Language in America (USA) are we loosing it?

no you are not getting old or going crazy,i live in south africa and i have a yooung neighbour who has this 14 year old boy and my God this boy cant say 2 lines without the "f" word and so many other like that,i have heard teenagers talking asking how things and you will ehar them say"maan,how the f...k are ya doing?,what the F...k is going on/and i also woder what the oxford dictionary of the next 10 years is going to look like,its funny but our languages are being destroyed by this "gangster" style jargons

We are losing our language in the U.S., and it is really sad that in about fifty years from now language might become obsolete. I hear teenagers and young adults speaking in IM speak, Ebonics, and Leat Speak (correct me if I said it or spelled it wrong), and they cannot form simple words or sentences. They cannot spell or use proper grammar at all. Yes, language in the U.S. is slowly, but surely dying, sadly.

You make some good points. That "flippin" word is used way too much. I will admit I have used that word a time or two. Young people need to hear themselves use that word, maybe if they heard themselves and how vulgar it sounds, then they would cool out on using that word.

yes the studies show that kids are not speaking english like the kids in the past, but even our general had our own language among teens, pig latin was very popular in my time, words like groovy, and cool, can you dig it, drag, etc, every generation will make up their own language, it is just normal, the danger is when you don't know when not to use it, like in school, writing on an application form for a job etc.

It amazes me sometimes how some cannot seem to express themselves without using that specific word. Even if they don't use that word they seem to be unable to use some sort of curse word or vulgarity. I know as a teenager I wouldn't have dared to speak such in public because if my parents would have found out I would have been in trouble. There are still many words I won't say in front of my parents and I'm going on 40. No I'm perfect and I swear on occasion, sometimes more then on occasion but I also know there are some places one does not use such language. It always aggravates me when I hear people swearing nonstop while at work. They are on the job and saying things like "F" this and "F" that where customers or clients can hear them. It really makes me wonder if they know how they sound?

I for one am somewhat guilty of dropping the "f" bomb, although I am pretty far removed from my teenage years. It's a common though that people who overuse that word have a limted vocabulary, but that is not always the case. I read all the time, and am a published writer. I will agree with you though concerning the young "adults" of this country. It seems to be all you hear these days and even if they are smart kids, you'd never know it by listening to them. It's almost as though they believe that speaking normally and using proper English would be just too uncool.

I think I know what you are saying. Clever way you found to get around the swear censors, by the way. I agree with you. I find the immigrants speak better English nowadays than the offspring of citizens, who take the English language for granted. Is it the same way in other countries?

Raydene as the USA is also my country and I have to agree with you. I cringe when I overhear that kind of language what make it even worse is that these people are in public places and obviously do not care who is around, even children. The young people you refer to seem to be educated and must be quasi intelligent but do not seem to have any idea what good manners mean and sadly just show, lack of breeding and no class .

Lol. You're right. A lot of young people don't know how to talk. I'm a paralegal and have working in the professional field for like 7 years so I speak proper English; it's become my vocabulary. Usually young people like that are still in school and haven't begun working. Once they start working they will realize that they need to change their vocabulary soon.

That is a very good point sweety and no it is not just you getting old and it is definitelhy true here as well! I do swear , more than I should too but when you hear some people erevery other word is a curse word and it does sound very bad indeed! xxx

Well, this is nothing new. As I said in BCSFAzine 129 way back in 1984 "Usage is no excuse for boorisness" and "You, my dear, have not developed if you can only express 'a wide variety of moods and emotions' with one coarsity." (Yes, I was high and mighty in my youth...) And I still maintain it is a sign of an underdeveloped mentality, whether one liberally peppers one's speech with the f word or continually asks "ya know?". The mouth runs faster than the brain in question, so fills the gaps between thoughts with useless verbiage.

This was an interesting topic so I just HAD to jump in! You talked alot about the "F" word being over used to describe, well, bascially everything haha. Have you ever seen the movie "Idocracy"? I am of this younger generation so the language in it doesn't make me cringe as you might being from an older generation but it's a good example of ( if very exaggerated ) what could become of our beautiful language in hundreds of years time. My favorite part-I'll describe it because I don;t know if you'll try it-is when the main character is brought to court on charges for " doing some F'ed up Sh*t " LOL. That was it. Language and manners had become so lazy that this basically described everything in life. It's very comical but also, makes me wonder how close it is to what will happen to OUR language all those years into the future because I do notice conversations like the one you described above. I am guilty of using this kind of language more often than I should, however, but I do try to remember that it makes me sound less intelligent than I am. I know that I have found myself judging people by their way of expressing themselves in speech -for example, the people in your story up there, I would judge them to be uneducated, etc, and considering that those people you mentioned above were in fact very WELL educated, my judgement of them would have been grossly unfair, but I wouldn't know it at the time. I will remember this topic ( hopefully ) and think about the way I sound to other people when I use that kind of language. Not because I find it to be particularly offensive, but because there are so many better ways to describe things and places and people! It is my own personal challenge to myself to be as expressive as I can in the most creative ways! haha.

Here in UK it is just as bad, kids so young outside swearing too. My younger daughter swore the other day using the F word (she doesn't sear that often, unlike some of the other kids I know, or at least not in front of me) I said to her that I didn't want her to use it again especially as she said it whilst her little brother was in the room and told her that if I heard her swear again I would put mustard on her tongue just like I did when she was little and swore, 'you never would' I replied 'try it and find out' 'sorry mum' LOL but not funny really, yes we all swear at times but every other word ridiculous. Ellie :D

hi raydene. that's very sad to hear. I believe that some other countries (including mine) are experiencing the similar things nowadays. I just can't stand some rude words being used by the young generation here, even in some other countries I know. the sad things are ... they are actually nice kids, however, it seems like they even didn't realize that the words are just ... rude. it is a scary thing, because I know some of them are even attending churches every week.