The "Gang land" shows

[quinnox]

Have you ever watched them? They have to use freakin' subtitles a lot for the gang members, even though they speak English, because they speak using so much slang and never learned how to speak properly in school. That is sad, and its kind of insulting to these people, that if they ever see the show they were featured on one day on tv, they will see they were subtitled like they were speaking a foreign language or something. I guess they must have either dropped out of school really early or the schools were so bad in their neighborhoods that they never bothered to teach them how to speak properly, that is just sad.

[snooper2]

1. Um, from my experience schools don't really teach you how to speak properly

You should learn that from your parents and your environment...

My 2.5 year old sure isn't saying any slang English but I'm sure I could impress that on her if I was wanted her all hood sounding LOL

[Meiko]

2. I have watched the program

but I find the sheer level of violence disturbing and it leaves me feeling unsettled. I have learned a few things from the few shows I have watched. Drugs drive the entire operation. No drugs no money, no money no power and no more gangs. Many of the gangs are multi- generational and there is virtually no escape for the members.They will kill anyone, anytime, any place just for the fun of it. The dismantling of the war on drugs would go a long way in dealing with the gang problem.

[Brickbat]

3. While the subtitling (and the premise in general) could be seen as an attempt to make the people in

the show the "other," the variety of slang, cant and linguistic variants is fascinating to me.