Watsup? Yo! C’mon Man! Just Chill! No. these are notdialogues from a movie. Why, these are statements I use in ‘ma’ daily life.Shocking? That’s the lingo of the youth today. The grammar that we learned inschool is just lost. We speak the language we do because it’s convenient. Wehave no regard for verbal etiquette anymore. Even when the youth converse withelderly people, the sense of respect that once filtered into our way ofspeaking has disappeared. But is this a good or bad thing?
People of the previous generations look down upon thevocabulary of the youth. Yes, the profanities we rain down today areridiculous! And I must admit if a youth were to read this article, he’d have tolook up the word ‘profanity’! Many people believe that it is the curse of the‘sms language’ that has crept into the lingo of the young today. No more do wesay ‘Take care of yourself and keep in touch.’ It’s ‘TC and FB me!’ Reallynow?!
I don’t wish to be a saint but I do wish that we as theyouth would make a conscious effort to improve our vocabulary. Telling yourfuture employer at your interview that your folks ‘are down’ with your musicalskills and that your favorite pastime is ‘chillin at the beach’ will certainlynot get you the job! People want wit not twit! We have to learn to pay moreattention when our English teachers tell us that it’s ‘you’re welcome’ and not‘cool miss’ that makes an impression when you hand her a glass of water!
I sometimes feel that us aping the west has gone too far.We, in Goa, have had the privilege of learning British English. No one’stelling you to talk like the Queen! However we can certainly improve. When athome, talk your Konkani madness! When in the public eye, know that when you say‘There are so many men at the door’ and when you say ‘So many are standing atthe door, men’ there’s a huge difference!
Speaking well isn’t about saving face. It’s about presentingyourself well. We dress well because we want to look good. Don’t put down mygood vocabulary to me being an English literature student. If we all took thetime to know when to speak what and how, we’d not be known as the‘loose-tongued generation’. Let’s change that stereotype and prove to peoplethat we are the youth of caliber and quality, not just in our mind and hearts,but via our mouths as well!
