Sunday, January 18, 2009

reel phat wurdz

On an internet forum a while ago, I saw a post complaining about how hard it is to understand what people are trying to say because more and more colloquialisms are showing up where more formal writing would be more appropriate.  The poster goes on to lament the increasingly common uses of abbreviations and abuses of grammar and spelling.  Mentioning to/two/too and there/their/they're and know/no as some examples of common mistakes that supposedly educated adults are using.

How about loose for lose?  There is a motivational poem up on the bulletin board at my work with the last two lines saying: "never loose faith/but mostly have fun".

Don't worry, I'll hold my faith very tightly so that it doesn't get all wobbly, and I'll mostly have fun, but sometimes I'll be grumpy.  Or perhaps they really meant: "never lose faith/but mostly, have fun," which I guess would make more sense.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/316524510_5abc69fad7.jpg?v=0I don't mind so much the abbreviations for things as I do the lazy spellings.  We are raising a whole generation of kids who think that you is a one-letter word.  I don't always use the Queen's English, and I add plenty of slang into my conversations, (saying peeps for people brings joy and gladness to my day) but you can understand me when I speak and when I write, and I think that is basic communication.  The good news is that as more and more people get lazy with their communication, there are more and more resumes ending up in the trash and therefore more job opportunities available to me.

cuz if i right like most ppl u probly wont no what im sayin 2 much. thats cuz we r gettin real lazy bout learnin r kid's. but aks an adult and they cant spel to. they get pwnd!!!!!

I guess, though, that in the end, I'm just grateful that I have yet to see a note on the medical record that says "OMG she b real phat, but dnt want pills til 2moro. i aks her if she b mental and say u noe u gots ta take it 2night cuz 2moro is majorly 4eva away. ;-) she say k thx and ate teh pill. thats gr8 innit?"

6 comments:

audrey said...

I totally agree, I hate the slang, drives me crazy!

Unknown said...

I'm not sure what is scarier:

1. The fact that you may actually see something like that on medical records in the future
2. The fact that I understand every last word the "slang."

Curdie said...

I've been hearing the word "emo" in the place of "mental" these days. In my experience it has been used in situations where the person was having suicidal thoughts while still being light enough to jokingly refer to a friend's quirks.

So, add another word to the "it could mean anything" list because it's just another word than means nothing.

Sabra said...

Or perhaps by "never loose faith", they meant "never let go of faith" (release being one of the 30+ definitions of the word loose). Or "never set faith free" (to set something free being another of the definitions).


Or, yes, perhaps they simply misspelled lose. Since I don't have the entire poem in context the way you can, I can't really make the assumption that they're merely using a somewhat archaic definition of the word.

Mary said...

One of my favorite Tshirts says "LOLOMGWTFLDSBBQ" which kids always are able to figure out, but most adults stop me and ask what it means. I wear it when I need a good laugh ;o)

Somenurse said...

OMG, ROTFL! LMAO!!!