Sharyar, Mohsin and Kazam are from Reading and Nadeem lives in Maidenhead; he describes himself as bringing new slang terms from London into the county. We asked Sharyar when he would mix languages. "It depends on the audience... Say you're in a home environment and you're speaking your own language but there are some words maybe you can't express, that are better expressed in English. Or if you're talking to your friends in English, which we predominantly do, we'd talk a bit of Hindi or Punjabi as it makes it a bit more accessible." There are some circumstances however when it's very useful to be able to communicate in private... Listen to the audio clip "drunk"
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It's not just Asian words which find their way into conversation, however. There are several street slang words which these young men use, like:
"bliss" - cold weather
"vex" - being annoyed
"ma mandem" - friend
"crew" - a group of friends
"sick" - good
"ill" - good
"garms" - clothes
"to knock out" - to go to sleep
"butters" - ugly (from "butt ugly")
"skeet" - a female 'chav', someone pretending to be something they are not
"fronter" - someone posturing
"bottoms" or "trackie b's" - trousers
"bredren" - someone you know, a friend The origins of these vary, coming from such diverse sources as urban slang and American surfer-speak. The flow is not just in one direction, however; they have noticed their non-Asian friends picking up on the circumstances when using an Asian word would be more appropriate or respectful. Listen to the audio clip "Trust me" The group we spoke to feel fortunate in having two cultures and several languages to draw on to express themselves. They feel optimistic about the way cultures are blending. Listen to the audio clip "One culture"
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There are some specifically Urdu and Punjabi words they use. A lot of these relate to family, like dada and dadi (Urdu paternal grandfather and grandmother respectively) and the word "latrine", which although it has an English origin, is in widespread use in Pakistan. A lot depends on context; in this audio clip, Sharyar is talking about words for drunkenness and points out the difference between the situations in which Urdu or Punjabi would be used... Listen to the audio clip "Urdu/Punjabi" Sharyar also sees the kinds of language being used changing very quickly. He thinks that the next British generation's use of Asian languages will be noticeably different... Listen to the audio clip "Future" Even when speaking English, you can spot differences between people who have grown up in Britain and people who have spent years studying English...
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Listen to the audio clip "English" | 
