Month: February 2015

Isabelle Kerr dares to generalise the youth of today as “ASBO-wielding yobs” by the way in which they speak? The abbreviations created by the youth of today are far more impressive than any other in the past. Things such as, lol (laugh out loud), wuu2 (what you up to?) and smh (shake my head) give a true understanding of the types of abbreviations used by the youth today, these are just a few used and are truly intelligent in the way they are used. These 3 words can shorten the time it takes to send a text message which is very important as we live in the 21st century now and need ways to carry on improving the use of technology. they can even improve on the way we translate emotions over text messages as when an abbreviation of a word is used it symbolises that the person is happy and if these words are said in full it can suggest that the person is sad or even angry.

I understand that this type of language isn’t suitable for every situation, although nor is standard English. The so-called “slang” of today is simply a way of youth expressing themselves and in certain situations i.e job interviews I believe that many of the youth can change their language when a situation that demands it arises. Isabelle Kerr says twerking in a derogatory way. By this I can tell that she is very closed-minded and doesn’t understand that the people of the world keep on coming up with new words to keep in touch with their environment. For example, in the past there have been words such as salsa and tango that have been created to represent different forms of dance and this is exactly what we see here with the word ‘twerk’.

“The future of the English language looks bleak”. This obscene quote from Isabelle Kerr’s report is simply uneducated and has nothing to support it. There are many versions of English and the youth of today use many of them, I personally think that to be able to speak more than one version of the English language is a great achievement. Being able to speak and understand more than one form of English is really important especially for the future because, our society is becoming more multi cultural therefore bringing more than one form of English into the community.

The fact that Isabelle Kerr had the audacity to mention Shakespeare ‘turning in his grave’ is absolutely disgusting. By saying this she has implied that Shakespeare would be distraught with the so-called ‘linguistic calamities’ of today’s youth. Is Isabelle Kerr out of touch with history? Shakespeare created a substantial amount of slang words we still use today. It is vital that we realise this as the English language has always been evolving and this is something that makes the English language so impressive. To know that in 50 years time my fellow countryman could be speaking an entirely different form of language than now is a wonderful thought. To know that in 50 years time a new generation will take over and in the place of the old one will be a beautiful set of new and creative words, and you want to stop this? This cycle of language has gone on throughout our history. It is embedded in our genes to have the creativeness to speak completely new words. However, the gene seems to be missing from you, Isabelle Kerr.

Don’t you just hate it when you get stares from strangers on the street, stares as if to say you don’t belong here? When you’re walking down the street, happy and content, and you catch a stranger’s eye and they continue to stare at you almost like it’s a game of the last one standing. The cars and people pass by, buses and police cars continue to carry on with their jobs but nothing can stop the piercing stare connected to your eyes from a stranger across the road. The competition carries on, your afraid to back down as it will strip you of your dignity. Your blood is boiling now as you finally turn away to keep to your route home, you can feel the evil stare at the back of your head following you throughout the rest of the street.

The worst stares are those that come from the buses as you know that the stranger would never stare at you if they wasn’t in the safe haven of the big red bus. These stares are the ones that make me most frustrated. These stares make you wonder what there for… Do I have something on my face? Was I staring back? Am I walking funny? These are just a few things that come to mind when you come into the unwanted eye contact of another human being. Being stared at seems to almost be a sign of disrespect, as if the other person didn’t care about your feelings or if they just were staring to be rude.

The stares I can’t express my hatred for the them, it’s almost as if these stares can see deep into my soul sometimes I even think they can read my thoughts, they drive me crazy because I know the individual staring will always stay anonymous and I’d never ever know what they were staring at. Occasionally I have thought to myself, how would I know they were staring if I wasn’t staring back? So I thought long and hard about it and in the end I have realised I’m just as bad with this whole staring thing as the rest. I slowly start to piece together why this problem arises and I have come to the conclusion that if someone is staring at you first they will most likely turn away when you stare back, but if you stare first and they stare back their less likely to turn back around.

However, what happens if they think the same thing about me? what if all this time I was staring first? This is the most important thing to keep in mind to balance situations out. I could have been very naiive all this time only just realizing now, that I was staring at these people first. I always seem to get stares from people when I’m in a bad mood. could this be because they care for me or are they just worried for themselves? keeping an eye on me to make sure I don’t do anything anti social or dangerous.