Читать книгу How Not to Act Old: 185 Ways to Pass for Cool, Sound, Wicked, or at Least Not Totally Lame - Pamela Satran Redmond - Страница 8
Оглавление#2 Don’t Say ‘Awesome’, ‘Dude’, or ‘Phat’
Slang is basically a shorthand way to let other people know how old you are. The problem is it doesn’t work as simply and directly as you might think.
Using too-young slang, for instance, can very easily backfire and make you seem older, not younger, than you are. It’s akin to wearing a yellow miniskirt or driving a Zipcar; you’re trying too hard to be comfortable with something that was obviously minted by and for a generation that came way after yours.
The word awesome is a prime example. Few people over the age of forty can say ‘awesome’ in what sounds like their native tongue. For the most part, if you’re older than forty, don’t even attempt to say anything more modern than ‘cool’.
Of course, you also don’t want to swing too far the other way and use outmoded words like keen, neat, or smart.
It goes without saying that you must avoid such adolescent and hipster lingo as phat, fierce and dope. Even typing those words makes me feel a little sick, and I mean that in the old-fashioned, barfy sense of the word.
It may, however, be possible to successfully straddle the young– old slang divide and come up with something both cool and age-free by using outmoded words with confidence and irony. Groovy!
GUIDE TO 11 YOUNG–OLD SLANG EXPRESSIONS
| YOUNG | OLD | SO OLD IT’S YOUNG AGAIN |
| Dude | Man | Baby |
| Sick | Cool | Groovy |
| Ugly bad | Coyote ugly | Sick |
| Feel | Dig | Grok |
| Bitch | Babe | Bird |
| Hot | Sexy | Dish |
| Fly | Cute | Suave |
| Ho | Old Lady | Wifey |
| Weed | Pot | Reefer |
| Durge | Creep | Fink |
| Whip me | Can I hitch a ride? | Can I get a lift? |
