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

[(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