"You get me? Bredrin? Brudda? We speak in slang like this"
I decided against posting this in the random thoughts of the day because I didn't want to, basically. Don't you love gramatical incorrectness. As it is a post about slang I feel I can whatever and however I like to prove my point. Like I could of tried to display my poshness to help those who only want things written correctly, except that wouldn't be any fun innit. Appreciate that I boverd to use apostrophe's
Anyway to the point, slang. This post was inspired by a bunch of 70s babies discussing their dislike for slang on last week's Bloggers Delight (yeah that's my team!).
FinalOct6th by nicolette
As I wasn't on that panel this is my space (no MySpace) to act like I was. Some people don't mind it, many hate it and that's cool. I think I'm in the minority that actually love it! I love keeping up with the latest slang words to throw into everyday conversations with my peers. It feels like a freedom of expression and one that me, my generation and culture can say is us/ours. Whether the words are inherited from Jamaica, USA, cockney or wherever (I'm sure they come from the three I named bar a few words), they're what we use. We meaning my generation/culture in London.
Some of those on the panel think its immature and I've heard that argument from others too. In fact, I just remembered I had this conversation with my bredrins the other day. I wholeheartedly disagree with that. At the end of the day speaking is verbal communication, communication is all about being understood. If I'm speaking slang to someone that understands it what's the problem? If you can conduct yourself correctly to people that don't understand slang then, again I ask, what's the problem? Age isn't nor should it be an issue. There's a time and place for everything. Know when to "(hop up out the beehhhhhhddd) turn your slang on" and off.
My opinion may stem from the fact my parents are Jamaican, I go to Jamaica every year and each time there are new words/phrases in Jamaican patois. Slang changes all the time, similar to fashion in a sense. Slang isn't as bad as people make out either, look how many slang word make it into the Oxford dictionary? Bling-bling is in the dictionary now. Once upon a time it was slang popularised/created by rappers Cash Money, now it's cool for middle-aged white women on fashion shows to use it in regular convo. Some English words don't capture the same feeling or emotion as slang words. Take "par" for example; if a girl reject a males advances in an absolutely disgraceful manor saying "Poor chap, she rejected your attempt at courting there" isn't half as effective as "Pahahahahaha you got PAR'D!" is it?
On the flip, if you, like Marvyn, work in an environment where slang is acceptable, is it wrong to speak it then? I take what Miss Lala said about kids thinking its uncool to speak proply. As my mum said "Learn fi speak proper inglish before you tek up dat out a road talk deh" which in itself is quite ironic. But the sentiments are correct. For that reason I managed to balance the two. Some of the Tweeting I see is shocking. I'm sure kids in "developing" countries speak better English. This isn't as simple as not being able to differentiate your, you're or they're, their, there, I'm talking dudes sentences not even making sense coupled with shocking spelling mistakes.
What really irks me, however, are those that misunderstand and change meanings unintentionally. Por ejemplo deyah = "here" NOT "there". Shotta = "gunman" NOT "drug dealer/hustler". And "swagger" isn't slang so why are people surprised when journos/commo's say it?
Finally, if anyone corrupted/corrupting "our" English language, it is Americans. Why don't they spell or pronounce a lot of things the same way we do? At least we are taught "proper English".
Moral of the story: kids, learn English first. FAO anti-slang gang: there isn't any harm in disliking it, just don't look down on others that speak it. We are indifferent on you stush people.
Even this BBC journo recognises it isn't all bad
My favourite slang words:
Peng = nice looking female/nice marijuana (UK word as far as I know)
Ends = area (contrary to the ownership of Brits, I'm sure this is a Jamaican word)
The worst slang words:
Nang = good (urghk east London word)
Gash = female (dunno where from)
I decided against posting this in the random thoughts of the day because I didn't want to, basically. Don't you love gramatical incorrectness. As it is a post about slang I feel I can whatever and however I like to prove my point. Like I could of tried to display my poshness to help those who only want things written correctly, except that wouldn't be any fun innit. Appreciate that I boverd to use apostrophe's
Anyway to the point, slang. This post was inspired by a bunch of 70s babies discussing their dislike for slang on last week's Bloggers Delight (yeah that's my team!).
FinalOct6th by nicolette
As I wasn't on that panel this is my space (no MySpace) to act like I was. Some people don't mind it, many hate it and that's cool. I think I'm in the minority that actually love it! I love keeping up with the latest slang words to throw into everyday conversations with my peers. It feels like a freedom of expression and one that me, my generation and culture can say is us/ours. Whether the words are inherited from Jamaica, USA, cockney or wherever (I'm sure they come from the three I named bar a few words), they're what we use. We meaning my generation/culture in London.
Some of those on the panel think its immature and I've heard that argument from others too. In fact, I just remembered I had this conversation with my bredrins the other day. I wholeheartedly disagree with that. At the end of the day speaking is verbal communication, communication is all about being understood. If I'm speaking slang to someone that understands it what's the problem? If you can conduct yourself correctly to people that don't understand slang then, again I ask, what's the problem? Age isn't nor should it be an issue. There's a time and place for everything. Know when to "(hop up out the beehhhhhhddd) turn your slang on" and off.
My opinion may stem from the fact my parents are Jamaican, I go to Jamaica every year and each time there are new words/phrases in Jamaican patois. Slang changes all the time, similar to fashion in a sense. Slang isn't as bad as people make out either, look how many slang word make it into the Oxford dictionary? Bling-bling is in the dictionary now. Once upon a time it was slang popularised/created by rappers Cash Money, now it's cool for middle-aged white women on fashion shows to use it in regular convo. Some English words don't capture the same feeling or emotion as slang words. Take "par" for example; if a girl reject a males advances in an absolutely disgraceful manor saying "Poor chap, she rejected your attempt at courting there" isn't half as effective as "Pahahahahaha you got PAR'D!" is it?
On the flip, if you, like Marvyn, work in an environment where slang is acceptable, is it wrong to speak it then? I take what Miss Lala said about kids thinking its uncool to speak proply. As my mum said "Learn fi speak proper inglish before you tek up dat out a road talk deh" which in itself is quite ironic. But the sentiments are correct. For that reason I managed to balance the two. Some of the Tweeting I see is shocking. I'm sure kids in "developing" countries speak better English. This isn't as simple as not being able to differentiate your, you're or they're, their, there, I'm talking dudes sentences not even making sense coupled with shocking spelling mistakes.
What really irks me, however, are those that misunderstand and change meanings unintentionally. Por ejemplo deyah = "here" NOT "there". Shotta = "gunman" NOT "drug dealer/hustler". And "swagger" isn't slang so why are people surprised when journos/commo's say it?
Finally, if anyone corrupted/corrupting "our" English language, it is Americans. Why don't they spell or pronounce a lot of things the same way we do? At least we are taught "proper English".
Moral of the story: kids, learn English first. FAO anti-slang gang: there isn't any harm in disliking it, just don't look down on others that speak it. We are indifferent on you stush people.
Even this BBC journo recognises it isn't all bad
My favourite slang words:
Peng = nice looking female/nice marijuana (UK word as far as I know)
Ends = area (contrary to the ownership of Brits, I'm sure this is a Jamaican word)
The worst slang words:
Nang = good (urghk east London word)
Gash = female (dunno where from)
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