By Hailey Glover Since the beginning of the United States of America, we often have sayings that people from other cultures or generations can’t comprehend easily. Our figures of speech can be anything from slang, like “lit” and “savage”, to everyday sayings like ‘another day another dollar’ or ‘a bag of cats’. English can already be a tough language to learn, with all of our peculiar rules, but adding sayings that aren’t part of a dictionary can lead to immigrants or people of past generations feeling shut out of today’s society. This is why people are beginning to try and learn our “slanguage”.
Even American-born citizens and parents sometimes don’t understand the new way of speaking. As Jolly puts it- “ ‘translating the latest “slanguage” in 2017 is no easy feat. Teens these days drop so many “lits,” “fams,” and “wokes,” that you never know if they’re giving you a compliment or secretly planning to set your house on fire.’” This can be a true view for parents and people not in this generation, as they don’t understand the meanings of these words. As a solution there are devoted “slang dictionaries” online. People today are trying to catch up on these seen-as-average sayings.
Immigrating people are also trying to catch up. Immigrants are beginning to feel unwelcome in America. Laws are one thing, but not being able to understand a neighbor or friend’s speech is another. Try feeling frustrated whenever someone uses a figure of speech because you can’t understand. As told by Owens, William Kelly had a feeling of sympathy for people who hear a joke, but don’t know why it's funny. Also in that article, there is a student’s reflection, Song Han’s, and she says “I can be part of American society when I’m in class” and “Otherwise I would be at home and be isolated from this society,”. Slanguage class can help immigrants feel accepted in America.
The classes themselves are very helpful. According to Suh, student Ling Xu stated “ “I think [the class] is a good way to improve my English and make friends in Philadelphia,” Xu said.” Kelly also focuses not on grammar, but terms and expressions (Owens). The class presents slang and promotes comprehension. Owens also states that most slanguage pupils are spouses of researchers that come from Asian countries, smart people married to smart people. They get to know how to talk to people. Slanguage can help their social lives here.
In the USA we often have sayings that people from other cultures or generations can’t comprehend easily. Our figures of speech can be anything from slang to everyday sayings. English can already be a tough language to learn, with all of our unusual grammar rules, and slang isn’t helping, leading to immigrants or people feeling shut out of society. This is why people are beginning to try and learn our “slanguage”. The classes can help immigrants and unknowing citizens to belong and catch up.The classes let people become part of the United States’ culture. Annotated Bibliography Jolly, Jennifer, USA Today, “A guide to all those weird words your teen uses” , 3, March, 2017, Web, 22, March, 2017. Owens, Cassie, Billy Penn, “Penn’s ‘Slanguage’ class teaches newcomers how to understand Americans”,13, February, 2017, Web. 21, March, 2017. Suh, Haley, The Daily Pennsylvanian, “'Slanguage' class teaches language and culture to international students in an informal setting” 19, March, 2017, Web. 22, March 2017