Kirsty Bosley: TBH, it's OK to freestyle with lingo – if time is right

In my opinion, there's very little wrong with the nex'-level way in which the youth of today change the English language.

Know what I'm saying? We all do it after all, you get me?

Seriously, do you get me? Or is this making no sense to you at all?

I'm talking, of course, about the way in which young people are communicating at the moment. The 'Urban Dictionary' style terms they use in general chit-chat that even I, in my late 20s, struggle to stay abreast of.

It's one of the very few things that makes me feel like I'm actually ageing, and no longer cool. Sob.

Perhaps I should be 'up in arms' about the way they're altering language, but even the great writer Shakespeare would cut me down 'in one fell swoop' – The Bard coined both phrases after all, and now both come as standard.

Why is it OK for him to change language and for it be acceptable, yet we get annoyed by kids talking in their own urban terms?

This week on the bus, where all number of people from various facets of our diverse society travel, I overheard a conversation between two teenagers.

With one earphone in and the other utterly engaged in their conversation (sorry lads), the nosy parker in me rejoiced silently at the way they were talking.

I'm not entirely sure what they were saying, but this thick, rich language spilled from their lips like molten gold, and each of the two boys seemed to know what the deal was.

I'm not a mean-spirited eavesdropper – I wasn't in this for semantics, I was in it for the linguistics, dammit.

So much of me, as a writer and a huge fan of language (geek alert) felt like I should be annoyed at their misuse of words.

Peng was used in place of attractive when referring to a girl, and each addressed the other with various terms of endearment. Fam, blud, bro.

I felt I should be annoyed. When did they begin butchering language this way?

But try as I might, I failed. I couldn't help but love the unique way in which they were interacting. As long as each got their point across, does it really matter the way in which they do so?

Every region has its dialects and every group in the community contributes to the changes that our great language undergoes all the time. I find it fascinating.

Memes go round all the time – calling each other dude, chick, hen or sugar – but when it's a term of endearment, I'll readily accept any of them.

My only problem is, that when it comes to the written word, I feel we should all be aiming for the same, standard English.

Colloquial language? Fine, dude. Go mad.

But I do think that we should all be able to fill out a form, write a CV or a job application in good old formal language.

Maybe I'm old fashioned? Or maybe it's just my love of our beautiful, complex language that means that I'm happy to tinker, to pull its leg a bit, but respect it enough to not really diss it.

I just find it an entirely wonderful thing, you get me?