Author: Christopher

In the article Kerr talks about slang and how she thinks it is represents the English language poorly and represents the youth poorly. Slang is a type of language that is regarded as informal. Some slang words have made it into the Oxford dictionaries. Kerr is one of a minority who think that slang is bad and that it shouldn’t be allowed in the English dictionary.

At the start of the article she tries to use the slang words to be ironic and to show that slang is bad by putting it in a sentence. There were probably people like her who didn’t like Shakespeare’s new words even though in the long run the words he came up with helped the English Language and people are still using his words so many years later. Kerr doesn’t seem to see the point in the new words but the English language always needs to be updated so new words should be added. She claims to be speaking and apologizing for the youth but she appears to be completely detached from the youth she claims to be apart of.

Kerr needs to understand that it is the 21st century and that the world has been changing and will always be changing, their used to be ‘old English’ but their words got changed. People were probably outraged that words of this famous language were being changed, well now it is happening again.

She goes on to say that Shakespeare ‘turned in his grave’ here it shows that she doesn’t even know what she is talking about because Shakespeare made ‘slang’, by this I mean that if it wasn’t for Shakespeare than the youth wouldn’t have been inspired to make their own words as they wouldn’t have thought it would’ve been possible but Shakespeare showed it can be done. Shakespeare would have been proud if he saw other people add new words into the dictionary. This shows she has made her self look like an idiot and that she should have researched what Shakespeare has actually done and the words he made up. Her argument is that slang shouldn’t be in the dictionary as they are not suitable but words like ‘bitch’ are in it which is seen as a rude word that kids shouldn’t use, so what’s wrong with words like ‘sick’ which is just another word for ‘cool’ or ‘wicked’ so if slang words shouldn’t be in the dictionary than a quarter of the words in the dictionary should not be in the dictionary. Kerr talking about Shakespeare and saying how he would be turning in his grave is her biggest mistake in her article because her argument is that slang words shouldn’t be in the dictionary and that slang puts a bad image on them, but ironically this is Kerr arguing against herself without knowing. Her examples are like ‘twerk’ and then she goes on to say that she doesn’t know what it is. This goes against her argument that slang shouldn’t be in the dictionary but a dictionary is for people who want to find out a meaning of a work and she doesn’t know what ‘twerk’ is and a dictionary is their to tell her.

Kerr goes on to say that slang is giving a bad image but the dictionary is here to tell you the meanings of the ‘modern language’ and slang is a part of the modern language. Kerr also says when was the last time someone used the word ‘groovy’ this backs up the point of the use of slang as groovy is a made up word and slang is a group of made up words so why should people use words like ‘groovy’ but not use words from slang which help the youth and other age groups express themselves in the way they want. People should always be learning new things and new words so with slang it helps them learn and use new words. All the words people use are made up so why can’t the youth make up words to speak, the youth never asked other people to use their words, they made them for them to use them themselves.

Kerr’s argument is that slang is making the English language look bad and that it is also putting a bad image on the youth. She says that she is speaking out for the youth, but in reality is actually detached from the youth as they are the ones that made slang and she does not like slang and is trying to destroy it, so the youth most likely don’t like her. Slang helps the youth communicate with each other so why wouldn’t the youth speak slang if it helps them communicate with each other. So I disagree with Kerr about slang as I think it helps the youth.

So in conclusion Kerr has presented herself in her article as someone who is arguing against something she knows nothing about and clearly hasn’t researched anything about it, sometimes she is arguing that slang should actually be in the dictionary which wasn’t her argument.

When you first step out of your car and look around Chandler Way, you will see it as 3 different worlds: lower class, middle class and upper class.

Firstly let’s talk about the start of the road, where you can hardly walk 5 minutes without having this illicit smoke in the air which you have to breathe in. If you go there then you might get a first bad image of the road you are going into. You might see people with a blooded face on the floor. When you first step on to Chandler Way you will hear music blazing out the houses you first see. If you are lucky you might see either a drug dealer or a drug abuser smoking cannabis. Well there are some people at the start of Chandler Way that help the poor man who was on the floor with a blooded face. They are not all drug abusers or drug dealers, they are genuine people who sometimes help each other out but they just do not really start conversations with the other people on their ‘part of the world’.

