Track 7

Unit 1

Communication studies

Slang and language change

Page 10

Extend the topic

Part A:

Hi, I’m Jacky Giopoulos and I’m in Palo Alto, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. You know, since instant messaging technology hit the market, its popularity is spread like crazy. And with the growth of cell phone messaging, it’s now estimated that around 80 million Americans, IM regularly. And it’s changing how we talk. It’s created the slang all of its own.

We’re all familiar with the IM slang LOL, laugh out loud and TTYL, talk to you later. But let’s ask this skateboarders what other slang they use. We have Sam and Stephanie.

Sam, what are some of the other expressions you use? Well, there’s JK which means just kidding. And I use BBL quite a bit, which is be back later.

And Stephanie, what about you? Oh, I’m always using LLS, love you like a sister. And OMG which is oh my gosh. And TTYLGF is kind of fun with your female pals, it means talk to you later girlfriend.

Okay, so can you two give some examples of IM slang that have crossed over into speech. For example, I just found out that book means cool. Why, why is that? Well, it’s basically the fact that when you type the words book and cool on a cell phone type pad, you use the same keys. So like one can mean the other.

Oh, I’ve got another one when you type 1 <3 and you on a type pad, it looks like I heart you, in other words, I love you. On Valentine’s Day, everyone was going around saying I less than three you. It was fun. Yeah, it’s funny.

That story made me ROFL, that’s role on the floor laughing. And on that note let’s back to the studio.