As I flipped through radio stations last Friday, I heard an announcer mention 'gran slang', an online dictionary for youngsters to better understand what their grandparents are talking about. I remember my Grandma Smith referring to their couch as the 'davenport' and I had no idea what she was talking about. I couldn't wait to check out this online dictionary...until I found out that I couldn't find it anywhere online.
A British firm called Home & Capital Advisers sent a press release to announce their efforts to help 'inter-generational communication'. They get an A for publicity but an F for everything else. Maybe I'm the only one who can't find it, but I looked for a long time and I'm generally pretty savvy online. The only Home & Capital Advisers 'dictionary' that I could find was embedded in a PDF press release, and the 'gran slang' section was a whopping one page long.
Although I'm not aware of other 'gran slang' dictionaries for young folk to understand the older folk, there are other options for older folk trying to understand the young folk. I check out http://www.urbandictionary.com/ every so often. It's all user-generated content, so not everything is legitimate, but other visitors vote on each term as thumbs-up or thumbs-down. A lot of the terms are hilarious. A recent example..."carcolepsy - a condition affecting buddies on a trip who fall asleep as soon as the car starts moving, providing no company or driving help. Example: 'Joe slept the whole way here, I think he suffers from carcolepsy.'"
I highly doubt that teenagers are running around using the term 'carcolepsy' or 'shyPod' or 'laundry limbo'...but it's great fun to read. Some terms are a little raunchy but it's all in good fun.
Sorry to report about those 'gran slang' lickspittles and all their hullaballoo...we won't dwell on their poppycock, we'll just move on to find better eggs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment