Slang culture: an immigrant teen’s arch nemesis

By Marion Rai

Can slang culture even impact an immigrant teen at all?

Language, once so simple, now becomes a quilt woven by social and political complexities. One has to wear a newly learned language like woolen sweaters in winter, draped around you, hoping it will protect you, only to find that the warmth of the sweater (your newly learned language) is there, but also there are gaps — holes you somehow couldn’t fill in.

Process

The idea for this podcast stemmed from my personal experience as an immigrant. When I first arrived in America, especially the American High School, I was greeted with a vast array of slang and I quickly realized that, despite being fluent in English, I really didn’t know a lot of this slang. Two years in, I’ve realized that it wasn’t only me; a vast majority of people felt just as alienated, and still feel this way, and thus, I created this podcast. I have written and rewritten the script again and again in fear of sounding either too cliche or too bland. But in the end it pulled through, and I truly feel proud of my work.