I have a new textmate - my daughter, Alex. I recently bought her a cellphone, a months-delayed gift for her 7th birthday. The phone's gallery is already full of pictures she's taken - of me, of Gabby, of everyone who's in her phonebook. Before I bought her the cellphone, we had already agreed on one important rule - that when she texts, words would be spelled correctly and sentences constructed grammatically. No shortcuts, no text language. It's mainly for academic purposes. Imagine her writing a school paper that goes, "D me agree wid authr. Wrong sya coz say nya chorva...". She can shortcut her texts all she wants once she's mastered spelling and grammar.
Sometimes in our haste, we send messages in the shortest version possible. Wer na u? D2 na me. And the recipient texts back: W8 lang. Bz p me. Although admittedly I also shortcut my text messages, I can't deny that sometimes, receiving these messages are both hilarious and irritating. And oftentimes confusing. It sometimes takes me half a minute to decipher something like: Sb? Hmmmm... I ask myself, are these initials of a common friend, a text message version of an English or a Filipino word? Imagine the many possibilities for these two letters - sabi, sub, sob, the QC politician...
Well, language is evolving everyday. And we have to evolve with it, finding ways to express ourselves better, faster and easier. But also ensure that we are also understood.
No more na me ma-say. L8 na. 2log na me. W8 na lang me reax fr u. K?
No comments:
Post a Comment