Fake news: "English slang' 'outrages purists' in Japan

[Taro Toporific]

Fake news: "English slang' 'outrages purists' in Japan. This reporter sure got suckered. As if anybody in Japan hasn't seen a English slang book: Sheesh.

"Slangman" outrages purists by promoting English slang in Japan
Wed Aug 6, 9:58 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US language fanatic has got linguistic purists hot under the collar by launching a drive to teach Japanese people planning to visit the United States the intricacies of slang....Burke, who dubs himself "Slangman"....|formal English simply doesn't cut it," he said.
"Try saying to a non-native speaker of English who isn't familiar with our everyday expressions, 'Get me a pizza ... and step on it!' When it arrives, you may want to think twice about eating it," he said.

[Crispy]

I see lots of English learning books for Japanese that have slang and idioms in them (I was helping some classmates in Japan study idioms for their TOEFLs), what makes this guy special?

[Taro Toporific]

I see lots of English learning books for Japanese that have slang and idioms in them, what makes this guy special?

Bribe and blow job to the APF news editor, I guess
August dog days for news...

[Steve Bildermann]

I keep telling ya - its the heat

[Big Booger]

This is lame..

The slang he is teaching sounds like 1950s "Leave it to Beaver" slang LOL

Step on it? licked? Give me a break.

[Naniwan Kid]

I like that show

Eigo ShiraNAITO.

The other week they were talking about "Hello".

How often to Americans say "Hello"?

Never.

But I say it in Japan. "Haroo"

It really hit me.

[kotatsuneko]

well, seeing as 9 /10 gaijin on tv make the rest of us look like freaks or wankers its hardly suprising that opportunist attracted some bile...

only decent gaijin on tv is thane, everyone else sucks!

[Taro Toporific]

... his radio show on Voice of America is awesome!! ...

OK, I gave Slangman a listen here on VOA: "July 17, 2003 - Slangman: Names Used in Slang and at slangman.com.

Slangman: Power Slang --VOA February 18, 2001
[Webcast] MUSIC: "The Power"/Snap

We've been following news of the... energy crisis, and since we have a slang expert on the scene with energy to spare, we challenged him to generate some energy-related slang.

... [Slangman] BURKE:We have an expression, what is that if someone is crazy?"

[ESL learner] ARDITTI: "Oh yeah ... "

BURKE: "'The lights are on, but nobody's home.' (laughter) We wouldn't want that to happen, that's a really bad one."

[ESL learner] SKIRBLE: "You're not really aware of what's going on."

BURKE: "Also, if the lights aren't working very well because of the electricity, it's a blackout. A blackout is where all the lights go off. In fact, if a person has too much to drink, they could experience a blackout also, which means fainting.

"And, if all of a sudden you have a power outage as the elevator is going up, well, you could say this about someone: 'The elevator doesn't go quite up to the top,' which means that person isn't really very intelligent."...