Jake10

How important is it for young people to have proficient language skills today? Are young people speaking better or worse than generations from a few decades ago?

Gorge123

I think it's always important to have good language skills, like communicating.

Tuor

Worse, much worse

Jake10

But, can people today get away with having poorer communication skills?

I would also say the same thing. What happens to young people who want to communicate using more articulate language?

Zarin

Language is an evolutionary thing. We certainly do not use the English that was de' riguer in the 16th Century today. Even our S's and F's are now used quite differently then they were then. Language will always evolve for the times.
Today with texting technology, the language is being reduced to very simple communicative symbology. Such as RU (are you), 4 (for), GR8 (great), LOL ( laughing out loud or lots of love, I'm never quite sure) and many other simple combinations of letters and numbers. Even new symbols are being introduced for concepts outside of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Much the same as can now be seen on clever license plates. Often commonly misspelled words soon enter into the dictionaries. Even improper contractions such as "ain't' (am not) have now become legitimized.
You may not like it, but language that becomes "proper" is the language that is in common usage. And it is the younger people who are determining its' direction of evolution. As technology becomes ever more speedier, I would not be surprised to see the current and even simpler contractions emerge into very regular usage and acceptibility. Such is what "evolution" is all about.

tjadams

Write or wrong, judgmental or not, people will judge you, or form an
opinion about you, by the language you use.
If I am an employer looking to hire a person who will have contact
with my customers, during the interview process I am scoring their
language/vocabulary.

Rasta

LOLZ, wut? I think theirs a arror in ur assumption. I showed this to mai BFF, and he was like: "LOLZ, wut?"

And I was like: "That's what I said."

Brisieis

LOL Rasta!

I think language is constantly changing, especially slang. Though I must admit, even though I am young... ish.. that some 'talk' I do not understand and the way some people text...wow, I simply do not get it.

Sophia

Not quite answering the question, but the other day I was reading an article about our youths language (here in Germany). I didn't even know most of the expressions yet alone what they mean. It kind of made me feel old!!

Zarin

I would assume that if such an employee is dealing with people, who have good language skills and require such; this would be a necessary requirement. Which many professional career positions currently demand.
However, the majority of retail sales are usually filled by people with poor language skills, do not speak English clearly and quite often cannot spell either. Plus more and more retail establishments are owned or are often being created by foriegners. People who may have limited English skills as well. Nothing is more irritating than trying to order something from any establishment if you cannot understand what the attendant is actually saying.
I cannot tell you how many misspelled words appear on CNN News these days. And this is a major communications network that apparently cannot acquire either a good proof reader or have a very poor spell checker on their computer systems.