The United States is one of the few nations in the world without a standard language. This stems from the country being a land for all immigrants. Though there is no standard, English has always been the common language of the country. Throughout the centuries things change, and language is no exception. If one were able speak with someone from the past it might be a little difficult, but most defiantly possible. However, this difficulty comes from the change in language over the years. When speaking with someone in a professional setting a person is more apt to use formal language. When I think of formal language I think of it as a classical way of speaking. It is the intelligent manner in which one person addresses another. However some of the words used in this intelligent manner of speaking were probably at one time in the past considered slang. As a slang word gets older it becomes more mainstream. It seems that when something is new it is often disregarded, but if that thing can last a couple of decades it will become more widely accepted. This is also the case with something like punk rock. When it first came about in the nineteen-eighties those who listened to it were considered “outcasts”. Now however punk rock is completely normal with bands like Green Day and Blink 182 being global stars. I do not know if things become more acceptable just because they grow in age, or is it that the people who used those new words or listened to that new type of music got older, and are now in a position to make it acceptable. I do not think slang is necessarily bad, but I do not also want to read “yo” instead of hello in a paper. Times will change and some slang will become acceptable, but overall I feel we will still be able to read the same book a person did two-hundred years ago and not be completely confused.