Slang (s-secret, lang-language)

I use slang mostly with my friends and family, while at home or in town. I also use it in school, but rarely. I use slang in common situations, while commenting on something, joking, talking about something that is niđe veze ( nigdje veze-correct).

Why do I use it? I use it because, sometimes it is easier to speak in slang (you don't have to think about right grammatical forms, word order, or vocabulary, you can just use it without any rules). I use it because it can also be funny, interesting, and it can distract one's attention (for example, if you are reading some philosophical article and you are board, and then suddenly you see slang you will probably be surprised, awakened and more interested in reading the rest of the article. I use it because my personal slang "separates", "isolates" me from my company, society and lets my personality be recognizable through something that is unique only to it.

According to the definitions we heard from the BBC's "Learning English" radio programme, Talking About English, episode Part One of "Politics, Language, and Slang", slang is non-standard, very informal language, using non-standard word which has standard word. I agree with these definitions, but I will also add that slang for me represents street language, language of a specific type of music, language of experimenting with the language itself.

Slang comes from people's desire to shorten the words, make them less formal, easier to communicate, not so strict and grammatically correct. It is usually spoken, and it has its tradition, like Cockney for example. Cockney is a traditional slang, a "secret language" used by people which worked in the market for customers not to understand them.

In my opinion using slang can be good, but it can also be unsuitable, e.g. if you're a politician, and you're using slang, people certainly won't take you seriously enough, they will start laughing at you, or even worse, they won't consider you educated enough to perform the function of the politician (represent them, their name, culture, and country in the world).

Also the bad side of slang is that not everyone understands it. If you are using slang while speaking to an older person you could get misunderstood. Most of the older generation doesn't understand slang that younger generations use, e.g. if you say to your grandfather Come, and hang out with us, he will probably think you're hanging on something, a tree, or something similar. Simply he won't understand you. That is why we have to be careful when using slang, we need to be aware that not everyone knows what we are speaking about.

Everyone uses slang: politicians, lawyers, teachers, musicians, actors and actresses, farmers, TV hosts... It's present everywhere, in every profession, and in every part of society. Some use it more, some less depending of their own acquaintance to it, of the social circles in which they move, of the age structure, and their desire to use it. It is widely spread, and it is a popular form of communication that is becoming more frequent every day.

A letter to Mr.Callum Robertson/Group work

Dear Mr.Robertson,

We are students from the Mostar University «Džemal Bijedić», and being students of English language and literature we had the opportunity to hear your radio debate in our class. The show we listened to, was about the English language, where teachers and students were discussing of its use. After hearing your show, we also discussed about the opinions of your guests like you did.

The show showed things or situations where English language is used, which we would never pay attention to. Like the sentence we see in stores:
«10 items or less» (10items or fewer is grammatically correct)
This less, instead of fewer has become widely accepted and so frequent that most people don't see the mistake in this structure. If you asked some people, natives wouldn't see the mistake, they wouldn't even know the difference between less or fewer. Non-native speakers would accept this less as a correct form, because they don't expect that a public sign is written incorrectly. So how come that native speakers can use the incorrect form, and no one pays attention to it, but non-native speakers are being corrected? It's an offense. Native speakers have all the freedom they want in using English, but we can just use the correct form. But, we have seen that this isn't the best way, natives should use the correct form, because of the misunderstanding that can appear:
The fewer people know about this (affair), the better.
The less people know about this (affair), the better.

Another point we discussed, is that teachers should teach the correct form so it wouldn't come to misunderstandings. We can see the importance of using grammatically correct forms in essays, where students have to write correctly, if they don't want to be constantly corrected.
Especially in written language the use of correct forms is important. It would be, lets say strange, if we sent a letter to a high-profile person using non-correct forms, that person would think we were illiterate.

We also concluded that the balance of fluency and accuracy is the best. A good speaker should possess both. But as non-native speakers we would give more importance to accuracy, because we first learn to speak correct structures, and the fluency comes afterwards, through conversations. We can’t have these conversations, if we don’t know the grammar, or the word order in a sentence.

Your show has been very successful and useful for us, non-natives, because you have talked about many important themes in language that we haven't mentioned in this letter. We wish you success in your further work, and that you continue with this kind of subjects. Thank you for giving us your time

Sincerely yours, English language and literature students from Mostar

Experimental phase

Passing through an experimental phase means, as the word itself says, experimenting, trying new things, exploring, changing, wanting something new and different, making your life a hocus pocus, a magic world that is only yours and that no one else can touch, enter, or vitiate.

The thing about experimenting is wanting to be someone else, wanting to try your luck in other shoes, to be equal to your friends, to escape from all that surrounds you, and try to form your own world in which you are your own boss and an independent person. That, usually means become a rebellion.

People, in most cases, pass through this phase as teenagers (from 14-17/18), but I think there is no age limit for experimenting. Phases just happen. They come and go. Every part of life is a new phase; some effect us more some less, some you feel some you don't. Life, itself, is experimenting, trying, sometimes exceeding and sometimes failing.

I can't say I have passed through an experimental phase. Maybe I have, but I didn't feel it, or notice it. All I know is that I was always a good, quiet child, very calm especially at school, never escaping classes, drinking or smoking. I lived and I am living as the social codex says. I was always different from my classmates and never a rebellion.

Maybe this is my experimental phase; being different and doing things differently from others. I don't know. I know that I enjoy being the person I am, and that I don't want to change.

I can say I'm completely different from Chaim or Curly Oxide, but I can understand him.
I can understand him because every person has something that is just his/hers and no one else's. He had his experimental phase, which changed his life, and gave him an opportunity to really know his inner-self, and to see what he wants to be in further life.
This phase may changed "natural" flow of his life, but it also gave him a chance to choose a path, a direction in which he wants to go through life.

Experimental phase comes and goes; it enters into every one's life, although not necessarily, changes, disturbs it, makes a mess, and then without knowing disappears. It plays, experiments with us, gives our parents headaches, makes us rebellious, but all in purpose of a goal, a goal that can be like in Chaim's case: knowing yourself better and choosing the right direction, direction that will lead us into a new life phase and make us experiment once more.