So how much influence did Txtng: The Gr8 Db8
This is an interesting little book examining the text messaging phenomenon from a linguistic angle. The writer points out that language often changes, that we’ve always used abbreviations and contractions, and that, basically, people need to get off their high horses and stop whining about how text messaging is ruining our culture and destroying the minds of a generation.
The book is reasonably short and entertainingly written. The appendices take up about 1/3 of the book and will tell you how to text people in eleven different languages. Always handy, one feels. The writing is intelligent and compelling and makes its points clear.
Ultimately I must say the book changed my views on texting. I always viewed it as conversations poor second cousin, and nothing worth spending time on. Now? I don’t think it’s the second coming of anything, but I have more respect, more tolerance and more interest, by far, than I had before reading the book.
In summation, and since I can’t resist, plz buy this book u will really njoy it cuz its really gr8 k?
October 5, 2008 at 11:10 am
>it made me go out and finally activate the text messaging feature on my phone.
I’ve heard that Americans don’t use their phones for email.
In Japan, cell-phones are seldom used for speaking into…everyone emails. (And here, the phones send / receive emails, not just text. Just like on a computer, my phone can send / receive colored text, photos, movies, etc.
>I can annoy my soon-to-be-former friends 24/7
Is it considered annoying to receive cell-phone mail in America?
>how to text people in eleven different languages.
Does it explain Japanese email shorthand? Like: “3-9″ for “Thank you”.
October 5, 2008 at 5:37 pm
It’s not that it’s annoying to receive messages here in the USA, it’s that I’m annoying.
He does not include Japanese text messaging abbreviations, but he does mention something called keitai dating which amused me to no end. He also makes some mention of the social impact. It’s a pretty interesting book!
October 6, 2008 at 12:03 am
>something called keitai dating which amused me to no end. He also makes some mention of the social impact.
携帯 (Keitai) means “portable” in Japanese. But these days, it’s used to mean “cellular phone” (“Cellular phone” is actually “keitai denwa” in Japanese…but everyone just says “keitai”).
And, yes, there are many websites made exclusively to be accessed by cell-phones in Japan…because more people use their phones for email / web-surfing than computers in Japan.
And…one such type of website that seems to be popular is dating sites. A few months ago a girl was murdered in Japan by a man she had just met thru a keitai dating site.