Has ny1 else wuunndered howz thez kidz r gonnaz pazz their GCSE's in English?

[igglepigglegotobed]

I swear I cant understand my niece's status updates on facebook. I think they are bare good but could be nang and today she was out and it was jokes!

WTF

[cockneydadtobe]

i is heerin you who needs puncutaion and spellin and stuff is it

[Lizzylou]

Innit

Er

Word

[melmog]

chill geezas. nuff sed.

[starlightexpress]

Hopefully their English teacher will have explained about making their writing appropriate for audience and purpose.

Most of them will ignore it.

Fraf, innit?

[shadowofacow]

EH??????

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

2b r nt 2b tht is th q, innit. res'pkt.



The country's going to the dogs.

[badgermonkey]

They don't use textspeak at school, though. I get the very occasional lower-case i for "I" or 2 for "to" but I just mark it wrong. I still get plenty of work written in Standard English.

You could see it as a sophisticated use of the code-switching we all do, all the time - after all, who speaks the same way to the person at the bus stop, their boss, and their best friend after three glasses of wine? Nobody, of course; switching between registers is a skill and maybe we should be pleased our teenagers have mastered it so effortlessly!

[Ninkynork]

It can be amusing.

My all-time favourite from a school-run FB "friend" is:

Chavva Chavonnay Is thikin do u have to be thick to work in a school office???

It's incorrect to call it textspeak anyway as it's typed /written. That winds me up more than the form itself

[Ninkynork]

Oops, no disrespect to you badgermonkey I know it has become a word now but it really pisses me off. Particularly when people use the noun "text" as a verb.

"Jeremy I text him and then she text me back and called me a slapper then he text me..."

[scaryteacher]

Some of the little dears do use textspeak in their GCSEs though - I've just marked some (well, given them nil as I can't make head not tail of what they're saying).

[midlandsmumof4]

It takes me ages to write a text message because I absolutely cannot get my head around incorrect spelling and lack of punctuation. Comes from being schooled in the 60's I suppose with a very strict English teacher .

[AitchTwoOh]

ninky that drives me NUTS too. i text you is present tense, texted is in the past. gggrrr

[midlandsmumof4]

Sorry Hahui-no can do. I've tried but it just doesn't look right. Why can't people just speak to each other-can't get much quicker than that .

[StealthPolarBear]

I don't get the "I prefer to just ring someone" argument.
If I want to ask DH to pick up some milk on the way home, it isn't important enough to interrupt his train of thought or expect him to answer his phone in a meeting, so I text him. He'll glance at his phone when it suits him and read it. Ringing means "I need to speak to you now". Same for email - "just walk to the person's desk". So they have to drop what they're doing and attend to you THAT MINUTE rather than checking their emails at a time it suits them! I know which I think is more considerate!

[katiestar]

YABU and patronising to assume that because kids use textspeak when they text, they are incapble of writing properly on paper.

[MaureenMLove]

When DD texts me to ask me if she can do something, I text back saying, 'spell it and ask me in a fashion that I might understand and I might let you!'

[MerryPonymum]

I've had to give in and use txt-spk for my free 30 online text-messages from Orange, because the character limit is 140 and it means I can pack so much more in (with two daughters away from home I get through a LOT of free texts.) Also being schooled in the 60s, I did find it hard at first not to type out everything in full complete with correct punctuation! It goes against a lifetime of training, doesn't it.

I despair though when I see it used as the norm out of text-context, I think some have forgotten that 'know' is NOT spelt 'no'.

And every time I see 'da' used for 'the' I scream and put my head in a bucket.

[cory]

if you'd ever read a medieval manuscript you'd know that they are far worse when it comes to abbreviations

but expanded into a modern edition, they actually look quite literate

[StealthPolarBear]

MP I write mine out properly and then go back and changes the 'and's to &, the 'to's to 2 etc

[MerryPonymum]

Me too Stealth and then take out the spaces before and after the &s, etc. I can pack quite an essay into my 140 allowance these days.

There is a certain thrifty pleasure to it.