part 2!!!! on our trip to the uk we learned something new: sometimes english isn’t english, even when it’s english. luckily we had our bestie jessie j on hand to translate for us!

on our trip to the uk we learned something new: sometimes english isn’t english, even when it’s english. luckily we had our bestie jessie j on hand to translate for us!

“chin wag is like…we’re having a chin wag now.” - jessie j


“it’s been an electric infectious feel. london just feels like the place to be right now.”

jessie j’s ecstatic about the olympic games taking over her hometown this summer; and she also has some ideas about events to be added to the roster in the future.

“i think it would be who could sing in tune the best whilst running on the spot. ‘cause I do that on stage to keep myself fit. so that maybe could be a good one. domino’s not easy to sing and jump up and down but i can’t help myself.”

the two of us are chatting in the park tower hotel just a day before she’s scheduled to play a concert - sponsored by vitaminwater - at the camden roundhouse, a venue with special meaning to british performers akin to how some artists feel about toronto’s massey hall.

but right now, it’s clear we’ve both got olympic fever and our conversation drifts back to favourite events.

“when I was younger, it was gymnastics because I would spend the whole time watching doing rolly pollies in my living room - i should probably call them forward rolls now - rolly pollies is more fun. but now synchronized swimming blows my mind. basketball i love. and the 100 metres because it’s just like VROOM and they’re done. where did they go!?”

though jessie’s yet to set anything in stone for a possible north american tour, it hasn’t stopped her from exporting her success across the pond with hits like “pricetag,” “domino,” and her latest hit, “laser lights.”

in an effort to bridge the gap between her british fans and those of us who speak a different kind of english, i asked jessie to help translate slang from the streets of london into north american speak. the results were hilarious:

chin wag: “chin wag is like…we’re having a chin wag now. you know you just have a little chin wag with your friends. i’ve got a good chin for wagging.”

gutted: “that’s good in an essex accent because you don’t really get the ‘t’s. that’s like, i’m gutted. i’m disappointed.”

faff: “i love a faff. just faffing around. if you were at home and you needed to leave the house, but you ended up emptying the dishwasher, sorting out things, like faffing. things that aren’t necessary. like this [jessie rearranges the flower vase and vitaminwater bottle on the table.]. i don’t know! when you’re getting ready and you’re constantly like [fidgets with her hair, clothes]. you know. faffing!”**

taking the piss: “i love taking the piss. not literally. i mean i love that saying. because i always say ‘taking the piss out of my life.’ taking the piss is like taking the mickey: someone is taking you for granted or doing something you don’t agree with.”

**note: i ran into man of steel star henry cavill at jessie j’s concert a day after this interview. as we were talking, a asked the british actor if he could define “faffing about” to which he replied very succinctly “to do nothing consciously.”  It cleared up a lot of things, but jessie’s explanation will always be my favourite.

xoxox

joan porter

check out another great joan porter blog post here: http://gvwurl.com/emhp

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