Oh gr8, I M goin 2 hav 2 Lern a nu lngwij jst 2 spk 2 my kds!

If you are confused by the title of the post, then you had better keep reading.  That’s SMS, or "Texting" language. Kids these days don’t send emails, or dare I say, "talk", for that matter. I’m not sad to say that my understanding of the text messaging language is severely limited. Call me old school, but I try to maintain grammatical and spelling integrity in all my written communications. However, I do find the opportunity to use the occasional ROTFLMAO, or LOL  in various online conversations. It just has no place in business communications, and therefore I rarely use it.

If you don’t know what the heck I"m talking about, you are probably older than 30, and thinking, WTF? Or possibly, who cares? If you have teenage kids, you had better go read up on it here right now. In brief, texting (not to be confused with sexting, which, as a parent, you should also be familiar. See this news article here if you think this too is unimportant) is the usage of abbreviations and shortened slang in order to convey a short mobile phone (SMS) message, or IM (and sometimes email) on the computer.

It seems to me, the best name for SMS speak or texting language is really its relative "lolspeak" (otherwise known as kitty pidgin), which is actually used in reference to humorous cat pictures. See lolcat on Wikipedia if you don’t believe me. ( I swear, I must have way too much time on my hands to now these memes).

So, as a parent, you need to learn your texting language, and as a future correspondent with the next generation (whether via email, IM, SMS, etc) you may want to brush up on it anyway. Besides, it is kind of nice to bang out SMS shorthand in an IM message.

Anyway, if your trying to figure out what the heck this SMS stuff your teenage kid just sent you on your mobile phone, or you just want to relate to them on their level, you can always refer to an English/Texting conversion tool such as transl8it.

Here are a couple examples just to get you started:

• Clean your room!
  clEn yor r%m!
• Kids! Time for Dinner!
  kds! tym 4 dinr!
• If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding, how can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat!
  f U dun Et yor meat, U cnt hav NE pudding, how cn U hav NE pudding f U dun Et yor meat!

Yeah, it seems to be the dumbing down of our youth, but you’ve got to put it in perspective. What was it, in your generation, that drove your parents crazy and made them fear for your future? 

With that, I’ll leave you with the some more lyrics from one of my all time favorite artists, I’m sure you’ll have no problem if your in my age group

Rtst: Pink Floyd
TITLE: NothA Brick n d Wall

I.
Daddys flown ax d ocean
lEvN jst a memRE
A snapshot n d famLe album
Daddy, wot Ls did U Leav 4 me
Daddy, wha’dya Leav Bhind 4 me
aL n aL it wz jst a brick n d wall
aL n aL it wz aL jst bricks n d wall

wen we grew ^ & went 2 skul
ther wer certan Tchaz
hu wud hurt d chldrn n NE way dey c%d
By pouring thR derision
Upon NEthing we did
Exposing evry wEkNs
howevR carefully hidden by d kds

bt n d twn it wz weL known
wen dey got om @ nyt
thR F@ & psychopathic wives wud thrash dem
withn inches of thR lives

II.
We dun nEd n education
We dun nEd n thawt contRL
n drk sarcasm n d classroom
Tcha, Leav thOs kds aloN
hA, Tcha, Leav thOs kds aloN
aL n aL, it’s jst NothA brick n d wall
aL n aL, ur jst NothA brick n d wall

We dun nEd n education
We dun nEd n thawt contRL
n drk sarcasm n d classroom
Tchaz, Leav thOs kds aloN
hA, Tcha, Leav thOs kds aloN
aL n aL, ur jst NothA brick n d wall
aL n aL, ur jst NothA brick n d wall

III.
I dun nEd n arms rownd me
& I dun nEd n drugs 2 calm me
I hav cn d writiN on d wall
dun tink I nEd NEthing @ aL
n, dun tink I nEd NEthing @ aL
aL n aL, it wz aL jst bricks n d wall
aL n aL, U wer aL jst bricks n d wall