"helo! how r u 2day? cm 2 mall @ 3 w8n 4 u" b coz i luv u i won 2 b 4st to wsh u on ur b day."

"GR8! c u snn on d terrace.LOL!POS! Ma plan's changd. vil let u know later!

For a teenager with a lingo like this its pretty easy to read this message in seconds, but for someone like me it takes a loooooooong time.

Today these kind of abbreviations seem to be a favourite among teens and youngsters . Thanks to the cell phones that are more important than anything else. Call me old fashioned but i miss the good old days when words were written the way they were supposed to be written.The world believes in "INSTANT CULTURE", from instant popcorn to ready to eat food items to fast make -ups to break ups, everything that has shortcuts is accepted wholeheartedly by one and all.

Though this kind of language is considered to be really "COOL"( another term that is absolutely used in every context possible, there is always the danger that this could lead to the younger generation forgetting how to speak English properly. For instance the other day when i asked a student what class she had the next hour she said PSYCHO class.(short term for the Psychology class). I probed further and similarly i realized that every class was shortened to its scariest form. FM class meant Financial Management, POL.S meant POLITICAL SCIENCE,VAL. ED. meant VALUE EDUCATION AND LANGY meant LANGUAGE classes.

You may say what's wrong with that but one look at the answer papers and you realize that the very idea of writing complete sentences is pure torture to these souls. One student didn't even realize that "DINT" was actually spelt as "DIDN'T "and "coz" was actually an abbreviation for the word BECAUSE and this is no exaggeration.

So to seriously recover from this type of language which is slowly but surely destroying the English language (be it you or a teen at home who's using this) here are a few tips:

• Try to consciously speak and write in complete and clear sentences.For instance, instead of greeting someone with "What's up? "say "How are you?"

• Don't be monosyllabic while asking or answering questions.instead of saying " Doin good" say "I AM fine, Thank You!"

• Don't assume that the other person might understand your slang, especially when it comes to formal communication use the right lingo. Eg. "See you before 5 p.m. at the shopping mall near Garuda" makes more sense than "c u b4 5pm nr mal"

• Always own a good dictionary and if you don't have one buy one right away.

• Work on your spellings and Grammar. A Thesaurus will be very useful in the long run.

• Remember that most institutions, websites and formal writers don't really appreciate such knid of language and though abbreviations are an easy way out, it only erodes your language more and more. So practice to write and speak well.

• Also read good classics and Novels which are written by good authors.Most people are put off by this , so you can also read anything and everything written in correct englsih. It coud be comic strips to newspaper articles to movie Reviews.

• Work on your vocabulary. No one needs to use flowery and decorative language anymore but it is always appreciated when one has a good diction.

• Watch News channels that telecast good speakers who speak good english.

• Finally all you need is a will to change your way of speaking and writing so the next time you SMS SMS the rt way..LOL... I mean sms the right way!!!

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