english help: My little rant… - Help.com

I agree.

wtf? idk what ur problem is!

I actually dispise this. It is more than your average pet peeve for me.

*laughs out loud* It doesn’t bother me, because I don’t understand most of it. It’s like traveling in China, where I can’t read the street signs… I skip over those parts, but if we are really killing the English language then I should become properly outraged, and I will. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Although I try not to be too uptight, since this is an online forum, and so formal written standards may not completely apply, I have to admit, when I see someone type “U R so rite!” Or “Me 2,” it makes me wonder about their actual interest in the topic that they could not write out the words to their response.

Of course, maybe they are accessing this site on a Blackberry; then I can see the point.

I am usually pretty relaxed about language issues for an “English type,” but I am seeing way too many people let their texting slang slip over into formal documents!

I have to confess, though, to using :-) and lol

Richard Cor de Lyon wrote:
wtf? idk what ur problem is!

lol! ;-)

oh my God…I mean OMG..
I hate this…there is no reason to take all these short-cuts.

Respect the language.

It’s not just you. This rant has been posted several times by several people around here.

Okay I have to admit I had to look up 1337 5p34k!

Interesting that leet(elite) speak becomes a code to identify people and to keep others out. This leads to an entire discussion of dialect as a subversive act: that oppressed groups tend to fall into dialect as a “gatekeeping” measure that plays against the gatekeeping of the majority who have the power.

Subversive dialects gatekeeping feature is its inherent fluidity—one must constantly stay part of the group to keep up ( like gangsta slang); this is in direct opposition to the majority language, in which the gatekeeping is housed in its static, written rules.

Sorry—off on a tanget…..

1337 5934k 15n7 7h47 84dx w311 n07 un1355 y0u d0n7 kn0w 7h3 c0d3x

LOL, and see I skipped over those numbers, I honestly thought wtf? when I saw it, but that was as far as it went with me. I had no idea that others were trying to keep me out, I’ll probably be just as oblivious and yet more knowlegable all at once.

they are not keeping ME out, but keeping themselves in..

Is this post a joke? http://help.com/post/111758-i-has-teh…

now I know that it means something after this post. ugh….

Xeno Dragon wrote:
1337 5934k 15n7 7h47 84dx w311 n07 un1355 y0u d0n7 kn0w 7h3 c0d3x

Translation: Leet speak isn’t that bad. Well, not unless you don’t know the code.

I must admit I do use some of these online= wtf, omg , lol, lmao… But as for full blown text talk I don’t do and I do try to keep up with my grammer, although spelling I gave up on years ago as I just can’t grasp it lol
What makes it worse for me is that my lap top keyboared is nearly dead and will cut out alot of letters and I have to go over alot of them again and sometimes I forget so it looks like I am speaking in text when it was not intended :D
I don’t even use text talk when I am texting on my phone, it is a bad habbit and once picked up is hard to shake off.

On another note, has anyone ever done something like say lol when on the phone or write OMG in a letter or something like that?
I have…. How embaressing :O

[quote fengshuisweetheart]Although it makes me wonder about their actual interest in the topic that they could not write out the words to their response.

That’s how I feel, fengshui.
However, I also get really annoyed when I have to read endless replies that take 15 minutes when it could have been a couple lines. And because of this I find myself wishing I could write more succinctly, or in abbreviated language. After writing I look at my replies and think, “**** that was long,” and I wonder if anyone will take the time to read it, or will they just think I’m a babbler.

Am I wrong to want to learn this horrible abboration of the language, or is there a happy medium? (Or should I just go back to school and learn better communication?)

I didn’t know the D*** word was bad. uh, I’m sorry, Darn?

I don’t know really, you eaither get some who won’t read it because it is too long or you will get most who won’t read it because they can’t understand text talk, so just reply how you want too and the people who need the help will take the time to read it and that is the aimafter all.

I do use a few slang abbreviations but i absolutely despise people who type like this:
“liek som3thng waird hap3ned at skool 2day and thes guy was lokng at m3 and liek i dont know if he lieks m3 or not but i dont rilly think i liek him so liek wut shud i do?!!?!!!?

LMAO, it seems like it would be more difficult to type that way…. I wouldn’t read that sentence personally.

UCreateUrReality wrote:
[quote fengshuisweetheart]Although it makes me wonder about their actual interest in the topic that they could not write out the words to their response.

That’s how I feel, fengshui.
However, I also get really annoyed when I have to read endless replies that take 15 minutes when it could have been a couple lines. And because of this I find myself wishing I could write more succinctly, or in abbreviated language. After writing I look at my replies and think, “**** that was long,” and I wonder if anyone will take the time to read it, or will they just think I’m a babbler.

Am I wrong to want to learn this horrible abboration of the language, or is there a happy medium? (Or should I just go back to school and learn better communication?)

I am very guilty of the long, elaborate reply… I had a friend once tell me that it is just as difficult to write a succinct short piece as a long one. I guess it is a matter of good editing.

I concur

My own daughter often uses text talk when chatting on messenger with her friends. I’ve always called it chat talk, but I do admit that it’s annoying to see words not being spelled correctly. I’ve told her to be careful not to do that on her schoolwork. Sometimes she makes spelling errors that I believe are the result of her chats on the net, but all these young people like to do this and it saves them having to type out a whole bunch of full words. Its easier for them to take the shortcuts. As long as they remember to use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation in their schoolwork, I guess it’s okay.

When they’re all together doing this text stuff, its not such a big deal, but I guess when it comes into a public place like here, it can be confusing and annoying for the rest of us to try reading. lol
They need to understand that not all people on the net use that text language. If they want to do that amongst themselves, that’s fine, but maybe not on sites like this.
Especially if they want all of the rest of us to understand their postings and be able to reply to them.
That’s how I feel about it. :)

As you said, it’s a bit contagious. I also principally dislike it, but wtf, lol and things like that comes in handy from time to time.

I wouldn’t mind if people knew when and where to use an appropriate language. But I don’t think they know.

There is a phrase in Swedish, I can’t translate it very well, but it is something about “speaking to farmers in a farmers’ language, and with the educated in Latin”.
I guess there is a corresponding phrase in English, with the similar meaning.

some of them i get.sometimes im typing so fast because my brains whirring so bad thati type little shortcuts.

but mostly its just people being lazy. and i dont even understand half of it. so that doesnt really annoy me because i just ignore it.

on the filp sdie fo taht, did you konw taht if you tpye a wrod wtih the ltetres in the wnorg oderr, as lnog as the frsit and lsat lttrers are in the rhgit odrer, you can slitl raed the wrod? wlel you do now….;)

(good god that took me ages)

Courty that was funny as hell. I try to keep to proper English in posts. I will use LOL at times but, only if I did actually laugh out loud! In a chat room I use all kinds of shortcuts. My typing is slow and I need all the help keeping up I can get!!!

Jade, I agree completely! It has NO business in business settings at all. And people who use so much of it that not one whole word can be found in a sentence so bother me…

We’re abbreviating our language slowly throughout evolution, simplifying it over time until one day we will speak pure communication codes, which sounds like short hi-pitched yelps…

LMAO @ Conutrey…. Sleryamcgniwnoredufl is wnderonig how lnog it took you?

eeeek yow Shea?

lol. a loooooong time sam, a loooong time hehe.