hello David welcome to the show how are you today Liz is so great to be with you if you're here from
a warm L.A finally after all the rain we had oh my gosh setting that warm weather to me here in
Colorado guys I'm so excited today David to introduce you to our audience are all there's
English listeners guys we on the show today we have David Burke he is the slang man on Voice of
America has been that for the last six years where he's been helping 300 million listeners around the
world understand every day slang he's also the author of Street speak and Biz speak these are
a series of books on popular American idioms and slang David your base in La is that right
yeah I was born here also on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood so this is a real Hollywood accent this
is it you were right in the center of Hollywood I love it you were also a star on the TV show hey
wordy which is a show that introduces children to the world of language and culture it through
music and animation and as I see you on video this episode is on YouTube and our podcast I can see
your enthusiasm and just joy in teaching and being an educator and being an observer of languages am
I getting that right it's like what you said when we were having a conversation before we
started it's all about breaking down the barriers of communication and getting people to connect its
connection so we come from the same mindset and the same heart set so absolutely 100 I love it and
I can tell it's so genuine so tell me a little bit David you know why did you decide to to vote your
CR to go ahead and devote your entire career to slang what is it about slang that is so important
in your mind tell us is there an origin story was there a moment for you where you said that
this really matters oh yeah absolutely when I was living in France I grew up speaking French because
of my father my my parents are from Europe so there were seven languages spoken in our household
which is pretty normal in Europe yeah so French was the one that my father really loved so when
I went to France to live with the French family I thought I'm going to show off everybody will be so
impressed with my French and they could understand me just fine I was speaking Academic School book
French but when they turned to each other in the family and had conversations and I'm sitting like
at the dinner table I couldn't understand a word nothing it was a completely different language and
it was like full of contractions and reductions so I I told people at the table wait wait stop
what does that mean what does this mean what does that mean so I started writing things down on my
arm I didn't have any paper with me I didn't want to miss a word so I kept writing things down and
then making a list for myself and it wasn't until I got back to the United States when I was working
out with a French friend of mine named Pascal someone came up to said hey Pascal what's up
and my friend Pascal looked up at the ceiling and started to check it out and I said no no that's
just slang and then his friend went on to say so Pascal did you hear how the Italian soccer team
licked the French team oh my God's mouth dropped open and I thought what oh no no Pascal wait it
means to beat someone it's slang so yeah that was at that moment when I realized I was lost
in France because I didn't know slang he's lost here and let's get those barriers down and really
back to connection yeah you know what strikes me about your story and because it's so genuine is
that all of these things happen around other human beings right so it's all about people right and so
for our listeners for you guys I want to encourage you to find those moments in your life where you
realize this really matters right this is how we devote our entire heart to learning this language
and connecting with that human being in front of us so then absolutely I love it David thanks for
sharing that and that's a similar experiences too I know how it feels when you're you're abroad and
they're having that conversation and you were on the outside right nothing feels more isolating
exactly it feels so lonely and especially imagine ESL students who've taken English for the past
five years ten years they come here and we say something for example like this I remember saying
something to two girls from Brazil they spoke English since they were five years old they asked
me a question and I said this Lindsay and mainly only native speakers understand this I said uh
they had no idea what I had just said and I and they said what was that I didn't even know what
they meant because it's so natural to us because I do not know you know is I don't know but there's a
music that comes with I don't know so we just say uh yeah so yeah and this is really what
we're missing a lot of times when we've studied English in school in textbooks in our education
system is just what we're missing it is the gaps so then let's expand this out because a lot of
our listeners David are looking to improve their English for their workplace right for the work
they've come to the right place companies and they need this why does it matter even more in business
if you make a mistake in slang in normal conversation okay it's just a mistake
that's all it's not going to cost you in fact I don't know if you remember this years and years
ago Warner Brothers that created Bugs Bunny they had stores all around the United States
and they had a meeting with one of their manufacturers in these stores you could
buy memorabilia objects like The Bugs Bunny statue or oh right Porky the Pig piggy bank sure so they
told their Japanese Partners manufacturers were going to shelve the project so the Japanese people
they bowed went back to Japan to create millions of dollars worth of products to be put onto the
shelves of the stores they didn't understand that was an idiom to shelve a project doesn't mean to
put it on the Shelf it means to we are done we are ending it so that's why in business it can be
a huge huge expensive mistake wow that could be a case study in Harvard Business review and there's
thousands of others and so we need to be on top of this so in that sense that's why we had you on
today David is to get into the business slang you know slang changes every single year so what do
you have for us today what can you tell us about slaying expressions in business that maybe were
hot in 2020 2021 but are going out the door into 2023 what do we need to know about what's changing
