Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Not Onli In Da Pilipins

Well. This seems to be everywhere now.

British Teacher Appalled by Spelling Errors

Here's a quote:

Text messaging or an increasing reliance on computer spell checkers have also been cited as a major reason for the rise in spelling mistakes.

To protect the English language, some sticklers have set up groups, including The Apostrophe Protection Society.

There is even a (mostly) tongue-in-cheek group on Internet social networking site Facebook called “If you can’t differentiate between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ you deserve to die.”

I'm not as rabid as some are against text-speak or chat-speak, but there is a place for it: on the cellphone and on messenger programs only. Otherwise, nothing should stop one from using full words and sentences.

One solution (among many): Read more!

2 Comments:

Blogger exie abola said...

Hi, Kenneth.

I agree, there's a place for that kind of language. It's perfectly fine on the mobile phone, but it drives me nuts when I find it in email or in posts in online forums. Or in quiz papers.

RayVi Sunico, poet and publisher, wrote an article on just this subject recently on the PCIJ web site. The piece is here: <
http://www.pcij.org/i-report/2007/texting.html>

It's a worthwhile read, and the kinky poem by Ricky de Ungria is a nice bonus.

10:22 PM  
Blogger pgenrestories said...

Hahaha! Naku, Exie, you're not the first teacher to complain.

In trying to bring writers to schools, I've spoken to many teachers, and they all complain about the same thing: text-speak and chat-speak in homework, reports, essays, etc. Poor spelling everywhere. Lost vowels. It's more prevalent now than when we were growing up without cellphones and messenger programs.

And these are high school teachers! So it's a poor lookout for you since you teach at the college level! What's going to happen to the reports when their students become your students?

I've even received formal emails and business letters covered in text-speak!

But like you, I'm not totally against it. It's the language of the younger generation (as pointed out in the article you mentioned, thanks for that!). They understand each other in that language, and it is possible there'll come a time when it might become the norm (as our English now would be considered horrible to someone from the past, used to "ye olde englysh" as her Majesty speaks it).

But right now, there is only one place for it: cellphones and messenger programs. Its informality is sure to be a turn off in school and at work.

9:19 AM  

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