Something that I don't like.

[nikkuchan]

a lotta ppl nowadays complane about spelling, punctuation, and gramer on teh intrnets and it iritates me. how m i suppose 2 now that loose is only spelled with 1 O and that ‘looser’ is not a noun? im not n inglish teachr so y m i xpected to now this stuff i h8 it. im tryin 2 rite fast not proper n if u cant understand it then maybee ur teh stoopid 1. stop h8ing me

















This is a rough recreation of a post I read a year or so ago (with a joke or 2 added by me for fun). I'm normally fine with people doing what they want, but I just can't figure out how this became communication. I don't want to complain like a curmudgeon, but I find this style of writing to be both comical and extremely sad at the same time.
They should learn to talk English good like me.

 

[Kratos]

Well, nikku, they juast ain't got no learnin'. Laziness. It's pure laziness. And chatrooms, which I hated. Any unmoderated exchange on the web is no place to be, unless you are 14. People get lazier and lazier every day. There are already self-parking systems for cars. At this rate all internet communication will be reduced to smilies and OMFGLMFAO.

 

[Fnord5]

 

[mdunn]

OMGWTFBBQ

Spoiler

I agree. The odd typo is forgivable, especially when cruising B&B in the evenings. But that 'internet' talk really grinds my gears. Im at uni, and the professors actually tell us not to do 'sm-essays'. Are you kidding me, someone actually thought that it wuz ok 2 do dis in a issay ^-^ to lead to him telling us this.

[/rant]

 

[Fnord5]

OMGWTFBBQ

I almost did that one. Lawls!

 

[nikkuchan]

Well, nikku, they juast ain't got no learnin'. Laziness. It's pure laziness. And chatrooms, which I hated. Any unmoderated exchange on the web is no place to be, unless you are 14. People get lazier and lazier every day. There are already self-parking systems for cars. At this rate all internet communication will be reduced to smilies and OMFGLMFAO.

self parking systems? I never heard about this. Wouldn't this, I don't know, turn people into worse drivers?

The biggest problem with this internet speak is that there are some people who know only this. Back in college I worked part-time as an essay tutor, and trying to fix a pile of incoherent babble from someone who is a native English speaker is truly sad.

 

[strat1117]

I don't want to complain like a curmudgeon, but I find this style of writing to be both comical and extremely sad at the same time.

What's wrong with being a curmudgeon?

 

[waterbear]

If you want to look for the reason look to our schools. Do you know that in many schools and universities students are NOT graded off for punctuation and grammar? They are only graded on content! I have some friends who teach at a local 4 year university and they tell me that they have students that cannto write a simple paper! I tutor math at the school at which I work and this past year I wast tutoring Algebra students in how to do long division and multiplication! These kids could not do it without a calculator. In fact, they didn't KNOW how to do it without a calculator. If you want to know why the world had dumbed down look no further than the schools.

 

[wundergussy]

If you want to know why the world had dumbed down look no further than the schools.

I am REALLY struggling not to respond in a way that will turn this thread into an argument, so I will simply state that there are a umber of teachers on this board, and statements like this are very frustrating for us to read. Enough said.

As for this initial post, I am also incredibly frustrated with the usage on the internet, mostly because it is a medium where written language is the sole means of communication, and grammar exists purely for understanding. I find it distressing when I read an essay by a student that has emoticons and online-acronyms throughout. The only recourse is to try to bring grammar into my classroom, which is difficult to do at the high school level, and does not work out of context. One strategy I came up with is to have students volunteer to bring in a print-out of an internet post they wrote and edit it in class. It can be pretty funny, but it makes more sense to them than drill-and-quiz tactics.

As I can only speak to my state, I will say that in Oregon the state-wide writing assessments score double for conventions.

