Bad English from Los Angeles: Coulda Shoulda Woulda Koeda and I practiced speaking today, and we started to talk about how it can be difficult to understand colloquial speech. I mentioned how it can be hard for me to understand British dramas (I'm from Los Angeles, California) and he mentioned how it can be difficult to understand Okinawan dialect. Even though we might have the same native language, region can also play a part in understanding someone else's speech. Whether it's because of slang, colloquialisms, or accent, it can be hard to understand someone from another region. Being from LA, I have definitely learned a lot of slang, and my speech can be difficult for others to understand. My conversation with Koeda reminded me of something my mom used to say when I was younger: "shoulda coulda woulda". For non-native speakers and people from other regions, this might look like 'bad English'. Personally, I like how it illustrates our accent. We take our grammatical contractions to a whole new level! Should have > Should've > Shoulda Could have > Could've > Coulda Would have > Would've > Woulda Colloquially, this phrase was used to say that someone was supposed to do something, but did not do it, and now they have caused problems for themselves by not doing that thing. Ex. 1. "She shoulda coulda woulda saved for retirement, but instead she went on went on vacation every year, and now she has no money left for retirement." Ex. 2. "He shoulda coulda woulda gone home after the first couple of shots, but he stayed at the bar until 3am and woke up the next afternoon with a horrible headache." In my experience, this is not a very nice thing to say, and it is usually used to say someone was irresponsible. However, I thought it was a little bit funny and an interesting example of English that is difficult to understand. Hope you enjoyed reading!