Welcome to Gaia! ::

Slang is a touchy subject.

I don't like the last implication, that slang helps to dehumanize people and not care about them.

(Like using the word retard too casually. I avoid that word. Dip, feeb, etc. It is worse than bad when such things end up making a person uncaring about those different from them. You end up lumping anyone by one term and you'll forget to look at them as individuals, which helps no one.)

On the other hand, invented slang does take some creativity, and being fluent at it can slap you in with the "in crowd". Problem is: Do you WANT to be with the incrowd? Or be your own person?

Yes, I do occassionally let slip a slang word here and there; I am from central Iowa and just imagine what kinds of words are part of our vocabulary that are not found in New York or San Francisco. Being a stickler for good grammer, though, I never got too far into "slangspeak".

...Well, not unless you count the kind of talk that evolves in restaraunts. They tend to invent their own terms, and I've worked in fast food places that use words I don't hear elsewhere.

My sister constantly exposes me to more slang from the urban world, so I'm merely impartial to it. Nothing completely for or against it, however.

Slang, jargon, and other informal terms are added to the U.S. English language more frequently than ever.

I think that a person should know slang because not knowing it makes that person look ignorant. I even sometimes use slang. But I think that the most important thing is the respect factor. The article said that soliders used the terms to make their lives and jobs easier. But there is a difference between that and just talking in slang because you want to fit in. I think that slang is important to define people as a culture or to show views, but there is slang, and then there are just stupid speaking habits. New words some aorund because someone had to make them up. Derogitory terms are pointless, but sometimes slang or made up words give feeling to a situation or conversation. I'll sometimes make up words because they sound better than the words that actually exist. I don't use those words regularly, and I do use the best speaking habits I can. But slang classifies people and sets them apart in their own way. If other people need to use slang for reasons such as work or talking with friends, fine. Just keep good habits, don't put other people down, and know the difference between talking with your best friends and talking with your boss or the president. Care about how you speak and what words you use. Slang doesn't bother me on its own, its the attitude that people who speak correctly are snobs and "I'm so cool because I mess wit yo speechifyin and talkityness." If you are a normal person you can speak normally, so do it. Slang is fine when it doesn't hurt other people and it doesn't kill off brain cells. But it belongs in personal conversations with other people who talk in that fashion. Everyone else deserves to know what you are trying to say.

The only slang my friends and I will use mainly appiles to gaming or to technology...but honestly, talking slang so you can feel better about yourself just isn't right...at least not in my opinion.

I think that there are different kinds of slang: the slang people use to make themselves look tough (ghetto slang), the slang that refers to a certain trade or profession which lets you take less time to get your message to people who need to know and also understand (trade slang), the slang that people use with their friends because everyone knows what you're talking about already (selective slang), and the slang that people use because they don't know what else to say and can't use good grammar (illiterate slang).

Basically, in my mind trade slang and selective slang are okay and useful when used in the proper setting and with the proper knowledge of what everything means. Ghetto slang and illiterate slang just make people look stupid and serves no purpose whatever. Whenever people use ghetto and illiterate slang, they are just proving how stupid and ignorant they really are. If you can't talk right then don't talk at all. There is a time and place for everything, including slang, but there is also a time and place for you to use the English language (or whatever your native language is) correctly.

I think this says what I was trying to get at. And I think that what really needs to be remembered is what you are using slang for. It is partially cultural. And while most of us will swear by never using "gangsta talk", how how many of us were raised saing "cool", "sweet", "nice", or any other regional accepted slang. There are kinds of slang that sound better than others. Casual speech is alright in the proper situations.