Wassup
with Teen Talk?
Here's a quick guide to high school slang
By Stephanie Tsao
Editor's note: Every once in a while, Foundation Update likes to feature one of the young writers who is being mentored by an NIE or youth section program.
Bill Canacci, TeenScene editor for the Home News-Tribune in East Brunswick, N.J., writes that this article, by one of his teen writers, was picked up on a local radio station. "It was different because my teen didn't write it for teens, but for parents and adults. The story was teen slang. She talked about word usage and then talked to teens about why they talk the way they do."
At first glance, some of these words and expressions may appear as if they're from another world. Why would we need to know this? But as we all know, readership is at the top of many agendas right now. And part of the readership issue has to be getting teens to read the paper. Their world is not one which we can ignore.
In five years, they will be in a demographic that some newspapers are currently spending huge sums of money to reach - with new daily products in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Why not spend a fraction of that money now to try to get them interested in newspapers. As the teen writer here points out, many of us adults had our share of "interesting" words growing up, from groovy to keen to cool.
How would we have felt had our world been easily discounted?
S up, dawg? Holla!"
"That movie was bangin'."
"Aiight. I'm out!"
Daily teen conversations can be incomprehensible to many parents and adults. Influenced by MTV, hip-hop culture and the popularity of e-mail, teenagers shorten words, stretch definitions and enunciate terms with a different style.
Senior Margaret Senese, 17, says teenagers like her from Middletown High School sometimes use the expression, "Hit it up," instead of "Get it on" or "Go do it."
"If something is really good, it's ‘hot like whoa'?" she says. Dustin Ng, an 18-year-old freshman from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, says a few years back, teens were using words such as "da bomb" for anything that was "really awesome."
"Now you don't hear (that) as much," he says. "Instant messaging and (the) Internet, in general, have become huge influences on teenage speech."
More and more teens are using new online text symbols when they type that they've now become part of the way teens talk. Some people actually say in conversations, "lol" (laugh out loud), "brb" (be right back) or "ttyl" (talk to you later). (The) Internet is what might change teenage language even more in the future.
Why do teenagers choose to talk the way they do?
Iris Delgado, 15, a sophomore at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison, says that laziness, keeping in style and staying cool contribute to the way teens speak. But they are not the only reasons.
Dianne Alphe, a senior at Cardinal McCarrick High School in South Amboy, says "the way they talk shows their confidence in themselves.
"To other peers, it might show the environment they were raised in," she continues. "We might talk the way we do with words like ‘cuz' (for because), ‘holla' and other expressions because they are cool and easier to use, not because we're lazy."
Senese says "picking up new words is probably a subconscious thing."
"Language is communication that helps join people together and unites groups," she says.
Through slang, teens feel a sense of superiority over adults, to fit in with their peers, or just to stay up with the times. Slang, of course, is nothing new. In the '50s, if you were uncool you were "square." Today, you would be known as "whack."
The word "gay" is similar to the word "like" because it is widely used today and springs up in almost any conversation. For more than 20 years, "gay" has been a synonym for something that is dumb or corny: "That movie was so gay."
In these politically correct times, some people find the word "gay" to be offensive or inappropriate.
Jeff Kaplan, an 18-year-old senior from Mendham High School, says teens should try to avoid using offensive words, such as "gay."
"... If it's neutral, then it's not a problem," he says. "Using the word, gay, improperly just implies that homosexuals are bad, or stupid, or messed up, and it's gotten to the point where people don't even think about it in that way at all."
But using the word "gay" doesn't bother Lauren Hering, a junior at J.P. Stevens High School.
"How teens use ‘gay' in conversations may just be like the use of any other offensive curse word," she says. "Words may be offensive and impolite, but you can't ban them from being used."
Kathy Martinak, an English teacher at J.P. Stevens, says she confronts students who use the word "gay."
"I do object to that particular slang word because I think it shows our society's enduring homophobia," she says. "I will always reprimand a student who uses it in that negative way. Other than that, though, I find teen slang more amusing than objectionable."
Today's teens are looking for words that are stronger, or more colorful, Martinak says.
"When I was a teen, the ‘f' word was pretty powerful, and reserved for very extreme situations," she says. "Now, that word is used pretty freely, and as a result has lost some of its power. A new curse word will undoubtedly arise at some point that will be considered more serious, though
I haven't heard it yet. But that's part of the evolution of language.
"I do try to keep up with the current slang, just so that I know what kids are talking about," she adds. "I usually tell my students frankly that ‘I'm not hip to your lingo,' and they share the meanings of the latest terms. I think it's really ‘mad' interesting."
Stephanie Tsao, 18, graduated in June from J.P. Stevens High School in Edison, N.J. Bill Canacci is Teen Scene editor for the Home News-Tribune in East Brunswick, N.J.
SUMMER/FALL 2003