DESC: This self-teaching guide to the colorful world of American slang and idiom is an essential text for nonnative speakers, teachers of English as a second language, or anyone interested in the nuances of colloquial speech. Dialogues, word games, crossword puzzles, word matches, true and false exercises, and other innovative techniques are used to familiarize readers with common terms and illustrate how they are used in a variety of contexts, such as at a restaurant, at the movies, at school, etc. Illustrations of the literal interpretation of each term ("to run a fever" shows a marathon runner on the back of a thermometer) can be used as teaching tools or mnemonic devices.