[Music] thank you [Music] hey hello and welcome to this episode of learn everyday English your roadway to English proficiency glad to have you with me today I'm back in the studio as you can see not outside or giving you a tour of our garden and herbs I have I think going to be an interesting video for you but before I jump into that or get into that uh you know there's three things that you can do for me one hey like the video number two subscribe to the channel and three tell your friends about it
so that they can benefit from these videos too just like you okay um this is going to be the topic that we're going to be discussing today and I've gotten comments from a lot of people and they tell me they have a difficult time maybe understanding uh African-American people here in the United States and like when they talk they use different words Expressions just the way they talk the manner and how they talk is kind of difficult to understand so I'm going to talk about that a little bit then I'm going to do a little
skit a skit is like a you can see like a short play where people are acting and um you know performing so I'm going to have two characters that are going to be talking having a real short or brief conversation but we're going to be using uh a lot of slang words expressions and mannerisms and see if you can understand uh what they're talking about then I'm gonna go back and uh unpack that as we say unpack that and kind of take everything out explain it to you and make it clear if you saw my
short the other day I'm gonna break it down for you break it down for you so that you can understand it and in the details of what we're going to be talking about but a lot of African-American people um speak or use what's called and there's a term here in the United States called ebonics ebonics I'm going to read some notes here for you briefly I don't know if you've heard that term before ebonics but it's kind of like a blending of the word ebony you know Ebony is a type of wood that's very dark
or black and phonics is like uh has to do with the speaking and dictation so it's a a blend or combination of Ebony and phonics to get the word ebonics and it's kind of used to describe how African-American people talk here in the United States there's some other um ways that they designate this type of speech sometimes you might hear the phrase African-American vernacular English or aave sometimes it's also called African-American English black English black vernacular vernacular is just like speech type of speech or even black English vernacular Bev so it's a type of variety
a dialect you could say of the American English language uh let's see what else it's a it's cast some similarity to Common Southern American English that I've talked to you before the that my here might speak here in Texas Southern accent but it's a little bit different but it does have some similarities uh with the southern American English and its accent but it's a variety spoken by like I said many blacks here in the United States they use a lot of slaying words expressions and you might be familiar with these because uh if you like
to listen to rap music and a lot of the wrappers are the people people that uh perform rap music are called rappers they use a lot of this type of speech you know what I'm saying yeah you know what I'm saying that's just an expression you hear a lot you know what I'm saying uh when people are talking and try to explain something it's can be a little bit hard to understand you know what I'm saying but yeah they say that a lot you know what I'm saying that expression you know what I'm saying which
mine's like hey do you understand me or that's right right kind of yeah you know what I'm saying I'm not going to be talking about that expression today in my skit but uh see what you think and we'll break it down for you all right let's get into the skit and it's going to be uh two guys that are talking to each other over the phone one guy is hey yo what's up homie hey not much dog yeah it's it's been a while man uh what you been up to oh not much man you know
uh same old same old uh I was off for a few days but I'm back to the Grind now yeah I feel you man I feel you hey uh I called to invite you uh over to the crib on Saturday to crash with some of the boys uh gonna throw uh some yard bird on the Queue and we can knock back some brewskies uh let me know if you're down for that hey yeah uh that sounds good to me bro hey Count Me In what time you are kicking things off around 5 p.m or so
but hey get here when you get here okay it'll be uh good to catch up with you be good to catch up yeah man it'll be like old times thanks for the invite holler at you later so uh what did you think about that conversation I still got my cool hat on from when I'm talking and uh did you understand what they were saying going back and forth on the telephone call I use a lot of um Expressions maybe you're not aware of or haven't heard of before so uh what I'm gonna do I'm gonna
break it down for you I'm going to explain it to you so hopefully you'll understand what they were talking about so let's go the first guy called and he said yo what's up homie yo what's up homie yo means like hey hello homie is like you know a friend so you say hey yo what's up homie and the second guy his friend says uh not much dog not much dog dog is just another word that uh guys use to uh to talk call to each other kind of like in a friendly way homey dog say
hey what's up pal what's up friend kind of thing so then the first guy says it's been a while man and that's very common people will use hey man what's up man yeah you know man I went down to the store and I saw my friend and you know man he was he was uh been a long time no see so man is people just throw that in there a lot when they speak in English and he says what you've been doing what you've been doing like what have you been doing but instead of saying
what have you been doing or what have you been doing they say what you been doing what you've been doing so this is fast you can see what you've been doing and then these other guys said hey not much man so he replied with man back not much man the same old same old the same old same old means the same old thing like I'm doing nothing new doing the same thing all the time and then he says I was off for a few days but I'm back to the Grind I'm back to the Grind
the grind is uh when you have to go to work like something never ending work that you gotta do is kind of like we say drudgery it's like something that's uh a lot of work a lot of effort that you have to keep doing continually or continuously over and over again we call that the grind which means hey I just got to go back to work again you know then the first guy says yeah I feel you I feel you which means I understand I I can feel I can relate to what you're going through
