SO Ferndown teenagers think the bright new Youth Advice and Support Centre looks “sick”.

That, apparently is a good thing. It means cool (itself a chilly word popularised by young people when I was in my groovily hip prime).

I don’t speak Teen and if I have got to know of a word in their vocabulary it is already way out of date and no longer even marginally wicked to use. But I am impressed by the way teenagers flex their creative muscles to make language work.

I’m not sure if they actually do but if they want to say “pee” for money or “piff” for good, well that sounds piff to me… so long as they don’t pepper their speech with many repetitive “innits”, like.

What nauseates me is not the language of teenagers (despite, according to linguists, many choosing to limit their vocabulary to 800 words) but the irritating way adults try to copy them.

“Awesome” might have been an awesome word to a teenager some years ago but is a dull cliché when used today. And “cool” is about as cool to me as your dad’s hat.

It’s admirable that teenagers invent words and new uses for words. It tickles me that youngsters not so long ago called people like me “mouldies" when “mugging” (ridiculing) us. Good for them.

But my advice to anyone over 20 is to steer clear of teen speak, blud. You’ll sound as silly as me.

Adults would be better advised on policing their own vocabulary and to avoid using words like Youth Advice and Support Centre. The place in Ferndown may indeed be “sick” but the words Youth Advice and Support Centre sounds less like teen speak than council-speak.

And that’s enough to make many of us feel decidedly queasy.