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Teenage slang - it's, like, nothing new
Thursday 30 September 2010
Categories: Growing up, Media Influence, Teenagers
Emma Thompson has highlighted many a parents’ moan about their teenagers’ apparent loss of vocabulary, grammar and former eloquence (Daily Mail 28th Sept 2010) but have we really all grown so old that we can’t remember the urge to belong, to be part of the pack?
When we teach our children to speak we treasure their slips on the road to eloquence. My favourites were “nece-celery” (a new vegetable?) and “arfer barfer world so high” (well it made me twinkle). Then we shudder at their first swear word, obviously picked up from an uncouth playmate, never from home!
But once into adolescence, or even before, the current slang permeates their vocabulary. Each decade has its own terminology which makes parents wince and which, if used beyond its sell-by date, gives away the age of the user more accurately than any wrinkles. Mike Myers mined this seam to hilarious effect in his Austen Powers films.
Teenagers are moving away from their parents as they move towards independent adulthood and their peers and their heroes become their dominant influences.
Your daughter will emulate the clothes and the speech of those she wishes to be like or to be friends with. Slang is her shorthand for signalling she wants to belong to the same culture and mindset.She still knows how to speak “properly”, she has simply chosen to adopt different speech patterns for a while. Remember Ali G? A wonderfully funny observation of trying too hard to belong.
When you can’t bear it try gently reminding her of the need for being appropriate so she doesn’t use “street speak” at a job or university interview, tease her remorselessly if you must, and wait for yet another phase to pass.
Absolutely. Just because young people use slang with friends it doesn’t mean they can’t speak differently when they need to. They just need to learn (and parents and schools need to guide them in this) what language is appropriate in which context.
Jill Berry