Then we have the middle of the road, where you can see a massive change compare to the start of Chandler Way, no drug dealers or drug abusers, no people bursting other people’s ear drums with very loud and annoying people with other stupid noises also not as much smoke in the air. They are so much different to the people at the start of the road. 80% of them go to work and put food on the table for their families and are having a nice and hard-working lifestyle. The thing is that before they might have been like the people at the start of the road themselves. They did not spend the little bit of money they got on drugs they spent it on food for their families.

Then you go to the beauty of the road ‘the posh ones’ as the people at the start of the road like to call them. The people who have the cars that go 150 mph, the houses that have 5 floors, the gates that only open and close with a control. The people who live up there are the ones with the private houses, but they have earned it and when you get out of the car you could see that they were the ones who most probably worked the hardest from a very young age, they were the ones who have earned their money in a perfectly legal way. They are the ones with the heavy bags with legal items inside.

In the end they all look out for each other. When you first step out of the car it looked that way but now you can tell they are human, even if on side of the road are a lot of smoke and not enough oxygen and making money illegally and the other side are making millions legally. After a while living on Chandler Way you get to realize who the people on Chandler Way actually are. Like you will see from the start you will think that it was very weird something like you have never seen before but once you get to understand it is amazing. Like you can tell from you first step out  they are like 3 worlds put into one road.

6 am:  the caretaker opens the gates to The London Nautical School – the school that every kid wants to go to. This is the  school that every Year 11 gets A* in. The school that every student loves every minute, from Year 7 all the way to Year 11. Where in fact only 62% got A*-C and they got outclassed by…. La Retraite. Which got a whole 21% more A*-C than London Nautical School. Don’t know why they even bother. Obviously, with good financial backing and with great facilities, next year they will surely beat…. La Retraite. 6:45:  the gym lads and the over sized basketball players pile through reception to go get changed and do what they love to do. They show focus, stamina and  determination, unlike the football team who have players like De-Quane Garba running late to a cup final because he went home to eat food. A little later, around 8:00, the teachers that actually care come into school, unlike the hypocritical teachers that give the students detentions for being late , even though they are at school either a minute earlier or the same time as them.

At around 8:20 the new Year 7’s arrive. They want to make a good impression to the teachers. They are waving goodbye to their parents, who think the teachers are good with the new kids, even though they do not know that later on in the school day their son will probably be screamed at by the always-perfect teachers. Following them the rest of the school come in – well I say come in: they all get stopped at the school gate to make sure their uniform is perfect like the teachers who always have their top button done up. They line up to fix their uniform like the line at PC World on Boxing Day. After them come the kids who are late by about 30 seconds but that 30 seconds turns into a 30 minute detention. These are the kids that are always the ones with the same excuse: ‘I was in the toilet’ or ‘There was a lot of traffic’.

After all the students are in and locked inside the school, they go to registration which is always fun. Then  period 1 starts, which is usually the longest as you normally have a fun lesson like science, in which on induction day for Year 7’s they get to play with fire and Bunsen burners but as soon as they start school they never see a sight of one. A textbook is lumped at you:  the teacher gives you page 137 and questions 1-12 to do while he or she sits on their phone watching YouTube. Then after 2 periods you get to go out for break for a whole 20 minutes. Well they say 20 minutes, but it’s actually like 10. They let you out like 5 minutes late so you can tidy up THEIR class and then they end it 5 minutes early so the students can get to their lessons.

They go back to another two periods of fun and joy. After them the students get to go out for lunch at 13:00 – well, unless you don’t get a detention for being about 30 seconds late or for laughing in your class where you can’t stop yourself from laughing. So if you do get a detention you get let out at 13:30, then have 5-10 minutes of lunch as the teachers make you go inside to get to class so you’re not late. When the kids with detentions do finally get let out they sprint to the lunch hall to find out that the lovely chicken and chips have been finished, so they have to buy a small grimy sandwich for nearly £2 which will never fill you up if you manage to eat it in time before the lunch staff kick you out.

15:30…. The pips go off.