 

[Kratos]

I'm not going to say it's all on the schools, but standards have been slipping for years. The exit-level high school tests are a total joke. I could have passed the one here in 7th grade. I believe most teachers are at odds with this, but the decisions that make all this possible are not left to them. I knew people who I knew were failing half or more of their classes, yet were pushed through.
Finding young people who can do math without a calculator these days is like hunting for a reasonably priced Fatboy on e-bay. It's pathetic, along with how some colleges don't even require SAT's or ACT's. And vocabulary? Don't even get me started. I am constantly astounded by the words college people do not know. Things aren't getting any better. Everyone wants the easy way out for everything.

 

[Dharion]

Grammar is one thing. And it's important.

But what's really making me sad is todays manners. Sure, some wise heads say these problems exist 2000+ years but, dunno...

 

[waterbear]

I am REALLY struggling not to respond in a way that will turn this thread into an argument, so I will simply state that there are a umber of teachers on this board, and statements like this are very frustrating for us to read. Enough said.

AND I am one of them! Yet there are many teachers these days that simply do not teach! The fact that our students in the US have been dropping in literacy over the past 20 years, especially when viewed on a worldwide basis, is proof.

 

[rabidpotatochip]

I think it's a three part "problem".
1) Not everyone on the Internet speaks English fluently, the rest of us are from Canada.
2) For the sheer volume of text produced by people sitting behind a keyboard I can't blame them for coming up with at least some acronyms and initialisms.
3) A lot of people recognize the issue of text looking stupid and follow suit to be ironic (e.g. omgwtfbbq, roflcoptor, lolerskatez, lulz, pretty much all of icanhascheezburger.com etc).

 

[Mr. Clean]

OMGWTFBBQ

I don't believe I've ever heard of this type of BBQ. Is it beef, chicken, or pork?

 

[rabidpotatochip]

I don't believe I've ever heard of this type of BBQ. Is it beef, chicken, or pork?

For once I can actually post a link to this site without warning people about language.

I'd probably say it's closer to pork, btw.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

I'm definitely not going to engage anyone in a debate on this. I just want to point out that teachers are an easy target because they're on the 'front line' of education, but the issues run much, much deeper. One of the big issues is the lack of accountability on the parent/student side of this equation. School is not a big, free daycare. You have to put something in to get something out.

***back on track to the basic premise of this thread***

It's absolutely annoying to me, too.

The digital age and instant non-verbal communication have spawned not only an whole new genre of colloquialisms, but given these new CQs a giant petri dish in which to flourish. Compound that with the fact that youthful slang is constantly reinventing itself and has become a melding of slang, CQs, and abbreviation in our written world. Add to that the QWERTY keypads that demand abbreviation in communication, and poof. There's a whole new sub-language. It's kind of a natural progression. I doubt it shall be reversed.

It's our responsibility as parents and educators to have our kids understand that there are different ways to communicate and that some arenas require a more refined and historically proper method.

 

[kwk285]

A big part of the problem is the computer it self.

I read in the paper a year or two ago that something like 25% of the population can pick up a pen and write in cursive. Students do all of their work on the computer. The computer's whole purpose to make life "easier".

Overall, I feel computers are a good thing but they have made many people lazier.

 

[strat1117]

["Slowly I turn . . . . ."]

 

[Henrique]

a lotta ppl nowadays complane about spelling, punctuation, and gramer on teh intrnets and it iritates me. how m i suppose 2 now that loose is only spelled with 1 O and that ‘looser’ is not a noun? im not n inglish teachr so y m i xpected to now this stuff i h8 it. im tryin 2 rite fast not proper n if u cant understand it then maybee ur teh stoopid 1. stop h8ing me.

For 2 seconds, you've got me there....

 

[Mr. Clean]

For once I can actually post a link to this site without warning people about language.

I'd probably say it's closer to pork, btw.

I knew I could count on the citrus-topped, feline/bunny to bring me into the fold of informed internet users.

A big part of the problem is the computer it self.

I read in the paper a year or two ago that something like 25% of the population can pick up a pen and write in cursive. Students do all of their work on the computer. The computer's whole purpose to make life "easier".

Overall, I feel computers are a good thing but they have made many people lazier.

Count me in the 75%. I dropped the use of cursive writing after taking a drafting class in the 9th grade. Unfortunately over the years, even my printing has suffered.