That's wack, yo.

[nendil]

Got newest issue of Reader's Digest in the mail. I usually only give the "Enrich Your Word Power" feature a cursory glance, never being very good at learning vocabulary from isolated, non-contextual lists. ^^;; But, what the hell is this?

At the holidays, you've probably got
kids hanging around the house--maybe
home from college for vacation. Do you
have one-way conversations because
you have no idea what they're saying?
Our quiz will give you the dope (info)
on how to talk their dope (cool) talk.

Quiz words include: "my bad", "whatevs", "wack", "bling-bling", "dis", "phat"...

Argh! Slang shouldn't be a part of anybody's vocabulary education! If you pick it up from conversation, fine, but I thought these features were supposed to help, I don't know, improve literacy?

Comments

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

I dunno. If you were to learn the slang of a foreign language you were taking, that would be okay. (No?) So why is it bad to try to understand English slang? It's cultural literacy, in a sense. Or something. Dunno, not really thinking straight right now. ^^;;

Maybe it's just because I've always wondered where "dis" comes from. "Disparage"?

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm just used to thinking of these things as, say, SAT study aids. I suppose Reader's Digest never held it to itself that it had to publish these quizzes with that purpose in mind. Mostly it's the "whatevs" that set me off... too much like promoting netspeak.

Well, I see they no longer call it "Enrich Your Word Power" anyway... XP

[(Anonymous)]

I just get upset by these "guides" because they automatically assume that all teenagers, even college students, are unable to hold conversations in standard English. Note that I have conspicuously refused to use slang in this comment, and I'm still perfectly natural and intelligible.

I guess this makes me an adult, since I didn't understand the myriad meanings of "dope" before Reader's Digest's enlightening usage of the word.

- white_moonflowers