Looking for land on private sim, low lag for busniss

Exactly. I am actually extremely supportive of persons who speak English as a second language. I highly admire them, and would never normally single them out for criticism. I just found the OP's usage odd: sometimes she could write "you" and other times (mostly) wrote "u." She also wrote "ppl" which is not exactly a typo for "people." When I attempt to write Spanish I never write "hbl" for "hablo." Yet I do know to write "jajaja" to indicate laughter. I'm just suspicious.

Perhaps she is really learning English from kids (in Scotland?) who only text or something. That is horrifying, but is beside the point. The bottom line is that she is asking for a business arrangement, (and is asking us to use our "hearts" to help), and does not come across as prepared, or, I'm sorry, trustworthy. It's not a matter of typing errors (LOL I made a major one in my initial post in this thread, which I publicly corrected). It's an issue of a poster wanting something from residents, and trying to play on their heartstrings to get it. Some of you have piled-on thinking she was attacked over her language-abilities. Fair enough. I remain suspicious. But not inherently mean-spirited.

I still believe she'd get more offers if her post had a heavier ratio of you:u. Native English speaker or no. And I still believe nobody learning English makes that error accidentally.

I'll say it yet again. If someone, however intelligent, who has English as a second language doesn't make that fact clear (and I have a feeling that a lot of the time it is because they believe their English is good enough to pass as native - LMAO!) then how can you tell them from dumb people for whom English *is* their first language, but who can't present their questions and thoughts in a coherent fashion? It's a shame not to be able to distinguish the two types.

As someone has noted, about 50% of SL participants have English as a first language, and there are several subforums here that cater for many of those that wish to post in non-English. If ESLers are nevertheless going to post in English and want to be taken seriously then my suggestion is that they make sure they explain (perhaps in their forum profile, so that it is clear to see on each post) why their posts might be less than coherent, eg, "Turkish is my first language", "I am dyslexic", or even "I am too lazy to spell check my posts". Others might then make a more accurate assessment of their posts, rather than potentially dismissing them as unworthy of response or making inaccurate assumptions about the poster's experience or understanding.

Pep (not xenophobic, but not psychic either)

Depends on who they learning from. I have a new neighbour SL. He is Japanese and has a Japanese character to English translator and between us we can work out what it is we are chatting about. Today he came over and said "hi hows u?" I chat back "hi =) im good an u ???" and he say "im kool =)". No one need guess who he is learning his "English" from. 3 days ago he was greeting me in Japanese characters and his translator was saying"Hi". So he making great progress already in learning to communicate to the largest audience on the internet without the help of his translator. And in time he will go on to learn how to communicate with the gentrified elderly folk here no doubt. If he can ever get past the attitude of some that is.

OP mentioned her age and where she hangs when not here SL. So I not surprised she communicates as she does. The way everyone learns to do so. From their peer group, those closest to them and those who bother to take people as they find them and listen to what it is they are trying to say and not how theyre saying it.

Theres English like what english-speaking people speak and theres netspeak. sum ppl got lots 2 lrn n i no mn u x k =)

Yes, and it only took my teenage son an hour of standing around in the cold one night sending me texts that said "Pls cn u pk me up" before he sent one that said "Please can you pick me up".

Pep (sum ppl lrn qk)

c u kach on qk 2

You probably be mortified to hear (maybe not) that my 14 year old cousin got an A from her English teacher for a written book review on Twilight. She was quite pleased with herself as were we all. I noticed when reading it that it was full off netspeak/txtpsk symbols. u and <3 and =) and stuff like that. Apparently this while not encouraged in written school work is not to be marked down any more when the work as a body is understood by the marker. Sign of the times ya.

Has been a lot of study done on why this is. And is no surprise to read that we are simply adapting to the volume of information that technology is increasingly overloading us with. Young people in particular are adapting to this by thinking more quickly and communicating their thoughts faster by using shorthand (netspeak) at least to their peers, as your own son has demonstrated, and they have no problem with doing this. Increasing numbers of adults are doing this as well.

