Anybody else bugged by this??

[StitchfansJr]

Saves time...like a whole few seconds? No one can convince me that spelling it "text" instead of "txt" is really all that time saving.

I know. It bothered me too. People say there's a certain way that I speak or type. At least it's better than saying "hi, waddup? how are u? im good, thanks for asking" I'm upset that we can say "waddup."

 

[BriarRosie]

"Your welcome" is bad enough, but "ur" instead of "your" is worse.

I caught Haley saying "ur" in her text speak and I hated seeing that.

 

[Mix]

"Your welcome" is bad enough, but "ur" instead of "your" is worse.

I caught Haley saying "ur" in her text speak and I hated seeing that.

That's true. I mentally pronounce 'ur' as 'errrrrrr' so it always seems really weird to me.

 

[AbsoluteAwesome]

What makes it worse - Haley and Jake even say annoying abbreviations that we can't say in VMK! Now people are going to request that we are able to say them! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Loves Disney]

You know how much this bugs the living heck out of me! lol. You know, I realize not a lot of words are acceptable in the VMK Dictionary, but come on now...a lot of kids are playing this game, at least have the two character icons speaking correct English rather than that crap they have blabbing out of those bubbles lol. Really now, how difficult is it to type "are" instead of "r" or "I'm" instead of "im".

Well, I could go into a whole book on how this annoys me and how I REALLY don't like the thought of future generations getting webbed up into this kind of speech. But I'll stop rofl.

 

[Cabelle1863]

It bothers me because I feel like it shows a lack of manners, like eating with your elbows on the table and chewing with your mouth open. I can understand that sometimes there's not enough time to type the whole word, say right before a game is to begin. But otherwise text speak makes the user look lazy and not as intelligent as they might actually be.

One of my other favorite hobbies is playing Sims2. At times there are entire posts filled with text speak at the official site's forum. I can barely decipher the post so I usually do not even try help them anymore. Trying to translate the post gives me a headache. I feel like if they really wanted my help they'd write clearly enough to for me to understand them. I have a couple of Sims2 friends who are teachers and yes, they say it's getting bad. Text speak is popping up in the writing assignments and it's really frustrating them to try to encourage better writing from their students. The response from their students is that text speak is easier. They don't seem to understand or accept that there is a time and place for text speak and that you can't use it everywhere.

 

[Dis-Wiz]

I am glad to see that so many of you agree with me. So I am not the only one who feels this way.

My mom is an English High School teacher, and I remember her bringing home a paper that contained the words "u" "r" and "ur".

So, like someone has already stated, using this text speak does not affect everyone, but it DOES affect some people. I thought that professional website designers, for a "children's" game, would try to refrain from spelling things wrong and encouraging bad grammar.

 

[mking624]

I'd be curious to hear what a teacher might say about this text speak. Any teacher care to voice his/her opinion? Are you seeing this in your student's written work? If so, do you accept it, or do you correct your students when they do it?

I know this is a few days old, but an article popped up on Yahoo today that directly talked about this...and it specifically deals with IM speak in the classroom:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/ap_on_hi_te/techbit_im_speak

 

[Diznygrl]

Well when I was being taught grammar and spelling in school, we didn't beg the teacher to let us do it wrong because it was "easier"!!

Jake and Haley bug me too. I don't expect everyone to speak/write perfectly, but all of this "ur/plz/wat" stuff is degrading the English language. I especially don't like to see it being promoted in a kid's game because as we can clearly see, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get kids to distinguish the proper time and place for chat speak.

 

[Loves Disney]

This is slightly off-topic but not really. lol. Regarding the vmk dictionary...

The more time I spend off of vmk, the more difficult it gets when I do get on a try to speak. I haven't really "played" vmk for a few months now and the other week I got on after a while and found it very challenging to talk. While I was used to talking there before, I didn't realize how my vocabulary had to decrease immensely because more than half the words I wanted to say could not be said. I kept slapping my palm to my forehead remembering, "Oh yeah, we're not allowed to say this word either!" It became a common thing the more I tried to talk. I spend decreased time in vmk now because it has just frustrated me so much -- being out of the loop and trying to get back in is not easy lol. I don't know how I got so adapted to the dictionary when I used to play more commonly, but now I'm finding it nearly impossible!! lol.

I also hate that they don't allow reasonable words, but they allow "wronger", "wrongest" and some others that are not in the dictionary! I feel SOOO priviledged to have not had vmk when I was younger. I fear what my writing skills would be had I become fully involved with vmk and began adjusting to that dictionary at a younger age. I think the game is fun and all...but clearly not a game for developing minds. Typing "on" instead of "one" may be a simple mistake and often just a "hiccup" of a mistake, but the more people play, the more it becomes common place for these mistakes and that isn't cool. I'm hoping the younger kids don't play vmk too much. I'm afraid what it could do.

 

[AlienNation]

This is slightly off-topic but not really. lol. Regarding the vmk dictionary...

The more time I spend off of vmk, the more difficult it gets when I do get on a try to speak. I haven't really "played" vmk for a few months now and the other week I got on after a while and found it very challenging to talk. While I was used to talking there before, I didn't realize how my vocabulary had to decrease immensely because more than half the words I wanted to say could not be said. I kept slapping my palm to my forehead remembering, "Oh yeah, we're not allowed to say this word either!" It became a common thing the more I tried to talk. I spend decreased time in vmk now because it has just frustrated me so much -- being out of the loop and trying to get back in is not easy lol. I don't know how I got so adapted to the dictionary when I used to play more commonly, but now I'm finding it nearly impossible!! lol.

