You Speaka My Language?

Everyone knows that teenagers try to create a code of language all for themselves. But as every parent also knows - this is nothing new. The codes are easily hacked into, if the parent has the mind to take note.

In some cases, there is no code to break; a black-hole, a vacuum, a nothing-ness. My 15 year old daughter has this knack of driving me to the point of panic due to lack of detailed information about hanging out with her friends. Make sure, parents, that you get ALL the information. Is a responsible adult supervising? If so, who - and when you drop her off, do make sure that person actually exists!! Going to a friend’s house? Which friend, which house, what number, what street? Turn the tables and drive your teenagers up the wall if you have to.

Your daughter has told you – you are to drive her to a ‘meeting place’. She needs to be there by 1:30. It takes 30 minutes to get to your destination, so you agree to leave at 1pm at the latest. After piling all the younger siblings in the car along with your teenager, it is 1:05pm, that’s ok, fairly good timing.

You set off down the end of your street and start to turn the corner, there it begins….Miss 15 informs you that you are to give her friend a lift, her friend lives in the other direction, 5 minutes out of your way! ‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’ I asked….’I did” was her reply. (Not!) 15 minutes later you are back on route again. Now she tells you to ‘hurry or we’ll be late’ and proceeds to tell you how to drive as well. At every traffic light it’s “Green light Mum, green light”, even before your feet have a chance to change from brake to accelerator or your hand can change the gear.

You arrive at the suburb, but discover your daughter doesn’t know the address, or where it is exactly! “It’s somewhere around here”, she says…..yes, I gathered that (eyes rolling)….but left or right?....which side of the road? Then she spots it, and sure enough it just had to be on the opposite side of the road and there is a barrier in the middle of the road. “Here, here…You’ve missed it Mum, you have to turn around”. The next turn is a no U-Turn sign. So you venture further down the road to find a suitable place to turn. “Why didn’t you turn here Mum”, she says exasperated (the turn was a driveway, but to turn into it you have to cross a double line and the oncoming traffic is busy – this was no back road!)

Finally after another 10 minutes you arrive at the desired destination. Your daughter and friends pile out with their feet running as they hit the ground, with mumbled ‘Thanks’. You wind the window down and yell “What time do I pick you up? “I’ll message you” she shouts back. I insist on a time and confirm I will meet you back here!!

I go all the way home again. When I arrive through the door of our house, piling a 5 year old and 2 year old out of the car and everyone else in tow, I glance at my watch to discover I have but 10 minutes before I have to leave to go back and pick Miss 15 and friends up once again. I pile the kiddies back in the car (sometimes I am fortunate to have the foresight to check my watch before I get out of the car, in which I just rev up the car engine and take off – this at least saves getting the kiddies in and out!).

Teenage boys….well…. their ‘language’ is mostly monosyllobic, more like pre-historic grunts. But it is pretty simple to communicate with them really. Just ask your questions so to require only a ‘yes or no’ answer or a variation of the same such as ‘ugh’ ‘eh’; ‘mm’ ‘ngh’. (For complete understanding - Do bear in mind the tonal implications!)

Teenage vocabulary is an interesting one. To their understanding it is totally different and new. Some words are new to the dictionary, but most are doing a full cycle. Same words - different meanings.

The latest fad of teenage vocabulary is saying something and meaning the exact opposite. How original is that?

Cool, Rad, Unreal, Hot, In, Out, Bad, Good, Wicked, Awesome. Make sure you understand the meaning of each. It is not the same today as it was 20 or so years back down the track.

Communication in its many forms and ways is the fabric of our society, magnificently varied, a tapestry of life. Life was never meant to be dull.

Copyright 2005. Rebecca Laklem.