Neville, a 63-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, reveals a light-hearted anecdote on his introduction to American slang:
Uhm, a part of it is that culture thing, that language, the jargon, the street-language. I heard for the first time the word “MF.” Right? How I heard “MF” was that one young man introduced me to, uhm, his friend. And uhm, he said to the — in the course of talking, he said “You are a MF” and I took it literally!… And I-I-I just couldn’t even look at the guy, you know?… When the person left and the next person came up, another person called him the same word. I noticed that when they were using the word, they were smiling! Then I-I asked what that meant, and they said no it’s just an expression, you know. It was one of the things I had to go through, you know. It doesn’t necessarily mean how it sounds.
