Slang words, what do you think about them?

Do you think they harm or do they enrich languages?

I myself don't believe any register of a language, words or dialects can harm the formal or primary language, or anyone else for that matter. Whatever an individual or a collective wants to create, can only boost and enrich the current state of affairs. 

The slang was also invented/created by a certain majority, and/or people that already felt rejected, ostracized and/or stigmatized. So it is a representation of a certain point of view and culture. I think it toally enriches the state of collective expressions, and can only represent and show certain stance that we could think about and wonder. Lots of slang was also used in artistic expressions, like in littérature or drama, and if a slang incorporates more of a vulgar words and expressions, I believe it's also a need to tear down the walls of formality. 

I myself prefer using well known and established words, I am more concerned with the message I want to cross. However I understand the need of people to play with words and create. Some are really silly and uncreative, there can only be an initial reason for inventing a word, like, "I want to just feel as if I matter and have invented something, and am impactful"- a word that I personally like and that this linguist TED speaker is mentioning herself. In the end I agree and am grateful to hear that the major criterion for incorporating a word in an official dictionary, is if the majority has wholeheartedly accepted it and how often it is used by those English speakers (us) in this case, themselves. 

I have myself thought of a word that I personally like, that i have seen few people understand or use it. It's "heartful", sounds like hurtful, but it is the exact opposite. I just felt the need to say exactly what that neologism conveys, so have used it several times in my poems/texts. 

Thanks! Nice speech

Nowadays we have to at least understand slang as it is so pervasive, you hear it in the streets, in movies,songs

Language is continuously evolving. As long as you have the grasp of your defacto or second language, and you know where and how to use slang words, then that's fine. You don't want to use slang words in business setting right? :smile:

I agree Aleksys

Slang is beautiful! Argot is particularly charming. Argot is the jargon or slang of a particular class or group.

For example, in and around our capital city you can observe several speakers of Swardspeak, gay lingo derived from a mix of Tagalog and English. They unfailingly infuse their speech with gay slang and exuberant tones and emphasis, and their lexicon has continuously changed over the past decade at least.

Slang is very useful. But it all depends on the situation.