every day where do we start it's so interesting and you're right it changes some changes every
year some doesn't change right there's certain words will never change I I know like people
always ask me what word has not changed at all there's only one the word cool because no one's
going to touch a word that's cool like cool is right it would be uncool to touch cool okay so
I'm going to ask you this Lindsay I'm gonna I'm gonna test my hand here David here we go I'm
ready okay we're on the air and I'm gonna test you so tell me are these business slang terms
banished are they gone or are they back here's one to run something up the flagpole that was
actually big in 2022 was it really oh my gosh to run it up the flagpole let's run let's run
it up the flagpole 250 chance on this I'm going to take a chance and say it's still it's still
sticking around if it had to come back in 2022 maybe it's still around in 2023 am I wrong you
know what you actually are right and it means to to talk about it let's run it up to flagpole and
discuss it so that's good you got it and does it also mean into I was thinking it meant to
um bring it up the organization like into higher levels is that not true is that not what that
means it means either bring it up in conversation let's talk about it or let's run it up the uh up
the flagpole like you said up different levels of the organization to see at what point will
it stick or get okay shelved okay so one of our so for our listeners today you know your first
your first takeaway write this one down right run it up the flagpole or let's is that how we
would say it David let's run it up the flagpole let's run it up the flagpole okay that one is
relevant good and you're good to go that's good in marketing slang in particular that's kind of the
category of business that would be in now here's one that's General General business line okay okay
uh Lindsay I'll Circle back with you later to Circle back so this one I am so tired of this
one I'm exhausted and I think the world is I'm gonna say this one is going out the window you're
right you're absolutely right I was actually surprised because how else would we say I'll
Circle back I guess I'll just touch base with you later which comes from Sports I'll touch base with
you later that's actually more popular now okay so Circle back so do you think that this is an
example of a word that's hit a wall where people have just said it so much it's become a cliche
and we roll our eyes when we say it is that what happened to that expression or what happened to
it exactly it's overused now so but here's what's so interesting to me it depends on who you speak
with and in what state because sometimes there'll be an expression uh that that will be considered
okay there's a teen word bae b-a-e before anyone else oh You Are My Bae well there are some
teens out there who will say oh Bae is so old and others are saying no what I still use it so
sometimes it just kind of depends but there are all sorts of polls that are taken all the time
by Publishers I always ask always on social media is this back or banished and I get it right from
the horse's mouth as they say and slang right from the people who use it so yeah there is one
I think is I I I'm going to give this one away okay bandwidth I don't have the bandwidth to do
that right now bandwidth so what do we think about this one David is this also going the
way of just overuse or is this yeah also okay you know what I think about this one I wonder if this
is because we've all just with with the pandemic we're just exhausted like emotionally exhausted
we've been through a lot with having kids at home and everything and this idea of bandwidth we just
talked about it so much do you think that's what it is maybe I am sure it is everyone's
exhausted and when someone says something that doesn't you use the word earlier which I
I always appreciate I said something and you said well that's very authentic yeah
some words if you overuse them don't sound authentic anymore it's like I've heard that
word it's not your word it's not coming from your heart it's coming from your brain right
I'm over it so I think it's we want authentic you and I talk about connection and connect
you've got to be authentic in some of these words like okay here's the last one for you on back or
banished okay I'm ready oh I just know you're gonna have a reaction to this one foreign ergy
oh my gosh no banished please tell me right yes oh thank God thank you Synergy and that's considered
what we call a port Monto which is two words that make up one word like lunch like like let's bring
that together by the way for our listeners what are those two words it is um uh energy and uh
oh I just blanked what uh oh synchronization so synchronization so we are in sync we are in sync
with our energy I can't believe I forgot that for a second I was thinking of another Port Montreal
like brunch lunch and breakfast I say I went right to the food and forgot what synergyman
I guess it's close to lunchtime and then we have other business terms that are now just starting
out in 2023 that are getting more and more popular so let's see if you know what these are let's get
a few of these for our listeners so Guys these are the ones that you're going to want to write down
um and go ahead and you know start using these so what's the first one David that is good to go for
2023. this has become so popular quiet quitting oh my gosh we've talked about this a lot of you guys
have heard about this but I'm glad you mentioned it because that validates this topic more than
just a word right it's a whole concept that we're exploring a movement a societal shift right David
yeah absolutely it's a movement quiet quitting just okay you quit without telling the boss you
just don't come back are they are they talking about this with their co-workers in the workplace
or where is the word coming up is it more in the news what do you think what's your sense I I think
it's just the movement I don't think the movement people actually use it but they they might say I
am part of the movement of quiet quitting what do you mean well I decided when I was home
during the pandemic and I had to work remotely I just stayed there yeah in fact and which leads
me to another word speaking of remote have you heard of this one this is really new lean remote
