Rant # 1 - Shrt Hnd.

I HATE IT!!!

I hate shorthand.

If you went to secondary school in Nigeria and did Business Studies, then you'd remember the stupidity in doing that part of the subject. Drawing lines in place of words, and by the end of writing a few sentences, your 'reporter's note' resembled something out of a very posh nursery school where the 3 year olds had learnt to chicken scratch in a very systematic way or looked like some rubbish being labelled as post-modern art nowadays.

I'm actually not talking about that. I'm talking about the way we have resorted to sending our text messages, or the more annoying one, the way we chat on msn or wherever.


am nt sayn dat I dnt use shrt hnd, bt nt as ridiculsly as dis.


Notice the I'm has become 'am'? And 'as' and 'use' seemingly the only correct words in that sentence . But, that one is a post for another day.

Back to short hand...I don't understand why we do this. For sms messages, I understand we want to cramp as many words as we can into one message, but then chatting too? Is it because you want to type much faster? I think it makes you type much slower.
Even I do the occasional 'n' for and or 'r' for are, but the things like 'lyk for like is just ridiculous or mess'd for messed...erm sorry what is the apostrophe for? Isnt it a character for that same character that you are trying to avoid typing?

It is absolutely disgusting....

I get so many messages from naija that I find so hard to decipher mainly because every other word is in shorthand. why have we become so lazy to write and talk properly? I spoke to one of my friends about it because hers is just too much for me to handle and she said to me that it has affected her writing in general...worse still that she is a graduate soon to be going into employment and writing reports proposals. It is that bad that she cant separate the two styles of writing and it has become part of her.

Anyone feel me or disagree?

Ps: I am not directly attacking anyone o!!

22 Cogitations:

mizchif said...

Ah...I feel you die on this one.
Like seriously, why so lazy people?
I can stand it to some extent, but some people take it to a whole other level especially when they mispell the words and still use the same number of characters!

LusciousRon said...

I totally feel you. Sadly that is the case. I mean some people write a report and you wonder if they know what they are doing? Are they sending a text or writing a formal letter. Imagine getting an official from a colleague in the field and you find such?

That culture has affected so many spellings that you forget how to spell the words correctly. Thank God for spell check.

BSNC said...

yea i feel you. i do the short hand for txt message and chating sometimes, but i am glad it doesn't affect my writing( or so i think)..

Virgos Lounge said...

i agreee.....my sister does it...it annoys me soooo much!!
meanwhilee...welcome back...x

juiceegal said...

Wel me i cnt talk cuz im so used 2 it....bt den it mkes ur typin faster i guess.nd i must admit its affectin my writin at uni......oh shit i jst did it here again...lol, wel i guess sum pple cnt help it.

darkelcee said...

i have an sms on my phone that i have not been able to read cos of the abbrevation. i have heard stuffs like ut- u there? ttyl- talk to you later...

if i start my own ehnn, it will be war. lol

tcou.....can you guess what that is? ROFL

InCogNaija said...

i ttly fil u on dis ishu. i 8 it 2! lmao!
pple nid 2 learn ow 2 type properly, i av cut myslf typn shtand in a research paper a few tyms...its lyk speakn bad englsh on purpose, u end up sayn it 4 real and mbarass urself. lol!

TRYBES said...

wow..im a culprit in the text message thingy but glad i can always draw a line each time i have to write without havin to use ms words to correct my mistakes. I also think it really sucks when people do that on msn or any form of chat...its disgusting really cuz i do watch out for such as well...Thanks for your observation..and sharin it too..

C said...

I agree with you.
And I must say, sadly I am a victim aswell.

It was beinging to affect my writing and even my spelling.

I have decided to stop because seriously it is so not cool

Anonymous said...

bloody annoying

flabby said...

lol- sometimes it actually is ridiculous

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

lol! shorthand na wa oh! There is a newish blogger whose blog is impossible for me to read on account of her shorthand. Gosh, wish i could remember her name. The gist is sweet sha, but to read de thing, my eyes dey tyah!

Hope all is well.

Roc said...

Lmao @ "something out of a very posh nursery school where the 3 year olds had learnt to chicken scratch"

I can so feel you on this one.. Was chatting with a mate recently and he typed 'Y', seeing as i didn't understand he explained the 'Y' meant 'Yes'..

Like fo'real?? lol..

Intruiging post!

Shubby Doo said...

i never learnt shorthand but i so feel u on this about the texting...

i wrote a post about the use of the word 'chao'
http://shubbydoo.blogspot.com/2009/03/ciao.html

i mean why swap ciao for chao...just crazy

NaijaBabe said...

Mizchief....As in I dont understand the apostrophe one, its ridiculous

Ron-That would just be too emabarrasing...

BSNC- Well at least it doesnt affect your writing... the chatting languages are just the more annoying ones.

VL- LOL...Thanks o jare...I see you babes have been going a step further...kudos o!

Juceegal-I guess so, its just the part where it starts to affect proper written work that is the problem.

darkelcee- lol, you still cant read the message...haha.
em Im guessing tcou is take care of you...hmm

Incog- I dont have anything to say to u, only because I know you dont write like that. I actually tried very hard to write a few paragraphs like that in the post and I just want getting it.

Lumidee...thank you o

Chi chi...well done...at least you've decided to do something about it

kmplx- thank you

Flabby- very true

SS-Hhaha...you cant read the blog...thats funny. Pele

RN- As I said already.. Y for yes...as in??? seriously???

Shubby....em Chao??? Ha?

Spesh said...

I am jst lyk your frnd,during exams it takes me more time cos i wanna be sure i didnt include srthand.
Startd since sec sch but bliv mi it aint abt lazynes....

O'Dee said...

There r times theres no need to shorten words.
When you get too use to it, you realize you start using it when writing reports and other important stuff.

Unknown said...

ok
yeah business studies taught us short hand
but the folks must have gone to anther school to learn the shorthand we use for sms
how do i get the meaning, i pronounce the words and it helps moi.

Chomy said...

LMAOOOOOOOO ....shooooooo u no lie abeg....yup shorthanding is messin this microwave society of us up well well....it is crazy. next we are gonna start speaking in short hand too....i kno sometimes i substitute and make do with OMG instead of saying the whole thing....however i am still not yet on board with saying LOL in a convo instead of laughing.....yes i have heard it done before and it was defintly not an LOL matter. hahahahaha, ur posts always amuses me....love love it!

Invisible said...

I hate it with a passion and it looks like it's something that has become second or third language for naija folks.
I actually stopped reading someone's blog because it was always written in sms short hand and I couldn't understand jack. I spent more time decoding the words.

Nice Anon said...

I don't think i remember what shorthand looks like anymore.

Anonymous said...

well........ guess people do stuff that's comfortable for them anyways... I do try to keep both styles separate.. but sometimes its hard....especially fi you do a lot of IMing and SMSing...