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| Don't these words sound absurd? |
As
an English language teacher and a linguistics fan, I usually embrace the idea
of language evolving. However, after my son decided to buy this horrid ‘cause 2
much swag’ shirt, I decided that sometimes I should understand the use of
modern slang before accepting it. After he purchased the shirt, I asked him
what the word ‘swag’ meant; ashamed that his old man was trying to learn modern
slang, he was reluctant to tell me the actual meaning and gave me a part
definition of the word, insisting that it only meant respect; swag certainly
means more than just respect
According
to the Urban Dictionary (The dictionary for modern jargon), ‘swag’ can be defined as the ‘21st
century way of saying cool with respect to ones popularity amongst his or her
peers’. That however, is only an overly
formal way of saying ‘ a complete jerk who is admired by his or her friends. What I
never understood, and still don’t understand is who decides whether a person
has swag? I’d certainly want some swag to fit in with all my 'G' freshmen students.
Slang
is dynamic in nature; it changes so quickly that certain colloquial words are
peculiar to a specific generation. In the 90’s my nephew would frequently use the words ‘retro’ and ‘totally’, inspired by the great American sitcoms of that era. As
the 90’s ended, so did all its commonplace slang, giving rise to a new
generation that produced new additions to the English vocabulary, however
absurd they might be to us born in previous decades.
Reading about the riots in Europe last week, I noticed the abbreviation ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) scribbled on the walls of Birmingham. I was initially inspired by the deep insight this abbreviation had after deciphering it's meaning; it
stimulated my curiosity as I thought about the ephemeral nature of human life.
This was all before I saw a picture of an intoxicated 21 year old with the
caption #Yolo. At first I felt was being irrational because I couldn’t accept
the fact that I was becoming outdated with Modern English; after all, I am an
English Teacher.After figuring the meaning of these words and their
usage, I began to sympathize the sorry state that majority of today’s youth live
in. YOLO is used as justification for doing such audacious stunts because of the
claim that they only live once (cause YOLO). YOLO had the potential to be the 'it word’ of this generation had it been employed in more productive scenarios such
as everyday conversations rather than binge drinking and drug consumption.
The
environment is changing now and today’s children are not the same as the
children of the previous decades; today’s children are pampered in
comparison to children of other decades. Growing up as a child, my simple
pleasures were sports and books but for my kids its Facebook and television. My
friends and I never cared about wearing fancy jackets or labeled jeans simply
because our families didn’t have the financial power to purchase these luxuries. The attitude of the society does affect the usage of slang; after all it is context the creates this slang in the first place. Maybe because as society, we are becoming increasingly egocentric so our language would sound more pompous than it did many years ago
To
shift the blame solely on these teenagers would be unjustified; pop culture too
has played a big role especially those dubious 'hip hop artists' who claim to
produce music when its nothing more than inappropriate language with
electronic music and a repetitive beat. On our way to Sacramento, California for our family vacation,
we all decided that we’d share the radio for an hour each during the 5 hours
journey from Los Angeles. My younger boy Louis, a model of today's 21st
century 10 year olds, was given the last one hour of our drive to choose his
preferred station. Unfortunately, the allocation was disastrous because he decided
to tune into ‘The Hip Hop’ channel and we had to listen to Lil Wayne and Tyga
for the full hour. My wife and I are fans of country music in which the lyrics ,while
not constructed with proper grammar, have meaning that make it an art. Just
because one throws color on a portrait doesn’t mean he or she is an artist and
that is what hip-hop is about. I was repulsed with drive by the time we reached Sacramento because
the word ‘niggaz’ and 'bit***s' were nearly integrated in my speech; it's of no surprise when children address each other as 'homies'. The boom in rap
music has developed this idea that money buys women, respect and great life;
this mentality is the pivot for words such as YOLO and Swag because our
youngsters aspire to live like Kayne West and not work like Bill Gates.
While I oppose the usage of modern slang, I do feel language evolution makes it easier for us to communicate our ideas. Today technology changes at a much quicker pace than it did 15 years ago, and it's a lot easier to say 'Tweet' your ideas rather than say it in a more verbose sentence. Word's such as 'Google it' and modern abbreviations such 'brb' help simplify informal spoken English. That doesn't mean I give my students the right to use these in their formal essays.
The evolution of language is an important aspect in study of linguistics, especially for those deciding to continue their studies in the field of Linguistics. My commentary on English slang may give my IB students some ideas for their Internal Assessments and Extended Essay. As for my AP students, my next post will targeted on essay writing tactics for the May examination.
