Sometimes my daughter and I venture down to the playground next to my son's school and wait for him to walk out. My daughter runs off full of energy to play and I sit and watch.
This is the part I shouldn't share maybe,
Friday I was sitting on the bench signing to my girl because talking is a strain at that distance. There were two kids, the same age as my son, on a tire swing in front of me. A girl and a boy. I think they thought I was deaf.
So the girl was talking so loud I couldn't help but hear every mangled word she vomited into the atmosphere,
"So, like, I like, got this call and like it was a guy wanting to like, sell me a car and like, I was like saying like I am only like, thirteen and like he just kept like, trying and I was so like, freaked out. I really like doughnuts and like, my mom took my dog to the vet and like ....."
This goes non stop four about 4 minutes. She didn't even pause for a breath. Of course being of sound mind I was trying to remember how to do CPR if she happened to just pass out from the sheer energy it took to talk so loud and mangle every thought with "like".
Then she pauses waiting for the boy to respond and he does,
"My Xbox is broken"
This prompts the girl to open her floodgate as she glances toward my kid's school,
"OH MY GOD!!!!! like here comes, like, the art school kids, we should go down there and like yell at them, like in a accent, like, yell something funny like, "hey art school freaks!" Yea that would be funny and like, it would freak them out....." * fill in the blanks this went on for at least two minutes*
They get up and walk away when the art kids got close as though this great plan was really just a way to show their frustration that they were not "art school freaks".
So I sat there feeling like I had been verbally assaulted. The word "like" was swirling around my brain causing a wee bit of mental pain. Then I got to thinking as my son walked over. You see having a deaf kid has perks! I don't have to sit and have a conversation with him holding a Teenspeak dictionary. Of course he is a typical thirteen year old and he drives me nuts but....... I am not assaulted by his language.... he doesn't use his language to fill every space within reach. If he has a thought he frames it in a way to best express it. Sometimes I don't agree but at least I understand him.
My next thought? Is my hearing daughter going adopt the teen code that will surely give me a headache?
ew, OMG, LOL. That's the extent of my teen speak. :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if kids talk like that because they don't have any adults to talk to? Even though I'm old(er) and missed all that Valley Girl period and beyond, my age peers and I all spoke fairly properly as teenagers.
I blame it on the media - too many poor language role models for teens.
You forgot the part about how exverything? is said as if it's a question? and it's really annoying? because you have no idea? when they are actually? making a statement?
ReplyDeleteDef Poet Taylor Mali talks about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNIBV87wV4&feature=player_detailpage
LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's like, how I remembered how I use to speak like way back when I was a teen. And you know what? I'm like, still doing it these days but less, a lot less.
I do get into the habit of writing like that too. ya know, like really I'm no longer a teenager. ;o)
Candy~
Nothing like watching someone else's teen to make you appreciate your own! Your post is amusingly funny, and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteLike, OMG! Like, that was really funny, like really. I was like, LOL. Really. OK, so like, I'm gonna go yell at some art freaks now or something.
ReplyDeleteTTYL!
(e
That was funny! Yes, being Deaf has its advantages, but TeenSpeak does exist in ASL as well. Sometimes I can barely keep up with my son when he gets revved up about things. Then I get called a squarehead for not understanding!
ReplyDeleteIt isn't like, that girl, she has like, serious problems besides being like, a ditz. I'm sure the boy with her had a headache, too.
OK, so is it ok that my response to comments is just like, lmao ?????
ReplyDeleteOh and (e, meet me one the corner so we can go yell at some art freaks but you have to bring the Cheetos and soda......
ReplyDeleteDeal. :) LOL.
ReplyDeletehaddy2dogs: no, it's supposed to be lmfao,
ReplyDeleteand fml,
and omfg.
never forget the power of Eff! :)
About 20 years ago, when I was an Adventure Ropes Course leader, we Deaf leaders teamed with a group of teenage leaders and an interpreter. I was stunned by how the teenagers cursed like the proverbial sailors. Every 3rd word coming out of their mouths was a four-letter word. There wasn't a single sentence that didn't have the Eff word in it.
seriously. like, WTF??? ;)
I wonder if videotaping them and their teen lingo would cause them to realize how ridiculous it is...
ReplyDeleteAnony that is so funny! Alicia perfect idea but I would save the tape to show their kids...... I hide old photos of me......
ReplyDelete