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"Slang" is it really necessary??? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6806 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 9 of 27 24 August 2007 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Even if you don't plan to use much slang, you might still want to acquaint yourself with some of the more popular ones. Some of the most popular ones tend to stick for quite a while. Imagine not knowing what "one buck" means in North America. The point is to learn the ones that have already been absorbed into the culture. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6438 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 27 02 September 2007 at 5:41am | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion, slang is also a very important aspect of language acquisition. Suggest that somebody just swore badly at you, but you are just smiling there because you don't know what it means. You'll just look like a stupid idiot!
Also sometimes you need ways to express yourself strongly and in a violent manner to get your point across. I remember there was a very funny video on youtube with two Korean girls. It was about learning the word "butt/ass" in Korean (엉덩이), and their point was that if you don't know the word "ass", you won't be able to tell the molesters, "Don't touch my ass!" Hilarious as it may sound, this is quite a valid point. How are you supposed to say "Don't touch my ass, you SOB. Just f*** off", if you don't know the words "ass", "SOB" and "f***"? I think it is also quite important not just to learn it from the context through books, movies, etc. The pupils should learn what they originally mean (e.g. sh*t means faeces) and how exactly they can be used. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| antonius_rgp Newbie Australia Joined 6307 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 11 of 27 04 September 2007 at 11:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Wow... my question does spark quite a wide range of response. I have to agree with most of the responses that
in certain situations and conditions, learning slangs can be really useful. However, let's imagine all of us back into High School classroom and we are about to learn a language from 'zero'. And we have two options for the textbook and we have to choose one. The first is more basic formal language oriented and the other one is more 'modern' (slangs here and there) approach. Which one would be more useful to be used? Please disregard the 'fun factor' of learning slangs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dogenzenji Newbie United States Joined 6636 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 12 of 27 04 September 2007 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Where do we draw the line between slang and idiom? I'm guessing that a large portion of our day-to-day conversation, and a lot of modern fiction would be unintelligible without a grasp of idiom.
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| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6652 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 13 of 27 04 September 2007 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Formal language mostly (like grains), idiom moderately (like dairy), and slang sparingly (like sugar)
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| Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6438 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 27 05 September 2007 at 6:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd say go for the textbook with the modern approach. Since the class is a beginner's class, they would be more attracted to something they can use immediately than formal grammar and vocabulary lessons. Also, if any of them gets serious about learning the language, they'll always be able to study formal language later on.
However, since I do not know the real nature of the textbooks (the topics they cover, the method, etc.), I would not be able to comment anymore. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6413 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 15 of 27 25 February 2009 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would steer clear of slang altogether.
I do so even in my native language, so I don't think I would attempt to learn any slang in my L2 or more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| K.C. Groupie United States ksclay.net Joined 7054 days ago 42 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 27 25 February 2009 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Slang certainly has it's place, but just thinking about English, for instance (although I'm sure the same applies to every other language), the slang is going to be so different depending upon where you are geographically and what groups you're dealing with and what time period it is, that I have no idea how anyone would manage to get that into a textbook. I mean people in the U.S. would have different slang than those in the U.K or Austraila. Different states in the U.S. have different ways of speaking. People in their forties use different slang than people in their twenties. People with different interests tend to create their own slang around that. It seems to me that it would make a lot more sense to learn the "base" language first, if you will, and then to move on from there and learn the slang of the geographic area/age group/interest groups you come into contact with. Edited by K.C. on 26 February 2009 at 12:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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