Hmm. I'd fail the idiot child from the class entirely, on principle. I cannot STAND script kiddie talk. A few abbreviations (lol, brb, and so forth), sure... but if you're too bloody lazy to type the extra two letters in "you" you should be fed to a large school of very small pirahnas, so they take longer to finish you off.

Have I used SMS? yes. But I take the extra 30 seconds and use real english. Maybe all lowercase and sans punctuation at times, but in real english.

But then, I think it's less a matter of the limitations of the interface than it is the limitations of the intellect. They use that because they can't spell anyway, and with this, they don't have to, nor do they have to worry about anything beyond the simplest grammar.

-Posted by JC on March 3, 2003 03:06 PM

You also have to realize (and maybe this isn't as much of a problem in the UK as it is here in the US) that many English teachers (especially at the high school level) aren't the "cream of the crop" in terms of their teaching and English abilities. I attended a university which specialized in producing teachers and I can't count the number of people I knew who were going to be English majors and then teachers because they a) thought it was easy, b) didn't know what else to do, or c) some combination of both. Of course, many of those people honestly cared about the English language, but then those who really did usually turned away from being a teacher once they realized that they weren't really teaching kids to learn or love the language, but were prepping them for some standardized test in order to improve the school's grades. I think l33tsp34k will become more prevalent as people forget how to use correct (written) English and then are not taught correctly.

-Posted by Anthony on March 4, 2003 01:32 PM

Hmm... Anthony, are you accusing me of being British?

Was it the snobby complaints about "proper" English, or the expletive "bloody"?

The proper English complaints are because I think ignorance of even grammar is the surest sign of stupidity in an individual, and stupid people annoy me. The "bloody" is because I've read too much Robert Jordan, and because it makes a wonderful all-purpose expletive that is not considered base or offensive.

And while I enjoy many things British, from Dr. Who to an afternoon tea, I'm from Michigan and live in Indiana. :-)

Unless of course you're referring to where the girl was from, in which case ignore my above note. :-)

-Posted by JC on March 5, 2003 06:46 PM

I was referring to where the girl was from and not really meaning to single anyone out (be they English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Canadian, Australian, American, etc.). Being an English Lit. major, incorrect use of the English language is a pet peeve of mine, but that's just me.

-Posted by Anthony on March 6, 2003 02:55 PM

50m3 p30pl3 d0 n07 und3r5t4nd l337??? J00 n33d t0 g37 4 lif3!!

-Posted by Stephanie on June 9, 2003 12:39 PM