Use of Language

Human beings are said to be better than other animals on this planet because of our language systems, both verbal and non-verbal. Without such a system, it is impossible for us to become who we are today. As time is elapsing, the use of language is changing as well, especially for the language you find on the internet, or on your mobile phone. Maybe you can first look at your messages with your friends, your posts on Facebook, or even your tweets? Do you notice how you use language on those social platforms?

Let me show you a conversation between me and my friends on Facebook.

From the comments, you can see how informal my and my friends’ language there is. For example, you can spot such short forms as ‘lol’ (laugh out loud), ‘ans’ (answer), ‘frens’ (friends) and ‘dun’ (don’t). ‘U’ and ‘r’ are also used to mean ‘you’ and ‘are’ respectively (because of their pronunciations). Influenced by their mother language, some people, including me, would also code-mix when typing English. For instance, terms such as ‘lor’ (from the above conversation), ‘le’ and ‘la’ can be found easily on the cyber world. Of course, emoticons contribute to the situation too!

But do you think if there is any problem regarding such use of language? To me, there is. Since I was back to Singapore one and a half months ago, I am even more used to adding ‘le’ and ‘la’ when I’m typing because Singaporeans like adding such items at the end of their sentences. Sometimes when I’m tutoring now, I would also add ‘le’, ‘la’ and ‘ma’. This is definitely against the proper grammar usage. And I have to keep telling myself this cannot be done anymore. Although there problem may not be very serious, it is still a problem. 

You agree le?

2 share ur thoughts wif mi, dun hesitate 2 show mi your examples how u communicate on the net. :)

[To share your thoughts with me, don't hesitate to show me your examples how you communicate on the Net.]

xoxo (hugs and kisses) Haha!!!