Friday, September 20, 2002

I completely agree with an article, "Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers," that appeared in the New York Times today. While language should be fluid and constantly evolving, I find many of the shortcuts used in electronic communications (i.e., "ur," "cuz," "OMG," "props," "peeps," "luv," etc.) annoying, infantile, and gauche. Using them while sending short messages over a mobile phone--in which text entry is quite laborious--is understandable, but in formal writing? Even when I write email, using standard English is vastly more elegant and thoughtful. And yes, people are free to use language in whatever way they want on their blogs. However, that the annoying bloggers mentioned in Ernie's blog entry a few days ago use such language in their writing only serves to underscore the point Ernie made about their characters.

My other thought about this is, why are the people who write in this manner often Asian-American? Gah! You know whom I'm talking about; I'm sure you've seen heard on the street.

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