By Malissa The Writer
There’s a time and a place for everything.
I recently saw a social media post by Tyler James Williams (plays Chris on “Everybody Hates Chris” sitcom) that told white writers to hire black writers to make slang more natural in a script. It made me pause because writing slang words or phrases (also known as colloquialisms) can be difficult; especially if you’re not engrossed enough in the culture to write it naturally. Nevertheless, writing colloquialisms isn’t as hard as people think.
Think of a colloquialism as a term unique to a group, culture, and etc. It’s something that was coined to mean something else. What confuses people is when to use it and the answer is when you would say it naturally. If you have to force it then it’s not right. Let’s take a look at a few examples. I’m a big fan of “Insecure” and recently Yvonne Orji did a video for Vanity Fair explaining different Nigerian slang terms. This is a perfect example of using colloquialisms because it is unique to her culture.
Watch as Vanity Fair has Insecure’s Yvonne Orji explain Nigerian slang
Enjoy the video and as always if you have any follow-up questions email me at [email protected] and I’ll try to help a much as I can.
