nihongo wo benkyou shitai

Have you ever heard the expression"Hey, I'll give you a call on the dog and bone" before? Chances are you won't unless you have English friends or an English English teacher. It's probable that Americans won't understand this either. It is quintessentially English. Welcome to Cockney Rhyming Slang.

First used by the working class in London's East End (aka Cockney's), it was developed so that the East Ender's could have conversations without the rich upper classes understanding them. All you do is substitute the word you want to say for a word or phrase that rhymes. For example:

Phone = dog & bone
Plates of meat = feet
Apples & pears = stairs

To make life harder, Cockneys occasionally shorten the slang, so instead of saying 'apples & pears', they'll say 'apples'.

Now, what surprised me is that some of the expressions I use actually come from Cockney Rhyming Slang. For example, "Wow, take a butcher's at that!". "Butcher's" = "butcher's hook" = "look". Get it?

So next time you want to impress your English friends, trying something like:

"I couldn't Adam & Eve it!"
"You should have seen the butcher's on his Chevvy Chase!"
"You've got lovely mine pies"

Honesty, hours of mirth can be had! For more rhyming slang, check out the following link:

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A649.

Christian... (Christian Slater = Later)