What are you all up to

Glad you got home safely WN. It sounds like a successful holiday with good weather. 

Tammy, good to hear from you. I hope your homeward journey goes well.

KjNn I hope you manage to keep young Callum on track with his conversational skills. It will be interesting to know what he is like as a teenager. (I speak as the grandmother of several teenagers!)

Agree with you there Milliehull.  We have 4, (nearly 5)  teenage grandchildren, the 3 in Hong Kong have beautiful and amazing vocabulary and diction, although our grandson is at the age where he would rather not speak to grandparents!!!  The other lovely 2 in Hertfordshire are ‘different’, certainly not bad but definitely a more London vocabulary.

Listening to the majority of Young and teen children these days  it seems as if their vocabulary is from a different world to what the majority of us have understood in the past, ,it is almost as if  they are not wanting us to understand

JVB I often have to translate, in my head, what ‘soz’ (sorry-I think!), ‘obvs’ (obviously) mean.  There are a few more which I have forgotten.  I’ve seen this on text messages but it’s odd hearing it being used. Our English language will be forever changed I fear. 

Einstein couldn't talk properly till he was five, even later for reading and writing. Language development isn't always an indicator of what's to come. So never fear the child who lags behind, they can surprise us and love the ones who can't do things too, they're just as special. 

We have a 15 year old and an 11 year old, our son's  children, they both talk very well, their mum is a primary teacher so has kept them right.  

The 11 year old (girl) goes between not talking, or listening, to talking incessantly, while you are lucky to even see, let alone speak to, the 15 year old!   He spends most of his time in his bedroom, only emerging occasionally to eat.

Seems to be very common these days!

When I was working two of the younger, but should know better, members of staff emailed me as they would text their mates. (Similar to above type speech) I sent their emails straight back saying they were at work now and could they write properly. I wasn’t being horrible I just didn’t want them to send similar to our customers. When our grandchildren used ‘like’ as every other word, I counted them, told them and refused to answer until they repeated it without the  ‘likes’. They still put in a few but  all try not to in my company. I think it is sad that our lovely language is being changed. 

We have 4 teenagers now, 2 boys 2 girls. The girls talk non stop always have. The boys you are lucky if you see them let alone have a conversation with them.

Our sons each have a boy and girl, live hundreds of miles apart yet same outcome. Can't say they are into sloppy talking, all are very good. Both sets have mother's who correct them if they do get sloppy. I don't mind to much if they use some modern phrases as long as they answer when you speak to them, nothing annoys me more than a grunt or just a blank look.

Our eldest grand daughter has a lovely way of speaking, she has no accent being a forces child, though we are starting to hear a bit of a scottish lilt now and again since she came to school in Scotland. The school is very keen on grammar and diction, her brother now also at the school is turning into a very smart and well spoken young man.

Our other son lives in Yorkshire his children are picking up the local accent much to their scottish mother's disgust, she is constantly correcting lazy speech. 

We noticed our local accent has changed considerably, when we left Scotland in 1972 it had a distinct brogue to it, on return in 1990 that had all but gone. With so many folk moving around the country accents are getting watered down. We now get a lot of Fifes accent creeping in to Perth. Even a lot of the sayings have gone out of everyday speak.

🤣🤣🤣 that sounds so familiar KjellNN!! 

Our three local granddaughters never stop talking, two are teenagers. The three teenagers that live away, not so much. Our son has a way of over coming this, he deliberately puts them on the phone and says, ‘talk to your granparents’ Sometimes slow to start with but with a gentle probing they get going and tell us about their week/lives. Son then comes back on the phone and says,’I didn’t know all that’ makes me smile.