Dear Ms Kerr,

I understand that you believe that those of a young age are responsible for new slang terms being created and that it is damaging our reputation as a community. However it does improve our communication among each other especially since our community is so mixed. On the other hand I do see how you feel that it may be a bad thing since it is based around (at times) inappropriate language. Also much of the time these slang terms are used to confuse authorities of any illegal activity that may occur later on in time.

However, you cant just say that it’s bad since its not formal because during the Elizabethan times, William Shakespeare created pretty much all slang. A large portion of our modern language originates from him. To be honest, if you wasn’t so hostile towards how people speak then there would be more of an ethnic variety within more societies. Take Lewisham, Camden, and Brixton for example. These places all have a very large ethnic diversity because of slang. And the fact that slang is very much accepted, I speak a lot of slang. as do my parents, but it wouldn’t be the same form. They would speak cockney or patois.

But don’t feel offended, I fully understand why you may believe so but the future is now. The year is 2015, not 1935. The English language has changed and so has the ethnicity groups of our residents. This clash causes people to pick up new phrases and these phrases start to get modified and constantly updated to keep up a trend. Then people automatically just tag that as slang and say its bad because most of the people who speak this are from poorer communities. They are perceived as the criminals. Really its just the steps forward to  a new form of language. Instead, you want to take a step backwards and keep tradition. You want to stay talking like you’re some type of Elizabethan just so that people will look up at you as if you’re above everybody else. But frankly, its just pathetic.

You don’t gain anything from keeping up tradition but instead you gain so much by being identified as where you are from or what you believe in. Together we can come up with something new and turn that into a tradition. A new, exciting form of language could appear. But instead you want to use something from the past, as if it will ‘improve yourself’ as a human being, rather allowing language to evolve.

It’s ridiculous. It’s like starting life as an old man and going back to when you were a baby again. That just proves that speaking slang is better then speaking so formally all of the time. It just makes no sense that while people’s lives have changed so much, you expect people to continue to speak the same as they have been speaking for the past 100 years. That’s just not how the human mind works!

It’s like doing the same cycle for days without an end. Somebody would eventually get bored of it and say “you know what… I want a change” and just start to come up with their own odd phrases here and there. This is the moment for change. The moment when our generation shows the development of a larger mind and imagination.

So Ms Kerr, I am sorry but I honestly don’t think you realise how much damage you’re doing to our community. By simply having such a biased opinion on such an vital topic, you are limiting expression, especially for the youth community; the people who talk like this on a daily basis. The worst speaking slang can do to you is just make you use more fillers such as “like” and “uhhhh”. How much damage can using one sound and one word slightly more do?

The worst part about this situation is the fact that you’re a young lady in her 20’s, but yet speak like you’re 70. I’m sorry, but its people in our generation who come up with most of the words that the youth community uses. So to be honest, its your fault both ways. It’s your fault for using traditional language and for encouraging us as a society not to evolve. But it’s also your fault for being conspiring with those who do create new slang terms.

So thanks, Ms Kerr.

Yours sincerely

Arun Roberts-Halil