

Hello, everyone. In this recording, I’m going to talk about some of the words and phrases that Dan and I used in our conversation this month.

1. What’s going down?

The first one is what I say to Dan at the very beginning of the conversation, “What’s goin’ down, man?” What’s goin’ down, man? That’s a way to say hello to someone in a very colloquial, casual way. Both men and women can say it. You hear men say it a little bit more than women, this particular collocation, “What’s goin’ down, man?” It’s also another way of saying what’s going on or how’s it going or what’s happening. These are just very casual colloquial ways of greeting someone.

1. That’s bogus

The next one is “that’s bogus.” We’re talking about the time when I got sucker punched in the head. I was holding a big stick at the time, and I decided not to hit the person that punched me, and I still got in trouble, and Dan says, “What? You still got in trouble?” I said, “Yeah, I got in trouble,” and Dan says, “That’s bogus.”

That was his reaction to it.

Now, the term bogus, if you look it up in the dictionary, it means not true. It’s something fake. It’s not genuine. It’s bogus. It’s a bogus Rolex watch. It’s not genuine. It’s a fake. You can buy those on the streets. But in this instance, the expression, that’s bogus, in response to me getting in trouble for not doing something that I would have done otherwise, which was actually a good thing, Dan says, “That’s bogus,” and what he means is that’s ridiculous, that’s not right, that shouldn’t be like this. Sometimes people will use this phrase, that’s bogus, to mean that’s ridiculous, that’s bogus, that’s, in common slang, would be that’s bullshit. That’s bogus. That’s what it means.

1. showoff

Moving along, the next is “showoff.” What’s a showoff? We’re talking about escape artist like Houdini, and Dan says, “I don’t really like escape artists,” and I say, “You don’t like them?” He says, “No, I feel they’re just showoffs.” What’s a showoff? Well, a show off is someone who likes to be the center of attention, and they like to draw attention to themselves by showing something that they consider to be, and others perhaps, attractive.

For example, some people buy really expensive sports cars, and they drive them through very crowded areas of the downtown to show them off. That’s actually a nice phrasal verb to show something off. They show off their cars. They show off their jewelry, their clothes. They are showoffs. Someone with a muscular body who works out every day is certainly not going to keep that muscular body underneath many layers of clothing. They’re going to show it off to others, so they’ll go to the beach or they’ll go to the park, they’ll take off their shirt, and they’ll show off their muscles.

You can also show off your skills if you’re a musician or an actor or an athlete or something like that. To just do something in a very public way that draws attention is a show off. Dan’s using this in a negative way. He doesn’t like showoffs, he doesn’t like people who show off. That’s what it means. Perhaps you know some showoffs in your neighborhood or maybe at work, or maybe you knew some showoffs at your school when you were much younger.

1. scammer

The next is a “scammer.” What’s a scammer? We’re talking about Houdini, still, and Dan says, “Apparently, he used to be a scammer.” Then I respond by saying, “Yeah, well, I’m sure there’s a bit of scammery to some of the performances that take place with magicians.” To scam, the verb, to scam means to trick or deceive a person, usually for money, and it’s a very dishonest thing to do. You’re tricking someone into giving you their money. It’s a scam. To scam is to trick. A scam is something that tricks you into giving you the money, and of course, the person who does this is the scammer.

Now, I sort of turn scam into a different noun, scammery, which basically describes the act of scamming, so I’m sure there’s a bit of scammery, some scammy things happening in these performances. Of course, in the magician performance, we’re not talking about the deception for money. We’re talking about the deception of the eyes, optical illusions to make it look like it’s actually something magical, when in fact, they’re probably or almost certainly are reasons for why these magic tricks do what they do. We just don’t know what those reasons are, and our eyes get fooled and tricked and scammed, like this.

1. kicks and grins

Let’s move on to “kicks and grins.” Dan says, “Have you ever been in a seance, Aaron?” and I say, “No, but when I was a teenager, I fooled around with a Ouija Board with some of my friends. It was just for fun and kicks and grins or whatever. We didn’t actually contact any dead people.”

There’s a couple of things going on here. First of all, the term for kicks, to do something for kicks means to do it for fun. One of my friends goes to horse races on Sundays for kicks. Another woman I know goes to the shopping center every weekend for kicks. When I was young, my cousin used to ride his motorcycle off road for kicks. They do it for fun, for kicks. What do you do for kicks?

Another way you might hear this is, how do you get your kicks? My cousin got his kicks from riding a motorcycle. The guy I know gets his kicks from going to horse races, and the woman I know gets her kicks from visiting the shopping center every weekend. She doesn’t buy anything, but she just has fun looking at things and being around lots of people and lights and things like that.

Actually, there’s a famous song from the 1940s called Route 66, and one of the main lyrics was, “Get your kicks on Route 66.” That means when you’re driving across the historic Route 66 in the United States, you’re having lots of fun. You’re getting your kicks on Route 66. We can add “and grins” to this, kicks and grins, and grins would refer to laughs because when you grin, you are smiling, and it refers to happiness and laughter. We just say the Ouija Board is just for kicks and grins. It’s just for kicks and grins, fun and laughs.