oh so I've certainly heard the word lean in the context of startups lean startups lean Innovation
and then lean remote I'm curious what that means what does that expression mean I've been reading
about it more and more this month it's just starting to Bubble Up So lean remote means you
work from home remote but you sometimes go into the office a lean remote okay remote so you're
not totally remote you haven't made the total jump you haven't made the commitment 100 right but yeah
lean remote I'm gonna work from home but a little bit at the office this is very very applicable to
a post-pandemic world right now for our listeners guys all over the world this is this is it I bet a
lot of our listeners do they are on this schedule right they know the FaceTime at the office a few
times a week but not every single day we know that's not always the best place to get our work
done so lean remote I love it that's exactly what the concept is you get more work done in person
well the last one and you kind of alluded to it in a direction yeah look what we're doing right now
yeah we are on zoom zoom fatigue Zoom fatigue oh of course that's the thing Zoom fatigue yeah
I love it but you know it's interesting because I actually find this okay and it depends who you're
talking to of course but I find this oh okay I mean sure I'd rather be right there next to you
talking yeah but next best thing I don't I haven't experienced the zoom fatigue yet right right so
I'm still good yeah I mean I think you know what we what we get to do I don't know what your work
day looks like David so I'll speak for myself but when I'm on the video I'm podcasting I'm
in my zone of Genius I love it right but a lot of people I think when they talk about Zoom fatigue
they're on meetings where maybe they're not even participating they're just having to be there to
show I didn't even see you and I come from the same place when I think of Zoom I'm thinking yes
fun yeah right performance we're helping people understand our our world our words taking down
this barrier so it's fun and we get to connect with people I didn't even think of it of course
when you're in a serious meeting yeah it could be fatigue it can get exhausting eight means a
day and then you don't actually necessarily have the time to get your actual work done so let's
just review these David what are the three or four that you mentioned in the beginning just so
our listeners can write them down to know not to use those ones that are going out the window for
2023 what was that first one just really okay so again uh one was which is good to to run something
up the flagpole okay and that's still good right that's still good so good okay under the cabinet
we have marketing business line okay to Circle back yes and that one we are tired of correct
we're tired of that that you that doesn't mean you're not going to hear it yeah yeah you know
some people will still use it but you may hear let's touch base later on I think that's kind
of a better replacement better yeah a little more visual bandwidth bandwidth you're funny we
both have that grown yeah bandwidth uh that's that's you may not hear that so much anymore
um and Synergy and Synergy being in sync and energy this is energy Synergy this one feels
especially old to me this feels like more of a 90s term almost.com boom term kind of I mean
if I said to you if I said to you Lindsay we have good Synergy together wouldn't you feel like well
that wasn't from the heart that doesn't just feel good it's just a corporate speak word it is just
a word we have good Synergy but you could say it in more real ways right yeah we really connect
really yeah or or some people would say We Vibe or philosophically you're like-minded that kind
of thing yeah right right more interesting things we can say and that's the problem with some of
these buzzwords in the corporate world is that yeah we don't seem authentic when we use them
because they've been said so many times exactly right and the new ones yeah the new ones again
one more time for our listeners to write them down so okay quiet quitting okay that's a really good
new one quiet quitting that's a big movement and then we have oh lean remote we are going to be
reading about that more and more lean remote and then finally Zoom fatigue which luckily you and
I haven't experienced yet but a lot of people have they have experienced Zoom fatigue they're
tired of it yeah we all want to get back face to face of course sure sure yeah it's incredible how
much this world event has changed our language you know I see I see the pandemic all over this what
we've been through in the last couple of years has just changed the way we speak and what words come
and go David this is fantastic and fascinating you know I wonder if we could talk about it all
day yeah we could keep going but our episodes are somewhat short here so we're gonna wrap it
up for today but tell our listeners where they could find you online and what you're working
on because I bet they want to hear more from you oh well I appreciate that yeah you can find me at
www.slangman.com I've got lots of fun free stuff for you and my books on slang and idioms and
you can also click into my new podcast called slinging the slang which is all about slang all
about idioms what we are all saying today and we also like to explore what we used to say all the
shifts and how things change so it's all about slang go there you'll learn everything you've
ever wanted to about slang the way Lindsay and I speak we are native speakers of English and this
is just how we all speak without even realizing it even Lindsay just said we're going to wrap it
up right that's a great idiom that means to end it we use slang without even realizing it I love it
so good and give us that URL one more time David just so our listeners can type that right into
their browsers what is your url one more time it's slang man s like Sam l-a-n-g-m-a-n like Superman
but slang man.com I love it and I love that you're starting a new podcast so we're excited
to hear more about that yeah I'm so excited and I hope you'll join us on there I would love to have
you as a guest would that be a thrill thank you David I'd love to do that I invite you here and
now thank you wonderful well thank you so much for coming on Oliver's English today it's been
a great conversation and super useful for our listeners my pleasure in that corporate world
thank you you've got it thanks so much bye foreign [Music]