Internet Activities Unit 5: Speaking of Gender . . .   Use the Web to learn about slang from around the world. English is spoken all over the world by hundreds of millions of people. People from different places use English differently. Pronunciation and vocabulary may change from place to place. Slang expressions are yet another language difference. Slang is very informal, playful language that can be difficult to learn because it changes very often. Go to one of the websites shown below and search for five new slang expressions. http://www.slanguage.com/ http://www.manythings.org/slang/slang1.html http://www.koalanet.com/australian-slang.html#top http://www.nz.com/NZ/Culture/NZDic.html Tell where the slang expressions come from (what country). Write your own sentence for each slang expression. Try to guess the origin of the expression. For example: In Wales, a wife might call her husband her "old man. " The origin of this expression might be the fact that he has been her husband for a long time, like when we have a shirt for a long time, we might call it an "old shirt." She might also call him her "pot and pan." The origin of this expression might be that it rhymes with "man," and that her husband is as familiar to her as the pot and pan she uses to cook his dinner every night. Click here to go to student handout for this exercise.