You might hear a more vulgar instance of this, shits and grins. Some people might say that. It’s a little bit more vulgar. Be careful when you use it. For example, when I was a teenager, my friends and I would skip rocks across the pond for kicks and grins, or we would shoot a BB gun for shits and grins, like this.

It just means having fun.

1. ain’t

Moving on. The next one is “ain’t.” Dan says, “The title to this month’s story could be, could very well be,” and I said, “Could very well be, but it ain’t,” so I’m having fun with that. Ain’t is another way of saying is not or are not, and it’s very colloquial. It’s also very Southern-style English, most common in the South of the US. It just means is not. It’s just another way of saying is not, but I wouldn’t use it if I were you. You should just be aware of it. I use it in a playful context, which I suppose you could as well, but typically speaking, it just doesn’t sound very nice.

You should use it isn’t or they aren’t or something like this.

1. something to it

Moving on, the next one is “something to it.” We’re talking about transplants, organ transplants and how there have been over 70 recorded instances of people receiving transplants, taking on some kind of personality change that was connected to the person who donated the organ. Wow, there’s over 70 recorded instances to this, and I say, “That seems like a high number. There might be something to it.” When you use this phrase, something to it, it means there is some kind of substance to this situation, there’s some kind of potential credibility, some kind of casual relationship. It’s not purely coincidental. It’s not a coincidence. There’s something to it. There’s some kind of substance there, some kind of reasoning that’s happening.

For example, let’s imagine that in the month of July, there were 10 accidents in a certain region on the highway, and none of those accidents were caused by tires exploding, but in the next month, there are suddenly dozens of accidents caused by exploding tires. It turns out that when they looked at what kind of tires they were, they were brand new tires from a company that just released them at the end of the previous month, and so suddenly, there was a defect, obviously. If you didn’t know that, you might think, “Hmm, there’s something to this. It’s not just a coincidence that, suddenly, there’s all these accidents with exploding tires. There has to be a reason. There must be something to it,” like this. That’s what that means, and that’s how you use it.

1. juju

The next is “juju.” Dan’s talking about buying a mansion overlooking the ocean for a dollar, but it was where many people were murdered. Would you take this?

Of course, joking around, and I say, “No way. I wouldn’t want to live in a house where people got murdered,” but Dan says, “Hey, with the ocean view, that cancels out any bad juju.” What does this mean, juju?

Well, actually, it originally comes from French, joujou, meaning plaything, literally, plaything, but actually, this is, juju is basically a West African traditional spiritual belief system incorporating objects and spells and kind of like witch craft, in a way, but commonly, commonly in English language, if you hear someone say juju, it’s kind of referring to an energy or a feeling.

For example, in this case, this house where many people were murdered may have bad juju. It may have a bad feeling about it, or you may get a bad feeling when you go there, or some kind of bad energy might be there. Juju’s kind of like another way of saying energy or feeling, and it’s related to something unseen. It’s kind of spiritual or ghost-like, something like that. Juju, bad juju. Usually people say bad juju. I suppose you could say good juju, but most people use the collocation bad juju. Maybe you know of some places in your region of the world that have bad juju, like this.

1. Kickstarter

Moving on, “Kickstarter.” Dan says, “We should make a little Kickstarter.” He and I were joking about sending some deep English lessons into space on some gold records, and we were saying, “Wow, wouldn’t that be interesting, sending English lessons to aliens,” and Dan says, “We should make a little Kickstarter.” Some people might be wondering, “What does that mean?”

Well, Kickstarter actually is a website. It’s a website where creative people can go to find money and support to make their ideas a reality. The way it work is most people make a video, they show what they’re trying to do, they ask for money, and they accept donations. If they get enough money, they can actually make their idea into reality. If you have really good ideas on, let’s say starting a business or creating some kind of product or service and you don’t have the money for it, you can make a video. You can put that video on Kickstarter, and many people all over the world will watch it, and if they like your idea, they’ll donate money. That’s a way or raising money, Kickstarter. Check it out. It’s probably kickstarter.com. You’ll have to check. Just Google it, Kickstarter.

1. Fare thee well

Finally, at the very end of our conversation, Dan says goodbye to me by saying, “Fare thee well. Fare thee well.” What does that mean? That’s actually very, very old English. Farewell, you’ve probably heard of that one before, farewell. It just means goodbye. Farewell meaning, “I hope things go well for you in the near future. Please farewell,” but when we use thee, fare thee well, thee is basically just a pronoun. It’s the equivalent of you as in “fare you well,” or “you, farewell.”

This is very, very old, old English. Nobody talks this way these days except maybe Shakespeare actors in a play, so don’t talk like this. People will either not understand you or they’ll think you’ve lost your mind or something like that, you’re a little crazy for speaking that way because it’s just very, very outdated English. Thee, fare thee well.

Ladies and gentlemen, fare thee well. I will say goodbye now. If you have any questions or you want to hear further examples or see further examples of these words and phrases in use, please ask us in the forum, and we’ll be happy to provide you with more explanation. All right, fare thee well, and we’ll talk to you again.