I recently read an article on where not to learn Japanese from which started me thinking about language and how it is an ever-changing creature.

The following resources may be useful to help with reading, writing and comprehension, but when it comes to speaking, these following points may be worth considering:

Don’t learn from novels as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from scientific journals as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from newspapers as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from road signs as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from advertisements as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from phone texting as no-one talks that way.
Don’t learn from manga (comics) as no-one talks that way.

As a native English speaker and mother of young teenagers, it is a constant battle for me to keep up with their ever-changing language. They constantly bring home words that I recognise but with meanings that are completely new to me. 

It may be the answer for students of a new language – learn from the youth of today as the words they use now will be in the dictionaries tomorrow, and everyone will talk that way!

By Vicki