My new favorite ethnic expressions:

Kvelling To quote the Zenchick: "I was kvelling every time my Yoga instructor said "Good, Betsy!" Although she would point out that it's not correct Yoga to be kvelling. But come on. Don't we all? (Note: Kvelling is the opposite of Kvetching, as in "I took too long getting ready to leave so he's been kvetching all night.")

Woolly Jumper From my dear colleague and friend Esme, who sadly left our office to return to her home of county Tyrone, Ireland. On our way up the elevator to begin a day at the office, we were all wearing sweaters and kvetching about how cold it was, at which point Esme exclaimed: "Everyone's got their woolly jumpers on!" A Sweater! I swear I swooned with delight.

To “be after” an activity From my roommate Irene, another lovely Irish Lassie from County Cork. “Will you be after eating?” It took me several months to break the news to her that I had no idea what she really meant. Does it mean “Will you want to eat” or “Will you already have eaten?” It means the latter.

Dupa Polish for butt. As my dad used to say “Talk about a pain in the dupa.”

Towlie (pronounced towel-ee) Ok, this isn’t ethnic, but I heard this from a quartet of dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkas, which is definitely a culture of its own. Now, the name Towlie comes from one of the first South Park episodes. Towlie was, literally, a walking, talking dish towel who only appeared in that one episode. The last two lines before the credits rolled were:

Eric: “Man, Towlie, you are the lamest character on this show.”
Towlie: (sadly) “I know…”

SO: I was on the subway train, and these 4 enormous, hockey-player looking guys sitting across from me were talking about somebody that they all work with. “I tawked to Bill about it but he’s such a damn towlie, there’s no tawking ta him.” They all chuckled. I did too. One of the guys noticed me giggling. “You eva know somebody like dat?” He asked me, grin on his face from ear to ear. I started asking him about the expression. For them, a “towlie” is a person with no personality, brain, or any defining characteristics. Basically a walking shell of flesh and bone. Of course, the grins and chuckling disappeared when they realized that they were being analyzed by a linguinerd. I felt bad. They were all very cute and seemed like good guys. During the course of the conversation I gradually slid into the New York accent and used a couple of off-color words, and one by one they all started grinning again. I keep forgetting how important it is to blend in while doing dialectal research.