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Delbert ChavezProfessor Ramser English 1A3 April 2017Different Languages in 2017Many people talk in different forms of communication that not everyone understands. Those people may be using the language of slang, profanity, emoji, abbreviations, or bilingualism. That language is used to make a conversation either easier or secretive by changing the meanings of a word, even simply a letter. The different groups I usually am around with that use different language types are my family, friends, and school-related people. I avoid using the language of slang when communicating with family, school individuals, and strangers. My friends and I naturally interact by using slang, profanity, and bilingualism but we never stop and think if we should stop. By analyzing, categorizing, and comparing different types of language, I am convinced that it can bring people together, exclude people from groups, and express identity.Based off the groups of people I am usually with, I have noticed that there are different language types that are used. The different groups are my family, friends, and school individuals. When I am talking to friends, we usually use profanity, bilingualism, emoji, and abbreviations, nothing I would use with my family and school personnel. It is easier to use that type of language between friends because we understand each other. For example, in high school we did not like that idea of “swearing to God.” When we did not believe one of our friend’s story, we would ask him to, “put it down,” which to us meant to promise each other just like “swearing to God” would do the same. For my family and school personnel, I always talk to them in a correct manner, even to strangers. The reason for that is because respect is a big deal in my family so profanity nor slang would be allowed, for school it is required to speak and write in an educational level so I keep my formal language, and for strangers I just respect them as they can take slang as a bad thing therefore, causing problems. Most of the slang, profanity, emoji, abbreviations, and bilingualism that I hear or read comes from friends or social media. Using different language types may bring certain groups of people together. My friends and I are an example of a group that are brought together by our use of words, like how we use the term, “put it down,” to avoid, “swearing to God.” I know it brings us together because throughout my high school years, my group of friends were the only ones that will use that term and we have had many people ask us why we would “put I down.” Even after high school we still use the same term. Boys and girls are also brought together when using language that they both understand, according too, “learnenglishteens.,” “He’s fine or He’s fit both mean He’s good-looking. Fine and fit can describe a boy or a girl” (paragraph 7). Without knowing how the word, “fine” or “fit” is being used, it can confuse a person since there are many definitions for those words and by understanding how the words are being used, it keeps a conversation going. The gaming community is also brought together by a series of vocabulary that not everyone understands. I would know this because I am into gaming myself and I have heard people talk slang, profanity, and use abbreviations while I played with them or on many gaming YouTube videos that I have watched. For example, “GG” stands for, “good game,” “rage quit” is an action done when a player gets angry at a game and either leaves the game or turns off the console, and “trolling” which is a player tricking or taunting another player in game play. This brings the gaming community together because those words are not for everyone to use, that is how gamers interact, by using words that could only be used in gaming subjects. Different language types can also form a barrier that excludes people from one another. For example, some students use slang, text-speak, and abbreviations in essays when they are not allowed too, and that type of language should never be used at school. According to, “,” “Slang terms and text-speak such as IDK (I don’t know), SMH (shaking my head), and BTW (by the way) have become a common sight on student assignments.” The use of that language causes a teacher or professor to exclude a student’s work for not being able to filter out unnecessary language at school. There are people that use specific language so others around will not understand what they are trying to say. I have experienced that in high school when two teachers were having a conversation in class with students listening and the teachers used words in their sentences that the students and I did not know the definition of. That was their way of excluding the students from the conversation that they were having among themselves. I have also witnessed a friend talk to her sister with jargon so their parents could not understand. They would say a sentence in syllables but by also saying “Indi” before every syllable and by saying it fast, excluding their parents and even myself on what they were trying to say. There are many people that purposely use a different type of language to exclude a certain group. Police use codes to report a problem, while thieves, robbers, and drug dealers use street words that some police may not understand like nicknames for drugs or weapons. Younger people may not try to exclude anyone from a conversation, but still do it without knowing just because those slang words are in the media, like “Lit” and “Yolo.” I personally do not attempt to exclude anyone from a conversation as I do not use any of the modern language’s people use today. Language may also express one’s identity. A type of language used in a certain place can express someone’s identity. There are those that, “[…] argue that slang is creative, vibrant, poetic, and revolutionary” (The Life of Slang), and those that “[…] argue that slang is sloppy, vulgar, ugly, and trivial. Its users are either uneducated individuals who don’t know any better, or educated ones that really should” (The Life of Slang). Depending on which side you prefer, you may express one’s identity differently than the next person. I am on the neutral side on the use of slang, anyone can use it but only if they know how to control it. There are people that use slang, profanity, emoji, abbreviations, and bilingualism in their everyday lives, but know how to filter it out when it is required. Those types of people are respectful, and well mannered. I can use different language types with friends, but when it comes to school I change my language to another level to avoid anyone identifying me as a bad person. Then there are those that do not filter their language in no way possible. They use it with their families, friends, and at school, and even to those who use the right language to respect them, but cannot seem to be able to filter that slang out. People like that, tell me that their identity is not as good as those that do filter slang and profanity out of a conversation. Everyone will have their different opinion on expressing someone’s identity by their language. Throughout my years of high school, that is where I most heard different types of languages. Even after high school, I am influenced mostly by my family, friends, and school personnel on how to use language. With the experience, I have noticed how language can bring people together, exclude people from each other, and express identity. For the most part, slang, profanity, emoji, abbreviations, and bilingualism, is used to communicate easier with one another. It is also used to keep a conversation secretive between each other. The only bad part about it, is where you decide to use it and with who.Work Cited PageColeman, Julie.?The Life of Slang. OUP Oxford, 2012. EBSCOhost, chaffey.idm.login?url=, Ryan. "How Slang Affects Students in the Classroom."?U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report, 13 June 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2017."Slang."?LearnEnglishTeens. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017. ................
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