Whether this is a good or bad thing is immaterial except perhaps to linguists like yourself. We evolve to deal with our environment. We always have. Consuming, processing and communicating information in this case. Masses of it daily. And our methods of communicating evolve with us. txt (sms) cellfones that almost every teenager has reinforces the way in which they are writing.

Some older people think its a dumbing down of the language. Maybe. But then 20th Century English is a dumbed down version when compared by some to the elegance of Shakespearean English. netspeak/txtspk is a normal way of communicating stuff quickly today. It is as far as young people are concerned anyways. And they live longer than older people so =)

I notice that ur not adverse 2 use shorthand urself as the mood takes u. LMAO 4 xampl. ppl no wat u mean wen u say it. nd dey kno wat u say wen evn dat shortd 2 =D XD

Check my profile tagline . . .

I'm involved in education, so I know all about it. They did this for a while in the UK. They stopped doing it recently. An updated sign of the times ya?

Communication is about getting yourself understood by your target audience. If my son is stupid enough to believe that he can communicate with me on *his* terms then he deserves to stand around in the cold.

Ask my son if it was immaterial to him as he shivered - and I am not a linguist; I just like words, especially when they are well used.

Unfortunately you are right about your last point. English teachers despair because stupid people don't recognise that the appropriate mode of communication should be used in appropriate circumstances. Telegram-speak had almost no lasting impact on the way in which 20th Century English was written, other than on the much-denigrated art of the newspaper headline writer. I haven't noticed any move to txtspk in the print or electronic news sources - which I believe are the best reflection of the way that the unwashed masses wish to be "commmunicated at" in written words.

Language evolves. New words and new meanings arise. Living language expands and improves understanding; it doesn't contract and restrict, which is why txtspk will ultimately fail.

If they want to get a job to buy food and living accommodation the young are going to have to put up with the old fogies' peculiar ways.

I know what you are trying to say, but LMAO, like LOL and various other internet shorthand devices, attempts to address temporary deficiencies in the immediate communications environment. You might as well say that the English alphabet should be permanently augmented to include the green grinning face you have used.

Txtspk is a temporary, *very* interim, phenomenon. The processing power required for adequate voice/text conversion is almost available and that will be the end of txtspk! I won't cry as I wave it goodbye.

Pep (although I wouldn't be surprised if "you" turns into "u"; I won't mind too much either, but until it becomes universally accepted my son knows what he has to do)

Or there werent enough markers who could understand what had been written. Is no point in attempting to do this if the marker cant read what theyre marking. This is a major concern of the people in charge of our public education budget. Something the educators who set the marking guidelines didnt take into consideration.
True. He is your son. You are his father. He must respect this relationship.
Is true that some young people are unwashed. Is not true of most. They have parents. Most of them like you and the others who frequent this forum. They dont stay unwashed for long =)

txtpsk is a phenom that people (mostly young) have developed (made up) to cope with textual technologies. There is little surprise in them using it in other forms of writing.

Despair. From the Teenagers Bible: "You despair that Im stupid. I dont care that you despair. Im too stupid to care."The body of the language expands as new information is discovered. In managing this expansion, sentences contract into words and redundant letters get dropped from words. Shorter words are substituted for longer ones. If there isnt a word to describe something adequately then take one from another language or simply make one up. This is the history and strength of the English language. Txtspk is accelerating this process.
If the fogies have something to teach them then True. If not then theyre not interested and move on. People under 30 are self-aware of their own best interests. They have learned this the hard way as children by seeing what happened to their grandparents who were loyal all their working lives to the companies they worked for right up until the day they got laid off.

From the XYZ Gen Bible: "My career is my own. I am beholden to no one for this. I paid for my college / university education myself. My parents generation chose not to pay for us their children, unlike my grandparents generation who did for them. I work for money. How much are you willing to pay me? What can I learn from you? What else do you have to offer me?"
Emoticons are an integral part of communicating. All languages have been augmented by these already. You can blame the old fogies for this. The software dev team leads who said yes when the kid programmer asked can I put these into the program cos dey relly kool =)
We have these already. Voice to voice. Voice to text. Text to voice. txtspk is used when voice is not an option. Like when writing.
u got that right both times =)