Friday, January 28, 2011

Kids say the most nonsensical things

There is a student in my tenth grade class who speaks a different language. He knows how to speak English, but in the interests of keeping up his street rep he chooses to speak in some kind of bizarre slang I've never before heard.

For example, to "murk" is to kill. "Getting swole up" means to put on weight and get buff. These are new to me. So like the suburban white child of two suburban white people that I am, I have started a list of interesting things this boy says next to their definitions. Every time he says something I don't understand I ask him to define it, then add it to my list. The whole class loves this and he is proud of his unique contribution to my creative endeavors.

I figure I have a choice: pretend to understand and seem cool and probably fail, or admit to my extreme white suburbanness and treat it like a foreign language that I find fascinating.

One day I'll be in dire need of a really interesting character, and there he will be, a whole list of slang terms I can use to make him feel as real as the real kid he's based on.

10 comments:

  1. Hamboredom.7:59 PM

    Maybe if he goes off to fight in Iraq, you can have Nic Cage play his guard with John Woo directing it.

    The Windshizzler.

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  2. I love Wharrgarbl Dog.

    Patrick Sweeney
    I Blame Ninjas

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:14 PM

    you are getting old

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  4. Your monikers, they entertain, Hamboredom, thank you for the snickers.

    May your fresh wordage be put to exciting use, Emily (fingers crossed for a fresh take on tank girl, LA setting, near future, all about the wa-zizzle). For those of us without coveted first degree access, urbandictionary quite useful.

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  5. Emily, have you been watching the new Spartacus Prequel?

    They've really continued where they left off in terms of quality, but done a brilliant job of still making the stories new and interesting, even though we know what's going to happen down the track.

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  6. "murk" would be from "merc" as in mercenary

    "getting swole" or "swole up" is from the immediate post-lifting swelling that occurs


    I had to learn a fair amount of black street slang when I dated a hip-hop producer 'cause I didn't always know whether he was complimenting me or insulting me. (Bottom bitch - that doesn't sound so good, but it is.) Fortunately, he was also really intelligent and well-read, so could translate well for me.


    One that got me for a while was "chuch" until I realized it was "church" meaning something like "preach the truth" when someone makes an astute observation. And I still think "broccoli" for pot is silly.

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  7. Or you could have me come in and tell "bad English" jokes...

    I hate that shit. Those same knuckleheads will then complain about how they're being profiled and discriminated against.

    Sorry for the rant...

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  8. This one's not a knucklehead. He speaks perfectly fine English when the need arises.

    The other day he told me he's no good at English because he's black. I corrected that bullshit right there.

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  9. haha just had a conversation with my sister about the term "swole", getting "swole up"...

    That sounds just too silly to me, I can't take that word seriously.. plus I'm stuck with using the term "getting yoked"!! hehe.

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