kid speak.. not directed or attacking anyone, I just want to know about it.

Ok this post is not directed at anyone, before people think I am.

I saw in marianne's thread where someone told her to speak normal and not use the "kid" chat.

which lead me to this question (and I made a new thread because I did not want to hijack her's)

(and I want to say I am not attacking anyone or directing this at anyone, I only mentioned Marianne because it was her someone else commented to about this subject, and hopefully she can give me and all of us some insight into rping a kid)

Why do folks use the "kid" speak when RPing a kid?
I sorta get it when the kid is maybe 2 or 3 and just learning to talk, but older kids, say 5+ usually speak as clearly as any (better than some) adults.
Unless they have a speech impediment they should be speaking just like anyone else.

I see it happen with a lot of kid avatars and still just do not understand why. (when I was exploring the grid as a kid, (AKA A grid kid) I did not type dis or dat or tink etc, I spoke like I do as an adult. (with typos LOL)

so,... why do folks use that form of chat when they can type normally and still be a kid?

(I am heading out to a friends place, so will not be back for a few hours, I will check in later for some insight)

Thanks for understand I am not attacking anyone, or putting anyone down, I just am curious as to the why.

I think we've had a thread about this before. Search for "ikklespeak".

It bothers me to no end.

Seeing a "w" at the start of every word (ETC) just makes me feel weird being around.

Plus, it's just creepy.

No offense... >_>

What Yumi said

Some do it more'n others, too. I've read some really awful ikklespeak in my time. Others dun use it at all. An really, what I tend to use isn't typical. "Dun," for example, came from my inworld mommy. I tink "an" came from another relative. Much of it is also taken from my own childhood (I did have some speech issues in RL!) an from my RL sister's speech patterns as a child.

I actually played it up a bit in the other thread after the one comment, too. My bad.

But yes, you will find much more "challenging" examples out there (the "W" thing mentioned above) -- and you'll find kids who stick to perfect diction. Or even who switch off (I tend to do this a bit, depending on circumstances)

I use it depending on where I am or if Im just getting into the feel of the RP its just an immersion thing. I mostly hang at a SL adoption agency so I hear it all day　 however if Im helping someone I try to be as clear as I can be. I never could understand why anyone would feel someone elses RP should distract from their own. if ya don like how I talk ignore me hehehe

Theres some people who are not RPing children who type using replacement words like dis, tink, da...just like some people use alternative spellings Hot/Hawt, Cool/Kewl....sometimes its just a preference of the individual. Sure, it can be annoying when overdone, but at the same time I don't comment on it because I don't expect people to change their typing habits because reading it bothers me. If it bothers me that much then I won't read it.

I once had someone tell me they were annoyed by my excessive use of commas and the fact I put three dots in the middle of everything...thats how I type, it's comfortable for me and flows that way.

Re: speech problems.
I would have a lisp too if I suddenly had a couple of missing teeth.

I think you are refering to me, but I didn't suggest anything. I merely asked if she'd considered writing normally, as it's easier to follow, rather than have to keep translating words through each post.

Someone said that it's roleplaying, but it isn't roleplaying at all. The person at the keyboard writes normal adult-minded posts, and only the intentional misspellings are in any way connected to roleplaying. It simply isn't roleplaying unless the person writes childlike thoughts/posts.

Personally, I dislike it because of that - adult posts written in pseudo childspeak. It's one thing to roleplay a child in SL but this isn't SL and, imo, it doesn't belong here.

As well as that, it can make it difficult for non-native english speakers, who haven't got used to it.

My kid forms usually talk in pretty clear sentances... But I limit my vocabulary, and change the attitude somewhat. Shorter sentances, more slang terms or 'sloppy grammar'. But then again, my youngest forms are usually at least ten, and a 5th grader or so can already speak pretty clearly.

Also depends a lot who I am talking to. When I am talking to Marianne or her Guardian as a kid, I tend to talk more like Marianne does.

I find it challenging to provide customer service to people who use kidspeak and I can't decipher it.

I miss speell a lots and i;'m sworry.

It doesn't read like child speak, it reads more like ghetto speak to me.

And I'd agree that mispelling a few words while formulating a very adult argument isn't really role playing as a child.

Other than that, if you wanna use the intentional mispellings of wannabe internet gangstas and label it as child speak, den do dat and dont let doz haterz tell u wot to do!

I like Mari's speech patterns. They're easy to read, but enough different from normal adult "speech" to remind me that she's only five.

And like the OP, I'm not singling out Marianne individually, but using her as an illustration of ...well, kidspeak done right. IMO, of course.

please someone explain to me why you play children in sl.

I'm not five! I'm five anna half! Almost six, even!

Mari

But she isn't only 5 - and that's the point. Here, she's as much an adult as anyone else - her posts show that. Writing them in pseudo childspeak is an irrelevance here, and it makes the posts a little more difficult to just flow through. Non-native english speakers may find them very difficult in places.

Handy link time!

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Marianne_McCann/Child_Avatars

The other, clearer answers would be "why not?" and "cuz I wanna!," but I think the above page has some good answers. Even if I did write it myself.

Mari

prolly a good thing most cant unnerstan what Im sayin

thanks, very well written.. It's funny when you are young all you want to be is older, then when you are older all you want to be is young again. I guess with that mentality I can see why.. But in all honesty it still creeps me out. no offence. But then again I like to dress as a vampire or cop or superhero.. so no judging here

I don't understand why anyone cares. If you don't like it, don't do it. If it REALLY gets on your nerves, don't read it or put the poster on mute. It's more annoying when someone posts something patently stupid or just mean-spirited than it is when someone uses kid-speak. In those situations, someone is trying to be hurtful to someone else and is trying to self-justify their assholery by claiming to be "blunt" or "straightforward". With the people who play kids, it's just a matter of them typing the way they have trained themselves to think - not a matter of trying to be intentionally aggravating.

Mari and the others bring a lot of good to the forums, and they do it with kindness and a sense of humor, which is a lot more than I can say for some other posters. If they drop the occasional "dun" or "tink", how bad is that on the grand scale of things?




BTW: If you don't like mispellings, avoid my posts. It's not kid-speak or leet-speak. it's just poor typing skills.

TY Trout

I don't think anyone has been judgmental about it. A few, including me, have said they don't like it in an adult forum, or that it creeps them out - stuff like that - but nobody has been judgemental. It's a perfectly good topic for discussion.

I barely notice it in the rather mild form I see on the forums. But then, I've had exposure to many of the great works in English literature and one just gets used to reading dialects. The couple of times in-world where I've run into the more severe "baby talk" it has gotten on my nerves so I just ignore it.

EDIT: Now I'm considering developing some form of "picklespeak" for when I'm using my cucumber avatar....

Many if not most of us can understand her just fine.

I seem to remember you lashing out at me over a poster who was extremely hard to understand a few months back due to poor English grammar. You thought I was being overly critical.

Well pot, kettle is calling.

I wasn't taking a shot at you, Phil. There have been a lot of threads where people really lashed out over it, like it was the beginning of the end of the English language. I just don't understand why some people get so worked up over something that really doesn't hurt them. But I wasn't directing that at you, and I wasn't trying to stop discussion; I was just stating my opinion on it.