the French do it better

...well, at least, they DO it. Hah - that got your attention, didn't it? And all I was talking about was online shorthand, you dirty-minded bastards!

Seriously, though, it bothers me in general when people refuse to take the time to write words out, especially when typing "shorthand" really doesn't save them any time or energy. I understand that not everyone is the typing maven (all thanks to Mavis Beacon at an impressionable age) that I am, but still how does typing one or two fewer characters every several words really making things easier? I lean more towards the camp that people like to use these little shorthands because they are the cool thing to do, and are very trendy right now.

I have to admit, though, that I was more impressed when I found it done in French on a French message board, because while I realize that it's the exact same thing, it's a novelty to me! Much like when I hear a child speaking in another language...I know logically that the child is probably speaking his or her native tongue and most likely isn't fluent in several languages, but still it charms & impresses me. What can I say.

Anyway, so here's the snippet I stole as an example from some message board or other - I hope that's kosher, but I didn't associate anyone's name or even the site with this, so - here:

c clair, tu c si jécri kom sa pour allé plu vite

which translates, without accents because I don't know how to do them on here:

"C'est clair, tu sais si j'ecris comme ca pour aller plus vite."

and means, very roughly, "That's right, I write like this because it's faster."

So, I dunno. It's classier, in my mind, because it's in French - but the text above was in response to a question about how old the girl was and whether she had been taught proper grammar (which is a jibe whose sentiments I would totally agree with, had the forum been in English). Eh, such is how my mind works. What I think is annoying as hell in English gets turned into "so cute" or "so classy" in French. It's so strange what a globalized culture has done to me...

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