Tonight:
9°c
The publication of GCSE results today should tell us something about the standard of English in schools.
Outside of schools, I fear for it. Overhearing a conversation between two teenage girls the other day, I found myself marvelling at both the fluency of their street patois gobbledygook and my inability to understand a word of it.
"Skeen, skeen. I didn't do nuffink, like, innit? You get me, blood?" And so on.
Lazy grammar and sloppy speech are my bêtes noires. When mentoring kids in Peckham, I make it known I have no time for street slang.
The constant use of "innit", "like" and "basically" infuriates me.
What frustrates me even more is that kids don't realise that "speaking street" is handicapping their chance of future success, be it in college, uni or work interviews.
Such easy-to-avoid linguistic solecisms make them sound as intelligent as brain-damaged baboons on drugs.
I can assure you I'm not being a "grumpy young man" for the sake of it. I like a bit of hip-hop vernacular as much as the next man.
And, to be fair, some of the neologisms young people use nowadays are quite inventive.
But there's a time and a place for such language. And many of these kids actually seem to think that we live in the South Bronx. We don't.
We live in London, so the emphasis should be on speaking proper English.
By not doing so, young people are effectively limiting themselves and placing a cap on their potential by buying into the notion that to speak properly is tantamount to "selling out" - an ethic of teenage recalcitrance but also one of corrosive nihilism.
They need to open their minds to a world beyond the stultifying parameters that MTV Base and other equally vacuous conduits of modern bling culture are imposing upon them.
Proper speech, correct grammar and using a rich vocabulary all help young people to articulate their thoughts better.
As a result, they will be taken more seriously when they interact with adults. At the very least they owe this to themselves.
It is a harsh reality of the modern world that people are judged on the way they speak.
Competition for jobs is so fierce these days that young people need to be as eloquent and therefore as employable as possible.
Infamous wiggers like comedy buffoon Ali G and Radio 1 hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood are largely to blame for popularising this form of faux Jamaican, South Bronx wannabe, ghetto English.
They have mutilated the English language in an effort to appear cool and with it, but just end up sounding like village idiots.
You only have to read one of Shakespeare's sonnets, a few lines of Milton's Paradise Lost or a passage from Gibbon's Decline and Fall to be reminded of just how lucky we are to have English as our mother tongue.
It might not possess the mellifluousness of Italian, or the conciseness of French, but English is nevertheless a language of sublime beauty and elegance.
Its huge Latinate vocabulary has ensured that we have a tremendous arsenal at our disposal to express ourselves.
Language is a fundamental building block of society and words are the scaffolding on which ideas hang.
As much as I acknowledge that language is a fluid and constantly evolving entity, certain basic linguistic standards need to be preserved for society to function.
Effective communication is the key to a better future for all young people, regardless of race, class or postcode.
Be it in public or in private, we must have the temerity to rail at ghetto grammar.
Otherwise, soon we won't be able to understand a word our young people are saying, and we'll only have ourselves to blame. You get me, blood?
Reader views (17)
The English language is constantly evolving and i think we need to embrace it. This prescriptive view in my opinion is naive. Why should the 'standard' variety of English be superior to any other varieties emerging? We need to wake up and enjoy the changes and creativity of our language.
- Jemma Chatten. (English Undergraduate, 22), Southwold, Suffolk
This street language originates from the black communities. I am not being racist just stating a fact.
- Mick W, cannock,England
The thing is does anybody care really, that is the ones who do care about society, and who contribute to it, you won't hear many Bankers, Lawyers, Judges, Captains of Industry, or even rulers of this society, talking like they came from TrenchTown, that's probably because it's not all that impressive. Ha! Ha! Ha!
- Baz, London UK
O brave new world That has such people innit.
- Ian Nicholson, London, England
I think this awful slang that i hear everyday by youths,It is the same as everything else by the majority of youths in london,they cant spell,they have no knowledge further then their noses of anything else in this world,they have no manners and i believe speaking properly and manners are very close ,you cant have one without the other,they sound like idiots ,and when they speak in this tone ,they speak it in a very agressive manner,This is not culture ,its very sad ,look whats happening in this country today,they youths follow no rules ,no limmits,military service should be bought in!
