-- -Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have - -happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ -Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- -individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? steveo at syslang.net
From: "Goeller, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> British Girl Baffles Teacher with SMS Essay Sun Mar 2, 9:14 PM ET LONDON (Reuters) - An English essay written by a British teenager in text messaging short-hand has reignited concern among teachers that literacy standards are under threat. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that the 13-year-old's teacher could not decipher what the youngster had written. "I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate," the teacher told the newspaper. The teenager's essay which caused the problem began: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 : kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." In translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place." Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, told the newspaper a decline in grammar and written English was partly linked to the text messaging craze. "Pupils think orally and write phonetically," she said. To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body "unsubscribe man-bytes-dog" (the subject is ignored).