I also hate that they don't allow reasonable words, but they allow "wronger", "wrongest" and some others that are not in the dictionary! I feel SOOO priviledged to have not had vmk when I was younger. I fear what my writing skills would be had I become fully involved with vmk and began adjusting to that dictionary at a younger age. I think the game is fun and all...but clearly not a game for developing minds. Typing "on" instead of "one" may be a simple mistake and often just a "hiccup" of a mistake, but the more people play, the more it becomes common place for these mistakes and that isn't cool. I'm hoping the younger kids don't play vmk too much. I'm afraid what it could do.

U's culd all wayz tookid my goodir in glish class at muh scuul front.

Yes... I clown around a lot (making my own english up sometimes as I go), and over-use the periods at times. However, I do know the proper way to write things (when the time is right) and back when I was in school, if we had u, ur, plz, etc. in any of our papers, it was an automatic 1 to 2 point deduction for each error. I for one do hope that the teachers and parents are correcting the problems when they see it, because if not, then my "english" (using that term extremely lightly) could very possibly soon 1 day become reality.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

This is slightly off-topic but not really. lol. Regarding the vmk dictionary...

The more time I spend off of vmk, the more difficult it gets when I do get on a try to speak. I haven't really "played" vmk for a few months now and the other week I got on after a while and found it very challenging to talk. While I was used to talking there before, I didn't realize how my vocabulary had to decrease immensely because more than half the words I wanted to say could not be said. I kept slapping my palm to my forehead remembering, "Oh yeah, we're not allowed to say this word either!" It became a common thing the more I tried to talk. I spend decreased time in vmk now because it has just frustrated me so much -- being out of the loop and trying to get back in is not easy lol. I don't know how I got so adapted to the dictionary when I used to play more commonly, but now I'm finding it nearly impossible!! lol.

I also hate that they don't allow reasonable words, but they allow "wronger", "wrongest" and some others that are not in the dictionary! I feel SOOO priviledged to have not had vmk when I was younger. I fear what my writing skills would be had I become fully involved with vmk and began adjusting to that dictionary at a younger age. I think the game is fun and all...but clearly not a game for developing minds. Typing "on" instead of "one" may be a simple mistake and often just a "hiccup" of a mistake, but the more people play, the more it becomes common place for these mistakes and that isn't cool. I'm hoping the younger kids don't play vmk too much. I'm afraid what it could do.

Actually, I've seen lots of posts on the vmk forums that use vmk numbers.
They'll use on, too, tree and so forth when writing out the numbers in posts.
I have caught myself dropping the e in one several times. But, at least I still use two, three, etc. in my spelling.

VMK is affecting the spelling and grammar of the people that play it. Lucky for us adults that proper spelling and decent grammar have been instilled in us for a long time before playing vmk.

 

[wdeversole]

If you haven't read it already, I would suggest this book -

http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/esl.html

A very good book ...

 

[tolkien7]

I'd be curious to hear what a teacher might say about this text speak. Any teacher care to voice his/her opinion? Are you seeing this in your student's written work? If so, do you accept it, or do you correct your students when they do it?

Well, you asked for it, so here it is! I am a high school English teacher and an adjunct professor at the state university. I agree with an earlier statement (and I apologize because I can't remember who wrote it) that it is difficult to make the argument that it is that much easier or faster to write "wat" instead of the correct "what." I can understand why VMK allows this text speak in the dictionary. Many people are used to using this shorthand to communicate online. So I don't have a problem with its use in VMK, but I do think it promotes laziness.

As far as seeing it in students' work, yes, I do. And no, I would never accept it. Writing an essay is not like sending an IM to one's friends. Students have to know who the audience is, and write what is appropriate for that audience. Slang isn't going to cut it.

As far as the avatars on the Home Page (Haley and Jack is it? They are rather forgettable, aren't they?) they do bother me somewhat. When I first saw the text in the bubbles, I knew that the purpose of the shorthand was to make them seem like realistic VMK people to the kids who visit the Home Page. But I have to confess I wished that whoever designed the page hadn't used the "u r" junk. I like to think of Disney as a classy company, and text speak seems so un-classy and common, not at all like Disney.

So that's my two cents! - steps down from soapbox -

 

[Loves Disney]

If you haven't read it already, I would suggest this book -

http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/esl.html

A very good book ...

That book is on my bookshelf. lol. The title in itself is rather amusing lol. How using commas changes everything lol....

The panda eats, shoots, and leaves....or the panda eats shoots and leaves. LOL.

U's culd all wayz tookid my goodir in glish class at muh scuul front.

Yes... I clown around a lot (making my own english up sometimes as I go), and over-use the periods at times. However, I do know the proper way to write things (when the time is right) and back when I was in school, if we had u, ur, plz, etc. in any of our papers, it was an automatic 1 to 2 point deduction for each error. I for one do hope that the teachers and parents are correcting the problems when they see it, because if not, then my "english" (using that term extremely lightly) could very possibly soon 1 day become reality.

That right there sounds like the movie promo. to a horror film! rofl

 

[King Slimky]

I think that VMK meant no harm in saying the Gaitor quote. They are simply trying to make this "kid-friendly" by letting us use the text talk.