Qinwei Wu- Week 4: "ZAMN BOI"


Photo Credits: Screenshot from Discord

The group chat was active and I was typing in response to one of my friends potentially being the cause of a teacher being fired at school. “ZAMN BOI” I clicked send. I didn’t think much of it since this is how I normally speak to my friends. However, from an outsider’s perspective, we might sound a bit weird. Although these words may sound so weird, it feels so natural to me. Typically, you wouldn’t use these types of words in formal situations, or even in your own friend groups. I mean, you wouldn’t find it in the classic Merriam-Webster dictionary. But they are real words. At least, it’s part of the vocabulary me and my friends use. “Zamn”: another word for damn or dang and can be used in a similar way, but with stronger emotion. “Boi”: another word for “boy", but funnier. Where do these words come from? Where did I learn these words? My friends of course! These words were popularized online, but I started using them because one of my friends started saying them. Now everyone in the friend group says them. If the people around you can shape the way you talk, then they must also influence other aspects of you as well. There are so many things that wouldn’t be part of my identity today if it weren’t for my friends; my humor, my values, my interests would all be different. My interest in movies such as Obsession wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for my friend asking me to go with her. If I had a different set of friends, I would probably be into completely different movies. However, not all of our interests are the same because we are still completely different people. We are all still very close to each other, and we mostly share a similar identity when it comes to humor and slang. I really love this idea because when people in the same friend group use the same slang, they are in a way creating a language only they understand. Other people may understand the general meaning, but they will not know the context and the humor behind it. What unique slang words does your friend group use the most?



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