BigJim wrote:
Now please post your definition of "communitcations" since mine is "that if the message is recieved and understood it is successful"
Good thing that you speak of communication and the key word here is
understanding.
Have you stopped to think about the origin of posters here?
For example, have you taken a look at the location described below my username?
I am from Canada. From Quebec City more precisely, which is in Quebec.
It does not take an educated American to know that Canada has two official languages. That a quarter of its population speaks French as first language, and it's mostly located in Quebec (but it's most probably not known to non North Americans).
The following may be a fact unknown by most Americans though: a very small part of that French-speaking population speaks English proficiently. Amazing, isnt't it?
So English is a second language for me. And I worked damn hard to be reasonably fluent in it. And after 15 years, my learning process is not over yet, for while I'm reasonably fluent with the written form, I'm still uncomfortable with the spoken form.
Let's get back to our subject, written communication. Have you reflected on what happens when you read? On how you actually decode symbols into words then in concepts? You probably haven't, since as an American (assuming you were born there) you never had to (really) learn another language.
What actually happens is that you don't decode letters one by one. You recognize a word as a whole. It's the shape, the pattern you recognize. Else it would take you a lot longer to read, no? This is made the more clear when studying a completely foreign language, like Russian with its different alphabet. I can easily recognize Russian words that are part of my (infinitesimal) vocabulary, but I have to painstakingly decode new words cyrillic letter by cyrillic letter. You also can see it in a child who's learning to read. It takes him/her time to decode new words.
Now take a text which is written in what I call "IRC grammar", where words are written by sound. An expression like "b4" is not in the dictionary. To a non-IRC chatter (or a non amateur radio operator) its pattern is unfamiliar, unrecognized. So it has to be decoded character by character. When groups of letters are replaced by numbers, it adds difficulty to the decoding process, for the result doesn't make sense at first.
It doesn't help either when vowels are left off, as in the word "dragn" above. It took me almost half a second to decode "dragn", for the first word that came in my mind was "dragon".
Add to that the personality of the reader, and I mean visual or auditive. I'm a very visual person. For example when someone takes on the task of explaining to me driving instructions, I simply stop listening and just make "uh uh" sounds from time to time, then ask for the address. Then I go find a map, locate the place on the map, and picture my route from it. I don't care about how many turns I have to make, or if there's a MacDonald's on the previous corner, for it doesn't help me. I just want the address and a map.
I depend a lot on the visual aspect.
So when I find myself with a text such as written by [Sg]ShotGun, what happens?
Every word written by sound requires of me more effort, more time. The speed at which I can read (which is already significantly less than the speed at which I can read French) such a text is then greatly reduced. This irritates me in the extreme.
Now, in my experience, I have found that most people who resort to using "IRC grammar" are the kind that I don't want to bother with: people with "mental laziness".
The (usually but not always) young people with no respect for the others, who don't care about the feelings of the others, who resort to insults when things don't go their way, and even when they do go their way, who show little sportsmanship, who show very little flexibility and are unwilling to discuss civilly or intelligently in the respect of others.
(Sidenote: I have found that a lot of those characters are typical Quakeheads, who are the main reason I stopped playing those kind of games, and to my distress I'm seeing more of those persons in AH than I expected.)
You may say it's paradoxical to complain of laziness when I say I don't want to spend the time decoding "IRC grammar", but make no mistake about this: I'm always willing to make an effort when it's worth it. I have found that in most cases, with the "IRC grammar" crowd, it's not worth it.
this of course leave's out "educated" types like yourself who seem to think that if "they" don't care for it then the "world" should comply.
I do care. I care about how people treat one another. I care about other people's lives, about their pains, their joys. I don't want people to do my bidding.
I may be "educated", but I work in a technical profession. I have met non educated people who have more analytical minds than some educated types I know, and people who make sure you see their engineer's ring or doctor's degree get on my nerves.
I'm sorry if I have offended you or anyone. It was not my intent. As I said, "IRC grammar" gets on my nerves, and I'm seeing too much of it on this BBS for my taste. (More than on AGW anyway. <G,D,R>
)
It's not a question of being educated or not. It's just a question of facilitating communication. And writing as good English as one can is the best way to have good communication.
BTW I'm not a doctor. My handle is a self-reminder so that I never take things too seriously. (Obviously it fails most of the time.) See the link in my profile.
Cheers,
------------------
DrSoya
308 (Polish) Squadron "City of Cracow" RAF [AH]
303 (Polish) Squadron "Kosciuszko" RAF [WB]
Part of the
Northolt Wing (First Polish Fighter Wing)
