Modern English

By Erica, St. Paul's Convent, age 14

Evolution, one of Darwin’s greatest legacy, has a tremendous impact on both nature and on people’s lives. Although widely debated about its creditability, it is still nonetheless present in nature. It not only allows animals and living organisms to evolve into different creatures with unique characteristics throughout the long course of time, but it also changes the entire ecosystem of the world silently. Once creatures that belong to the wild, some species of wolves have evolved into dogs and are domesticated to become man’s best friend. Basal amniotes have slowly transformed into what we consider the smartest creatures-humans. All these successful examples show that evolution, the slow but steady change of an organism overtime, is something both beneficial and beautiful. The same theory of evolution can also be applied to the development of the English language throughout the ages.


English, the world’s official language alongside with mandarin, is considered to be one of the most beautiful languages spoken. It incorporated foreign languages such as French, German, Latin and many more into its words, making it the language with the most extensive vocabularies and words. It has been traced back to 100AD. It was born to the Western Germanic dialects and was nursed to what we speak today by the Anglo-Saxons. Yet, the ancient Germans would have never guessed that the language they invented would turn out to be words strung together by ‘likes’, ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’. Not many people can speak without saying ‘And I was like…’ or ‘yeah…whatever’. This shows a rising trend that it is getting more and more difficult for people to differentiate causal English from formal English. As the saying goes, there is always a proper time for different things, and I strongly believe that the ‘likes’ widely used by teenagers should be lessened and should only be used in appropriate situations.

First, there is always a right time for our actions. For example, sleeping should be reserved for the bedroom, not during classes. The same applies to colloquial words or slangs. It is acceptable to speak with ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ on the phone with your best friends about your vacation, but you should omit them when you are talking to your boss. However, this does not mean that the ‘likes’ are a bad thing- it is simply not meant to be used in formal occasions since it is more of a casual language. For example, the way we speak to friends may not be accepted by professors at university. Like wearing jeans to a wedding, using colloquial terms with teachers or bosses is not entirely unacceptable, yet we should still show some respect towards the occasion.

Also, by incorporating too many ‘likes’ and other slangs into one’s speech, it becomes less of a disgrace problems and more of an articulation one. One may slur or mumble when speaking with the aid of ‘likes’, thinking phrases such as ‘yeah…you know what I mean’ enables the listener to understand their true meanings. It will be very hard for a person to listen attentively if you add ‘like’ into every single sentence. This may lead to misunderstandings and communication problems. Executives still pay vast sums of money to improve their communication skills, so why should we jeopardize ours with some measly colloquial words? For example, in a recent press conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeated words such as ‘like’ and ‘um’ numerously, making it a largely ridiculed speech. Surely, the CEO of such an influential company should be able to hire a better speech writer. If Mark spoke in the same way to his friends, it would not be much of a problem since it is a less formal occasion. In addition, the slangs make it harder to understand Mark’s speech clearly. This creates an articulation problem as mentioned before.

There is always an appropriate time for certain words and actions. How would you feel if your Dad came home and start talking to you in bank jargon? As our grandmothers would’ve said, ‘ stop the mumbling and pronounce your words clearly!’ It’s times to start listening to her advice and cut out the likes’ from your speech.