If you’re paying attention during your visit, or if you have friends who are California natives, you might notice we have quirky California slang that you rarely hear out of anyone else’s mouth aside from a Californian.  I’m going to share a few with you in this post.

Bay Area Slang

“Hella” cracks me up almost every time I’m up in the Bay Area.  Including college, I’ve lived there close to 10 years and the first time I heard hella, I didn’t really register. Most likely it was because I simply didn’t care to notice.  You know, young, dumb and focused on other random stuff.  Or more simply, I was in the midst of a crazy diverse bunch of students.  And nobody, least of all me, had time to pick out a uniquely Bay Area form of speech.  But moving away from Berkeley and returning later, I picked up on hella folks saying hella.  It really is a Bay Area thing.  You don’t hear it in So Cal and when you do, you figure, ah, that person must be from the Bay Area.  Hella wouldn’t naturally come out of my mouth.  It would just seem weird.  

So Cal Slang

But I’m from the Los Angeles area.  And here we say, “the”…

To this day I say it.  I remember a friend of mine, not from California, gave me a blank look one time and asked, why do you put “the” in front of the freeway number?  Uh…because that’s what it is?  The 405.  The 110.  Then I realized other folks just say the number.  Including Bay Area folks.  It’s rare to hear someone from the Bay Area say, the 580.  They’ll simply say, take 580 to 13 into Berkeley.  I’d have to look back and see if I type it that way, but I definitely say it with the.  It’s awkward to leave it out.  I would feel like I’m not giving you an incomplete sentence or something.

2 More Quirky

And here are 2 more that I realize are truly a California thing…

• June gloom:  We’ve got lots of sunshine in California, but for some reason, June is a gloomy month (well, unless climate change throws this completely out of whack).  The sun will eventually come out during the day, but it takes a while to warm up and do its thing to burn off the fog.  Maybe mother nature is giving us a chill period before we get blasted with the summer heat.  Keep this in mind if you want to do a beach day in June.  Aim for the afternoon.
• The Santa Anas (in LA basin), Diablo (Bay Area).  We have these crazy strong winds that blow from east to west making things hot, dry and uncomfortable.  Depending on how strong they are, it can be dangerous to drive and loss of power can be a problem.  Usually it’s in the fall, but can honestly happen any time of the year.  This somewhat explains why folks say September/October is the best time to visit San Francisco.  The Diablo blows the fog back out to sea and it’s a little warmer in the city.

I’m sure you’ll notice other quirky California slang or phrases.  Let me know which one’s caught your attention.

Until next time…

May the road rise to meet you and the wind be at your back