IRL, how well do you know your child’s slang? (It turns out not much.)
New research has revealed that close to four in five British parents fail to understand up to three words their children aged seven to 12 years are using each day. And some of the most common misinterpretations most definitely attract a chuckle or two.
Cinema giant Odeon commissioned the research to develop a new training programme, specifically designed to help make the cinema-going experience as stress-free as possible for families. As part of this, they trained their workers on kids’ slang to help them better communicate with child customers.
Evolving language
For instance many parents think “lit” means “literally” (when it actually refers to something that is “awesome”), “AFS” to mean “Always Forever Seriously” (when it means “Away From Screen”) and “stan” to mean “standard” or “man” (when it means “huge fan”).
Chris Bates, commercial director at Odeon UK and Ireland said: “We’ve had lots of fun developing this new initiative and we hope parents and kids find it as ‘sick’ as we did! As a parent of a 13 and 10-year old, I know only too well how language is evolving faster than ever and our colleagues notice it day in, day out when they’re chatting to families at our cinemas.
“There’s nothing better than debriefing a film after watching it all together. Hopefully this will help parents understand their kids better and enjoy those precious family moments.”
