Confusing title, huh? There was a time when I was in school/college when certain words and fake accents felt so cool. Seriously, parents were old fashioned and so was their lingo. What did they know about the latest trends and that inserting one word as an adjective just made us belong to a group of hip and happening. Yes, a good two decades later, I can’t help but suppress a smile at those memories.
Dude
Now though I watch with amusement as I come to terms with the vocabulary that is popular these days. For instance my elder son starts all his conversations with his friends with Dude. So it is, “Hi, Dude T!”
In response: “Dude S”
“Did you know what Dude P said to Dude L…”
“Ah Dude L is quite batty. The other day…”
Thus, the conversation proceeds with a number of other dudes finding a mention. With so many dudes in one class, their class surely must be the coolest one in the entire school methinks. Oh and just in case you were not in tune with the current times, the girls are dudes too. So that way, this generation is gender unbiased, it warms the heart. 🙂 Wish the abuses they used were unisex as well.
Epic
Now this word – epic had more of a usage as a noun — epic tales of the likes of Mahabharat and Ramayan or something really magnificent, of a grand stature. As an adjective it means something heroic or grand in scale.
But in today’s lingo which includes that of my younger son’s too – All good things are epic. Move on Awesome. You have found a replacement From epic movie to food to girls and boys, this convenient term is used for everything. I guess it means wonderful, great or some such thing. Of course, many adults also have taken on this usage. Come on, we are not far behind on the cool quotient even if youth has passed us by.
Like
Please don’t worry, I am not talking about Facebook likes, that has been explored in depth in this fun post already. This is about the word like that does not care about messing up sentence construction. I know I am uptight about these things but tell me what you would feel when someone narrates this conversation to you?
S: Ma, my friend was like: “When are you doing the project?”
I was like: “I should be getting it done in a day or two.”
He was like: “Dude S, you are so going to be late.”
I was like: “Come on, Dude P. It won’t be that bad.”
Phew!
This like inserted in conversations is again very tolerant of age groups. Maddeningly boys and girls of all age groups incessantly go on: I was like and then he was like, she was like and I was like. What the hell, guys? Like Seriously? I am telling you this like thing is really messing with my peace of mind. Such travesty of communication!
Then to add to their maddening language are the insanely fake accents. They are not American, British or Australian or anything else that I recognize. So, I don’t know what they are and how were they acquired. I know one thing that they are certainly aspirational or make certain kids look cool because they must have studied in a phoren land which is still considered a coveted place to be in. Well, what can I say? I even asked a teen whom I knew well exactly what kind of accent was his. I knew for sure that he has never lived/studied in any foreign country to pick it up. And he said that he doesn’t know and doesn’t care, as long as it makes him sound cool!
Dude, I am like this is so not epic behavior!
Do you have any such interesting tales of today’s lingo to share with me?
Rachna says 
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