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Daily Inspiration Quote by Dennis Farina

"The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun"

About this Quote

Farina’s line has the offhand, half-shrug charm of an American actor discovering that even the world’s most buttoned-up stereotype comes with its own dirty laundry: slang. The surface meaning is lightweight - Brits have their own casual, coded language the way Americans do - but the intent is to puncture a familiar fantasy. We like to imagine British English as “proper” English, all tea and etiquette; slang is the evidence that it’s lived-in, improvised, and occasionally profane. That small observation carries the bigger, slyer point: no culture gets to claim linguistic purity. Everyone has a back alley behind the museum.

The subtext is also about belonging. Slang is an insider currency; you don’t just learn it from textbooks, you pick it up by proximity, by being around people long enough to catch the jokes. “But it was fun” signals the pleasure of crossing that boundary without pretending to be an expert. Farina isn’t performing reverence for Britishness; he’s enjoying the human reality of it, the same way a traveler enjoys realizing the locals are as unserious and inventive as anyone back home.

Contextually, it fits Farina’s persona: plainspoken, streetwise, allergic to pretension. Coming from an actor associated with cops and tough guys, the remark reads like a modest cultural report from someone who values authenticity over polish. It’s a quick, disarming reminder that language isn’t a monument - it’s a social game, and the fun is learning the rules while hearing them break.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Farina, Dennis. (2026, January 16). The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-have-slang-words-as-we-do-but-it-was-124621/

Chicago Style
Farina, Dennis. "The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-have-slang-words-as-we-do-but-it-was-124621/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-have-slang-words-as-we-do-but-it-was-124621/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

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Dennis Farina (born February 29, 1944) is a Actor from USA.

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