- Paul ,London, london united kingdom
lindsay ,
do not listen to these freaks that tell you that they should be left to speak as they wish , innit .
i grew up in acton/harlesden where that type of thing was rife. i had friends that thought they were the bees knees talking like that . i thought otherwise and have had a successful career in sales and city trading ,without any A levels! i , as they say "blagged" my way up there . but my mates are doing just fine . they tell me that job seekers allowance is now at the dizzy heights of £64.00 a week , like .
- Clive, london
If young people which to communicate in 'street-talk', let them...as long as they do not communicate like that in a formal setting (exams, interviews etc).
The language bears very little resemblance to Ebonics and has more in relation to Jamaican patois, in its crudest sense.
As a South Londoner, I constantly being told that my 'dialect' makes it difficult for those from other areas to fully understand my communication even though I speak 'proper English', work in Education and have 3 degrees.
Wake up Lindsay....you are not doing the younger generation or members of the BME community any favours with your constant belittling of their 'cultures'....
- Sj, London
Ya mean 'talk proper English' innit tho'!?
- Paul, London
There's no such thing as "proper" English; like any language it is constantly changing and evolving. However, there is universally understandable, expressive English, with a huge vocabulary, allowing anyone to express any idea they like in a manner which anyone else who understands English can easily grasp. This is what is truly important. A "ghetto" form of any language immediately condemns the speaker to communicating only with the limited numbers who can understand them.
By all means, use "ghetto" English when appropriate, but it is essential that we teach our youngsters the fullest available form of self-expression, with which comes confidence and clarity. Employment tends to follow quite swiftly.
- Sara, London, UK
English is great BECAUSE it changes all the time, if you want to see a language that refuses to change, take a look at France - where they have a State department that polices new words. Ugh.
As for not being able to understand teenagers' slang? That it like, totally the point init.
- Nolan, Londonist
Quite agree Jo & Roy. English continually moves on & absorbs other words & speech patterns. That is its strength.
Miranda ....If you wish to be a superior pedant...a Bit is something you place in a horses mouth. Small or little would have been a better choice!
- Jan, london
You seem to pride yourself on your polyglottery; have you considered the syntactical similarity of 'innit' and 'n'est-ce pas'? 'Like' and 'basically' may well be redundant, but so is pedantry when usage overtakes it (and it always will).
- Shadowfax, Hammersmith
I find myself in the rare position of agreeing with a Standard commentator. That said, and speaking as someone with over 12 years experience of working directly with young people across the country, the key point here is those young people's ability to understand and speak 'adult' English (as different from the non-existent 'proper' English).
If teenagers choose to speak to each other in a particular way, either to fit in, for protection, to look cool or to prevent adults from understanding them - that is normal and fine. If on the other hand, that is all they can speak and are unable to operate in adult society (and that is a very small minority of young people) - then we need to work with them to help them improve their skills.
Language creates understanding - lack of language creates ignorance and fear - check out the average vocabulary of the average BNP supporter for instance.
Nuff sed Blud init - y bovver 2 speek proper - its 4 divs m8.
- Liberal And Proud, London innit
It's called language change people. It's why we don't speak the same English as Chaucer or Shakespeare...
- Roy, England
Well said Mr. Johns. At last someone who wants to help our inner city kids instead of patronising them.
- Ted, London
Excellent article. I'm from East London and couldn't agree more. I correct my niece and nephew as soon as I hear any kind of "text/ street" speak coming out of their mouths. I was also shocked to see the decline in the numbers of kids taking a foreign language at GCSE this year. It's mad that it's no longer compulsory in secondary schools. I speak Spanish, German and (a bit) of French, alongside English, and I would not be without them even though London is my permanent home. Language matters now more than ever. As far as I'm concerned, they should make watching Barck Obama speeches compulsory for London teenagers!
- Miranda Grell, London, UK
Er, who's to say that the kids you overheard can't speak 'proper' English as well, when they need to? Code-switching, as linguists call it, is a common and often necessary part of a teenager's life, as it was for me when, on the school bus, I would put on a Scouse accent (with lots of "laichs" and "sorryweakhs" for colour) in order to make myself less of a target for bullies.
And using Shakespeare as an example of 'proper' English... He was well-known for being a linguistic innovator in his day (and I bet that the stick-in-the-mud conservatives of his time lobbed regular brickbats his way for 'traducing' our precious language). How ironic.
English's great strength is its flexibility, and its ability to grow and change continually. Attempting to lionise one form over all others and to enshrine it as 'proper' English (says who, exactly? You?) is massively self-defeating.
- Jo, London, UK
