California Girl

Author: Megan Michelson Features Editor

I often make the mistake of opening my mouth to speak before remembering that I am attending a college on the direct opposite side of the United States from which I grew up. Before coming to school in Vermont from my home state of California, it hadn't crossed my mind that perhaps slang, and what I assumed to be general vocabulary among college-aged students nationwide, was in fact very distinct to my specific area of origin.

Being at Middlebury, I have decided that, among other things, one of the main differences between native East Coasters and West Coasters is the way in which they speak. When I heard a fellow hall mate, who was obviously Massachusetts born and bred, use the words "mad" and "wicked" as adjectives inserted into nearly every other sentence, I realized that I was in for a rude awakening in the world of modern slang. I have since come to the conclusion that the words we choose let other people gain insight into our geographic origins and, more importantly, our minds.

With the contributions of music, television, films and the universally popular instant-messenger computer program, our generation has become accustomed to hearing and using abbreviations and slang on a regular basis. Even "old-school" phrases are used in current "lingo" to transform ideas from the past. We abbreviate simple words to lessen our workload when typing online, and we mimic phrases from the media that come and go like the trends we "sport" on our backs.

Although many phrases are not limited to geographical orientation, there are some categories of slang that when used can reveal roughly where a person is from. Words that could come from a West Coaster's mouth to express positive reinforcement or ways of giving someone "props" for a worthy deed include terms such as "sweet," "tight," "dope," "hella" or "cool." East Coasters use words to describe an unusually creepy character like "shady," "sketchy" or "a tool." Also, terms used on the West Coast when exiting a room or as a form of saying goodbye include phrases such as "I'm outtie," "late," "peace out," "shine" or "I gotta bounce."

The general "411" on slang is that it is used all over the world by teenagers and college-aged people as a form of age-restricted communication. It prohibits our rather "clueless rents" from fully comprehending our conversations, and it provides us an escape from the structured English language in our daily chats with friends. As a result, however, the casualness of slang often tends to imply a lack of proper speaking skills. Adolescents and young adults, regardless of zip codes, often rely on slang as a substitute for more proper linguistic skills. We tend to lose the respect of our elders due to our inability to follow "ancient" guidelines regarding the English language.

Young people from all over the United States consistently overuse the interjections "like" and "you know" as ways to emphasize a point or to express an idea on which they are otherwise incapable of elaborating. Instead of filling the sentence with more specific words for stress or to articulate a concept, we resort to using these vague and generalized terms again and again. By eliminating "like," "you know," and other imprecise words from our vocabulary and focusing on more creative expressions of language, we would certainly improve our chances of like, offending, you know, older and often wiser generations.

It would not be a difficult task to reduce some of the unnecessary vulgarity of some slang or to reduce the reiteration of "like" and "you know."

Although some slang does grant young people creativity and personal expression, we should attempt to limit the use of it in more formal conversations and observe our overuse in casual or online chats. I mean, come on … is it really, like, that hard?