Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Emerge of "Another Kind of English"

During the era where we communicate with normal English, slangs and text abbreviations begin to emerge. However, this kind of "English" should not appear upon formal documents in order to avoid misunderstanding. Slangs and text abbreviations can only be used during conversations or in a quick chat with friends. The reason for this is that not all people in the English society can understand the use of these kinds of abbreviations, for example, myself. Probably this is because that I am not as "fashionable". However, is it fair to make people who are not as "fashionable" half literature blinded from now on or in the future? I can understand that the use of text abbreviations creates a more fast-paced and efficient way of communication, but this kind of communication is can only be confined to a small part of our community. On the other hand, part of our country can use computer language and text abbreviations different from one another. What if we do not understand their own abbreviations? In that way, we cannot communicate with people living far from us, or at least not as clearly as when we are using regular English language. Furthermore, if computer language or text abbreviations appear on the government documents, we will fall into a very unpleasant plight if the interpreter or the politicians misinterpret the meaning behind the paper. Once the use of text abbreviations and computer language take over regular English, conditions will fall out of our control. Therefore, we certainly need to limit the use of text abbreviations and computer language to conversations and informal usages only to avoid misunderstanding and any serious consequences in the future.

No comments:

Post a Comment