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"L33T" Speak Invades Schools
Masem writes "NYTimes reports on how common chat room/IM shortcuts (such as 'u' for you, 'r' for are, etc) are creeping into the classroom and homework assignments from those teenage kids that spend a significant amount of time in chat programs. This is giving the teachers headaches in trying to grade the assignments, much less understand them because of the techno-generation gap, and to try to prevent further abuse of the language, have begun penalizing students for using the net slang. Students sometimes don't even realize they use the chat room shorthand until it's pointed out to them, because that method of chatting has become second nature to them."
My HS AP English teacher must have been way ahead of the curve. She instituted an automatic -10% penalty for "egregious" use of the english language. And there was no cap at 0% - as she put it, "yes, you can do so badly on a essay that I will take points off of your previous essays." One poor kid in the grade below me lost 40% in a single sentence (there's just something about using 'a' as a verb) - omg is was the funniest thing I ever saw.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
I trained myself to type quickly and reasonably accuratly so I could sound like an intelligent person online. Butchering the English language is different from letting it evolve. L33t is slang that has not shown any evidnce of becoming self perpetuated outside of the internet.
I admit I cringe when my relatives who are twice or thrice my age type "how ru doing???/" It just seems wrong for people to talk like that.
Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
'Lol' is actualy the dutch word for 'fun'.
you've been browsing porn sites haven't you? "cum" is a vulgar slang version of the word "come".
:)
Sexually speaking, one "comes" - it is NOT "cum". So there would, by measures of "proper english" be even more connotations if the kid wrote "please come".
A lesson to all of those who get their english education from internet porn.
..mork
Shakespeare did not write in Middle English. He wrote in modern English. Many of the words he used are now archaic, but it was modern English.
On EFnet, you'll find that certain channels have enforced grammar. In these places, if you "lol" use "u" or "r" or even make a mistake with they're, their, there, it will not only be pointed out, but corrective action will often be taken. I'm a big supporter of this, being as IRC and other "chat" mediums are written mediums for the most part, and it's quite difficult to understand this shorthand if your english isn't terribly good, or if you're a hacker whose used to taking everything literally because it processes faster.
Some people will make the arguement that linguistics states rather plainly that a native speaker cannot ever speak a language incorrectly, and this is true. Many of these people fail to understand that typing and writing is not speaking.
If there is a God, you are an authorized representative. - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I was a TA for a third-year computing course in which essays were required, and this problem was fairly common there.
Interestingly, when I taught a first year arts course, this never cropped up at all.
If my enemy's enemy is my friend, what happens if my enemy is his own worst enemy?
0ur F47h3r, wH0 4r7 n h34V3n, h4110w3d b3 7HY n4m3, 7hy k1ngd0m c0m3, 7hy wI11 b d0n3, 0N 34r7h 4s i7 iS iN h34v3n. G1v3 u5 th15 d4y 0ur d4i1y br34d, & f0rg1v3 u5 0ur tr35p45535, 4s w3 f0rg1v3 7h05e wh0 tr35p455 4g41n5t u5. nope...thats still using old english l33t, an entire other dialect...it would be more along the lines of r f47h3r wh0 l1v3Z 1n h34v3n, wh0 0wnZ0r j00, g1v3 u5 0ur f00d, 4nd f0r6iv3n355 u5 f0r 0ur oWnZ1n9s 4nd f14m1n95, a5 w3 f0r91v3 7h053 wh0 0wnz0r 4nd f14m3z u5.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
It's the same as slang. There are cases where you allow it, but
you have to make darn sure they know the difference between that
and standard formal usage. It goes along with teaching them to
cite sources and follow a consistent style (e.g., MLA, but in the
lower grades you start simple by just making them doublespace, then
as the grades go by you add more involved requirements) and avoid
the second person (and, in research work, the first person as well).
It's not that the slang (or the 1337 speak) is wrong _per se_ but
that it is out of place in some contexts, and so students must
learn to avoid it at times.
Journalists learn to write in a style that avoids passive voice
like the plague; researchers use the passive voice as a sort of
tonic to cure the ills of first and second person. Field jargon
is necessary in technical writing but is often better avoided in
writing intended for laypersons. It's all about context. Yes,
schools should of course be teaching students this concept.
Then you have artistic license, wherein it is occasionally useful
to violate deliberately the usual rules of a given context for
effect, but you can't do that effectively until you have mastered
the usual rules. For example, clever use of sarcasm in a formal
research document is an art not easily learned, because it requires
complete mastery of both the subtle nuances of sarcasm and the
formal style of research documentation, as well as an excellent
sense of timing. Pulling it off effectively is neigh unto genius.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
I know most geeks couldn't get their eyes off the the photo of the girl, but did anybody notice the caption under it?
INGRAINED - Eve Brecker, 15, of Montclair, N.J., uses instant-messaging shorthand unconsciously in essays.
So if they do it unconsciously, it means they do in their sleep or in a coma. If they do it subconsiously, they are performing a learned skill without requiring conscious, cognitive effort. I think somebody was unconscious while writing this article.
In Dutch "u" already means "you", although it's a polite form. The informal form is "jij". In the Flemisch Dutch dialect "u" is also used in the informal form.
An interesting "fork" of the English language is Charles Ogden's Basic English . Basic English is like a Esperanto for the real world. Ogden wanted to create a small, consistent, non-redundant subset of the English language that would help foreigners quickly adapt to an English-speaking country. His languages contains just 850 English words of use in everyday conversations. He claims that it takes seven years to learn polished English, seven months to learn Esperanto, and only one month to learn Basic English.
I wish someone would do the same for other languages, such as Spanish. I guess you could just translate the Basic English dictionary to Spanish, but that does not address consistent grammatical rules like Ogden's book did when designing Basic English.
cpeterso
The original Ham calls for the US were WnXXX - where n = 0 to 9 (depending on your region of the country) and X = A thru Z. The first letter was always W.
Once all of these call signs were used up (1940s, 50s?), the FCC assigned KnXXX using the same number and letter scheme.
By the late 1960's or early '70s, the KnXXX calls were used up, then the went to WAnXXX, then WBnXXX. By the 1980's, the FCC started issuing KAnXXX, KBnXXX, calls. There are other combinations, like WnXX calls, but they were reserved for Hams with Extra class licenses.
This is just a quickie answer -- check out ARRL.ORG for more detailed information.
Beware of Sleestak