American Spoken Here

American Spoken Here (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Passing Parade short looks at American slang and asks whether it's good or bad. We get to hear where certain slang terms came from and these include "Fink", " mind your P's and Q's", "kick the bucket" and "I don't give a damn". It's funny to see how much new slang is around to day and I'm sure the debate on if it's good or not would be just as strong today as it was back when this film was released. I thought this was a pretty good short that tells several interesting stories as to where these terms came from. Perhaps someone who already knew this stuff would find this boring but it was new to me. I really enjoyed the "Fink" story, which of course is a man who is mean enough that he'd kill his best friend. The western settings were nicely done and the shooting contest had some nice drama.

I rather liked this short, as it explores the origins of several American slang phrases, using small scenes to explicate the stories. It zips along quite nicely, and dramatizes well. BUT...the conclusions are not to be trusted!

There is doubt about at least one of their solutions: "mind your Ps and Qs" has several different explanations than the one presented in this film. The one I most clearly recall is that it comes from a warning to apprentice printers, back when they had to lay the type by hand (and thus look at it backwards): Ps and Qs were easy to confuse. Thus the admonition.

Neither story is open to confirmation of course, like many of these things.

But that is beside the point perhaps: the little film is charming and cleanly presented, and - at the very least - shows an interest, if not in absolute accuracy, in the origins of language. A pleasant watch.

James Nesbitt offers some common slang or phrase and some speculation on their origins.

Of course, he doesn't offer them as speculation, but as fact, often with supporting stories. Some of them might be true, in whole or in part -- "I don't give a tinker's damn" might have arisen because of the little dams that tinkers used in repairing pans, but I expect that the other use of "damn" contributed to its popularity over the centuries. Likewise, the story he offers for the origins of "fink" is simply not true.

It is entertaining, though, as are the other origins he offers. I guess that's more than good enough for the passing parade.

One of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade, this is about one of the facets of the American language: slang. Next to English the most spoken language and often considered the richest language on earth. This leads to the controversy if slang is good or bad. Many scholars studied the history of slang.

In this short it's about the history of slang. Each word has it's own story. The stories are about expressions like 'Watch your P's and Q's', 'I don't give a d...', 'He kicked the bucked', 'Pin money', 'Taking a Brodie' and 'Fink'. Very nice!