Slang

Slang

Hadley West, Opinions Editor

Ya, trippin’ yo.

I’m shook. 

That’s straight tea. 

Lakeland High School students are constantly using slang words.

Slangs have been around since way before teachers were in high school, but the slang has changed over the years. 

Sara Teel, a math teacher at LHS, used slang words like radical and awesome when she was in high school. Awesome has stayed around over the years, but it is interesting to see how some are still commonly used, and some died off. 

Slangs come and go so quickly that it can be hard to learn them; sometimes, a word can have two completely different meanings.  High school students tend to use fewer slang words than people think.

“I once told my class how I went hiking over the weekend, and a student asked if it was lit. I said no because there are no lights on the mountain,” Teel said.

Some teachers may get confused by slang and be unable to be a part of student-to-student conversation, while others may try to understand and use slang. 

Usually, when adults try to use current slang, they fail miserably. 

Lila Kiefer has to listen to Tim Kiefer, the LHS weights teacher, bring home slang daily. He usually brings jokes home that students or teachers tell him and occasionally drops a “sus” at the dinner table. 

Tim interrupted the interview and said, “What’s up, bruh,” then continued to dap up everyone in the room. 

Teachers may try to use slang to have a better relationship with their students. 

Shannon Hall, an LHS English teacher, does not make fun of slang and even tries to use some on occasion. Her slang of choice in high school was ‘awesome’ because everything was awesome in the 80s. Her current favorite is ‘yeet’, which means ‘woo hoo’; it sends good vibes. 

Every once in a while, she will bring a word or phrase from school and say it to her kids at home. When ‘okay boomer’ was a trendy saying, she and her kids would say it to her husband, who is a few years older than her. 

“You might not think we know, but some teachers know exactly what you are saying, especially the young ones,” Shannon said. 

Without realizing it, everyone uses slang daily.

I personally think slang is a big part of the high school environment. My favorite slang is ‘lit’ because I think it sounds funny. When I use slang, I am typically making fun of it.