A perfect example is Singlish. For our ancestors and our parents, English was and is a foreign language from the West, but we have adopted the language, making our very own version of it, to which we add new meanings and speech patterns. These discourses tell us more about adults than they tell us about youths. They reveal the fears and anxieties adults experience in relation to youth. Let me just briefly list the constituent elements of a broad youth culture, and show how each element represents adult angst rather than youth angst.
Youth culture is essentially a fun culture.
Play is restorative, rejuvenating us for the next day of work. It is a healthy adjunct to serious activities. Moralists condemn young people partly because they envy this period of carefree irresponsibility that they do not have. The body is a central feature of youth culture. Young people use their bodies to express their cultural creativity and the pleasure of being young.