Teen Speak Today

By Samantha, CDNIS, Age 13

Teenagers of the current generation have recently started to speak more informally, with up-speak, ums and likes occurring a multiple of times within their speech. Some people consider this a disgrace to the normally formal English language, and feel that teenagers should abandon the slang in their speech, and adopt the way the adults speak the English language.


Teenagers can give a bad impression on others if they heavily speak slang, and if teenagers become used to the language, they may start to use it when writing school assignments and when talking to people of higher rank that deserve respect. Moreover, the language the teenagers use can deteriorate even more if they use it too much, resulting in more derogatory words being used in normal conversation. However, I believe that teenagers should be able to keep on speaking like this, and it is not a disgrace and an insult to the English language.

Firstly, English is a rapidly evolving language, changing many times to get to this ‘version’ of English. Teenagers in past generations have most likely spoken in some version of slang considered inappropriate, not unlike this situation. For example, in the time of Shakespeare, the English language was very different then compared to now, and also had to change a great deal. No one was able to prevent that change, so what is the chance that we will be able to prevent this change now? The change of English language is inevitable.

Secondly, when people use formal language to speak, most of the time the people sound serious, and in a way, intimidating. As the teenagers of this generation speak a non-formal, slang-including ‘version’ of English, it tends to get under people’s nerves less. For example, students tend to get more nervous when they need to engage in conversation with a person of high ranking and formal speech, such as a school administrator or someone similar. This is unlike when students have to engage in conversation with the class assistants, or fellow classmates, whose language is not as formal, and the students do not get nervous.

Thirdly, people can still become successful regardless of the type of English they speak. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, did a presentation talking about the new video chats in Facebook. In his presentation, though Mark Zuckerberg is very smart, he still said a large number of ‘ums’ and ‘likes’. This shows that even though Zuckerberg’s language is not very formal, he still became very successful.

In conclusion, teenagers should not have to change the current way they speak to a more official manner, since formal English language can be intimidating at times and people can still become successful whether they speak slang or not. Furthermore, the new way of ‘slang-including’ speech is not a disgrace to the English language, because the English language is always changing.