Who is popular today?

Geoff Johnson is a former teacher of English and superintendent of schools.

As a lifelong reader, writer, speaker and teacher of English, I now, in later years, sometimes wonder if our wonderful language is finally getting beyond me.

One of the joys of the English language is that it is constantly evolving by adding new words and phrases. But it is that same phenomenon, that same defining characteristic of a living language, that reminds me that I am getting older and, if I was still teaching high school kids, I would not understand them half the time.

True, there are words and phrases that have entered the everyday vocabulary of my contemporaries: “binge-watching,” “carbon footprint” and “selfie.”

No problem — mostly self-explanatory. Then there are an increasing number of other words and phrases that send me scrambling for an online urban dictionary: “gaslighting,” “mic drop” and the often-exasperated plea not to “bogart” something — a plate of appies, the last of the wine or anything else which should more properly be passed around among those present.

Bogart fans who watched Bogart movies where he appeared to smoke the same cigarette for two hours will get that one.

Some new language depends upon up-to-date cultural awareness: “that proposal sounds just a little Marianne Williamson” as I heard someone say yesterday (saying something is a bit “woo woo” means the same) or “Trudeau somehow Houdini’d his way out of that one.”

Such invented verbs based on proper nouns are a linguistic phenomenon that YOLO (only live once and for a short time) in everyday speech. Those words depend upon the listener’s media-based cultural awareness and whether he/she is “au fait.”

The context sometimes provides a clue as to intended meaning, and we oldies can always strike back by saying the a failed enterprise had been “Ralph Nadered” into near bankruptcy.

Younger generations can Google that if they care to.

Still with me? Good, because “Googling” something isn’t about the trickiness of the bowler in a game of cricket, it is the modern-day equivalent of “I’ll need to librarian that.”

Look it up.

“Verbing” thrives in the fast-paced, short-attention-span internet culture, which, in turn, is all about the viral sharing and remixing of pop-culture memes.

And yes, I’m still struggling with what a “meme” is, because “friends” on Facebook talk about “memes” all the time.

Then there are descriptors which are so delightfully visual no further explanation is required; “his apartment is a real ‘yard sale,’ ” for example.

The best application of that term was used during the last Winter Olympics when a TV commentator described the disastrous outcome of a failed ski jump — mitts, tuque, skis, poles, even a boot all over the touchdown area — “a real ‘yard sale’ landing” was the description.

Other terms, because of events not anticipated by the original non-political usage now take on a new meaning. To describe something as a “trumped-up explanation” is a good example.

But back to teaching kids who increasingly speak a different language.

One young friend told me the he was “woke” to the issues behind the Wet’suwet’en protests, meaning he had become aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues especially issues of racial and social justice.

Good use of the past tense of “wake,” I thought.

And so on, which brings to mind the increasing tendency to start every other spoken sentence with “so.” I hear ex-Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren use it all the time in “debate,” so it must be OK, but when I hear the president of the U.S. communicate, not in inspiring Churchillian tones but in “tweets,” I think yes, that about captures it.

I have caught up, more or less, with “mic drop” (Obama used it to end a speech), “dark web,” “boomer” and “click bait” and can now appear cool — but I still struggle with “rocks” as in “she really rocks that new outfit.”

As an educator, I recently learned that we might be preparing the next generation to survive in a “gig economy” — a job market increasingly reliant on one-off jobs that are not even as secure or predictable as temporary jobs. Looking for work will involve moving from gig to gig like an unemployed musician.

All of the above strikes fear and loathing (a cool Hunter S. Thompson reference there) into the agonized hearts of pedantic grammarians, but so be it.

To me, hearing the next generation play with words and terms we oldies will eventually learn is reassuring. The kids might even start to develop greater respect for the boss of all word innovators, William Shakespeare.

gfjohnson@shaw.ca