because I have to do the same thing too I feel you and he says I call to you to invite you over to the crib on Saturday the crib is just another word for like my house the crib the crib can also be you know place where little babies sleep but here crib is just my the house or apartment the place where you live to crash with some of the boys to crash with some of the boys crash kind of means just to hang out to do sometimes you might hear to kick it to kick
it just sit on the couch hang out talk watch a football game or some sports event eat and drinks that's the crash or to to crash and he says I'm gonna throw some yard bird on the queue yard bird is just another word for a name for chicken or chicken so he's going to put some chickens he says on the Queue the queue is short for barbecue actually barbecue grill so he he's just saying hey I'm on a grill or barbecue some chicken so I'm gonna throw some yard bird on the queue and we can
knock back some brewskis to knock back means like to to drink to drink to knock back some brewskies is beer so we're gonna hey drink some beer hey let me know if you're down for that let me know if you're down for that that means let me know if you're up or I would say up for that it's the same thing which means let me know if you're cool with that let me know if that's something you want to do you'll be able to come over and join us with us as that means are you
down for it are you in on it are you okay with doing that that means are you down for that then his friend says hey that sounds good to me bro bro it's just short for brother brother that's another like a term of endearment friends say hey bro what's up hey bro what's up man hey he says Count Me In count me in that means yeah include me include me I'm I'm gonna be part of the uh the group on Saturday hey what time you and he says what time you kicking things off kicking things
off means what time are you starting what time are you starting the get together or The Party The Gathering and then his friend says oh around 5 p.m or so or so means kind of more or less around five hey but just get here when you get here just get here when you get here means like hey no rush whenever whenever you get here whenever you can get here that's fine you know and then he says then his friend replies and says yeah it'll be like old times it'll be like old times like we back
in the day when we used to see each other more often get together we can kind of Reminisce kind of remember it'll be like with times in we used to have in the past he says holla at you later holla at you later holler doesn't mean like to holler can mean to shout or to scream and talk loud but Holly can mean hey I'm just I'll call you back or I'll talk to you later hey I'll holler at you later I'll give you a buzz sometimes we say I'll give you a buzz later that means
I'll call you later or I'll holler at you later I'll talk to you later or call you later so that's what that conversation meant so is it clear for you now did I break it down for you where you can understand that you might want to go back and listen to the uh conversation again but I'll uh read through it continually one more time and see if you can understand yo what's up homie uh not much dog hey it's been a while man what you been up to not much man the same old same old
I was off for a few days but I'm back to the Grind yeah I feel you hey I called to invite you over to the crib on Saturday to crash with some of the boys I want to throw some yard bird on the Queue and we can knock back some brewskis let me know if you're down for that hey that sounds good to me bro Count Me In what time you kicking things off oh around 5 p.m or so just get here when you get here hey it'll be good to catch up yeah it'll be
like old times hey thanks for the invite holla at you later so is that clear now what did you think about this uh the skit kind of this episode this conversation of two homies talking on the phone to each other have you heard this type of speech or conversation before do you find it confusing or you like it hey let me know what you think in the comments I think that's it for this video I want to make it a little bit short but again this is talking about Ebonics like African-American vernacular or speech and
I have a sheet here which has a lot of phrases and words uh about ebonics so I'll be throwing those out at you throwing those out at you periodically to expose you to that because like I said a lot of people have told me hey I got uh problems or difficulty you know understanding certain types of English in American English and especially African-American people when they speak so uh hopefully this will help help with some of that but from what I've learned as you know uh studying Spanish it just takes practice your ear has to
become tuned to hearing certain accents and phrases and how people speak for example I'll leave you with this I'll leave you with this means like I'll close or end with this yeah I have a difficult problem in learning Spanish and understanding Spanish people uh from Spain not because how they speak it's because they speak very fast I have a difficulty sometimes understanding people from the Caribbean uh from Puerto Rico a Republica Dominicana ikuba okay they have a different kind of accent they can also speak fast maybe they have a different way of speaking and they
use a lot of different words expressions moreismos so I have the same problem or issue in Spanish that you do in English so it's a universal problem it's a universal problem but don't get discouraged because learning a language is a lifetime Endeavor lifetime Endeavor like a lifetime thing that you do that you have to work at as expression says Rome wasn't built in a day so you're not going to learn English you know overnight or in three months like a lot of people say or even a year may take you two three four five six
years now I've been learning Spanish now between five and six years and I'm gonna point now I feel pretty comfortable and I had a breakthrough the other day where I was listening to some uh three gentlemen on a kind of uh interview show they were from the Republica Dominicana and I was listening to them and I realized hey I can understand most of what they're saying where before I struggled with that so it's like a light will go off and you'll realize I am improving it may be slow but you're realizing it so just keep
up the hard work keep up the good work keep uh listening to podcasts watching videos like this maybe Reading Writing anything that you can do accumulates and it adds up and it will help you on your English language Journey so again that's it for today I hope I didn't Ramble On and On too much but remember three things you can do for me like the video subscribe to the channel and tell your friends about it so that's it for uh today have a good day week wherever you are and thanks for watching this episode of
learn everyday English talk to you later hey goodbye
