Changing Times

I often wonder if I am the only one who is appalled by the way the English language is spoken these days.

My 21 year old son is a prime example and often seems to speak English that I have a hard time understanding at times.

I overheard him on his cell phone one morning,

“Yo wassup,” and after a few seconds, “oh that’s wicked!”

Unable to control my curiosity I asked him whatever happened to good old ‘hi, how are you” and what did his friend do that was so ‘wicked”.

He looked shocked and said that no one, no one in their right mind, at least in his generation would use that phrase as a greeting anymore. As for the word ‘wicked’ it was a way of saying, ‘that’s good’.

On another occasion, when he returned home from a movie and I asked him how it was, he replied, “oh it was so sick!”

“Was it that bad?”

“Oh no, it was awesome, but that’s what ‘sick’ means.”

Now wait a minute. In my day and even today, as far as I know, ‘sick’ was when you were ill, related to an illness or if you were disgusted by something. Since when did the meaning change to awesome?

English has been recognised as an international language and a minimum of 60% of the world population speak it.

Why then have young people today distorted it, the way they do? Why is it considered ‘cool’ to use words and talk in sentences that are in fact grammatically incorrect but so acceptable to them? 

Why instead of saying “she then said no, they say, ‘she was like, no” or they use phrases like ‘kinda-thing’ or ‘sorta-thing’ instead of ‘if you understand what I’m saying.” And of course, in their vocabulary, the word ‘anyway’ is now ‘anyways’ and ‘thing’ has now been replaced by “thingy”.

A couple of words really bother me, like ‘whatever’ and ‘just chill’.

Does the word ‘whatever’ mean a yes or a no?

The answer is still ‘well, whatever’.

As for ‘just chill’, oh no, I am annoyed or to be more precise I am fuming and ready to tear my hair apart, so don’t tell me to ‘just relax’ or talk to me about taking a chill pill!

Seriously, when I first enrolled my son in a convent school at the age of four, I was confident that together with a sound education, his proficiency in the English language would pave the way for great opportunities in the future.

While I must admit that for the longest time, his English was clear to understand, despite the limited vocabulary, it all changed drastically once he went to university.

Now, the half eaten words and phrases that he uses are totally foreign to me and just make no sense.

I am left gaping when I see him interact with his friends. They all talk the same way and seem to have no problem understanding each other either.

Language is a means of expression of thought, emotions and actions and the English spoken by youth today is a sign of how times have changed.  

Furthermore, their interests have changed and in the bargain many of them have lost out on the wonderful works of Shakespeare, Keats and Wordsworth, who expressed words with such beauty and depth.

I have now stopped commenting on my son’s spoken English. It leaves a lot to be desired but it is a losing battle and I get the same exasperated response every time.

“Mum, I would be the laughing stock of my friends and be considered a geek, if I spoke that way. Don’t you get it?”

Oh I get it alright I just don’t like it, but - whatever!