Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Ayo, Where You Live At?


BK Girl: Foxy Brown.

Even though I write for a living my wife, at times, speaks better than me. The Brooklyn in me sometimes pops out and says, “Oh! What up? Yo! Over here, b!, etc.” But hey I can’t help it. I write better than I speak and such is the case for a lot scribes. Even my ol’ college professor, Juan Gonzalez (NY Daily News columnist), is a killer with the pen but silent without it.

Which brings me to the following incident; my wife and I took my pops to the doctor for a check-up. After he meets with the doctor we speak to the receptionist to get info regarding specialists. The girl goes, “Where he live at?” My wife goes, “Excuse me what?” The girl again goes, “Where he live at?” I say, “A couple of blocks from here.” Only later does my wife tell me that she purposely asked what she said because she said it incorrectly. I didn’t see the difference. You see, the girl and I were speaking Brooklynese and my wife is an outsider aka Queens Girl. Is there some slang you use that confuses others, yo?

Uno,

Jesús

4 comments:

Adriana Azalia Guzman said...

Yva you go!! Show off that P.S.99 edumacation!!! I don't think that slang or spanglish should be given the green light just because we're in NY. Born & raised in Brooklyn or as a new arrival to the city, make an effort! Now if you're with your peeps and that's how you do, go for it, but be professional at your job, I wouldn't take my doctor seriously if she asked "where it hurt at?"

Carl Chery said...

Come on, man! You dunn know, that wasn't foreign slang to Queens. But me and you have had that conversation before. You have to tone it down in certain settings. I slang the hell out of my words with the homies, but in professional settings, not so much. When I go back to Canada, me and my homies mix creole, french and english in our slang. Even the Haitian girls don't get it.

Curly Sue said...

Hilarious! Yeah in an office setting that is nagl.com. I get crazy looks when I use Bronx slang sometimes (i.e. wet=drunk). Didn't realize slang was borough specific but I guess it is.

MC said...

hilarious! I can't picture wifey getting semi-stank on anyone, but I take your word for it.

The only thing I can think of as far as hood-specific slang goes about my area is how we say "three fifth" or "three eight" when we refer to the blocks we live on, even though they really are 135 and 138; we drop the first number but if you're from the block, you know what it means.