WHO SAID AMERICA'S KIDS AREN'T BILINGUAL?

“My friend text me and asked ‘what does idk mean’ and then i said ‘I dont know’
then she said ‘wow no one knows.’ ” Author unknown

Get it? My husband didn’t. Finish this article and it will all be clear!

I’m learning more about social media than I ever thought I wanted to know. Why? Because if I want to be heard I need to know the new language being spoken (written) across the country. Almost every kid knows it. It’s being written in places like Facebook, Twitter, and in their cell phone text messages.

These sites bring brief, sometimes funny, often inane and vulgar comments that look a little like English but, for me at least, are hard to understand.

For example:

· lol i am tho drunk bn highn....lol hahhaha
· hahahahahha ! Let's all kick it ;)
· inbox me ur num
· Jus left happy hr!!! so bomb!!!!

And more examples:

· cre8 QL txt msgs, jst typ yr msg n d lft bx
· ILUMTLI - I love you more than life itself
· twcbn - That which cannot be named
· and my personal favorite – “lol” which means lots of laughs

In searching for meaning of this new vocabulary I found myself on a site called Lingo2Word. Here you simply insert your message into a box and it’s translated into texting lingo. Let’s give it a try. Here’s my message:

Hello America’s young people! Don’t you know you’re fracturing the English language?

Here’s what came out.

“Hi America’s yung ppl. dnt u no ur fracturing d en lang?
(Apparently there was no lingo for "America’s " and "fracturing."
Feeling confused or ignorant? Don’t understand a word your kid is writing? Don’t despair. Don’t waste time wondering what the world is coming to. “If you can’t fight it join it” as the saying goes. Just go to Lingo2Word, insert what you don’t understand and Voila! It will be back in your linguistic comfort zone.

Our young people may not speak three languages like our European counterparts, but they DO have a written foreign language. I think I just proved it. :) LOL