Are English speakers becoming lazy?

[Dark Espeon]

Today during Biology class, my teacher was talking, blah blah blah, and she said "aka". So it dawned on me that aka stands for "also known as". So then I wondered why say "aka" rather than "also know as". I mean, "aka" is not a word >>. Same with people that say "ASAP", rather than "as soon as possible".

If you're typing fast, or taking a note in class, it is understandable that you one would use "aka" or "ASAP", but talking? Wrong, wrong. Aka and ASAP are not words. If people use it nowadays even in talking, imagine a century for now . People would be like, speaking with half words and abreviations O_O. I was always aware that English shortens just about any word, but holy crap...Sure, Spanish shortens a few things here and there, but not like that ...

Also, for non native English speakers, it can be a problem...

*hears "ASAP" in school annoucements*
*goes wtf*
*remembers that ASAP stands for as soon as possible*
*asks himself why the hell not say as soon as possible rather than "ASAP" if ASAP is not a word*
*dislikes shortening words or phrases, no matter what language they're on* :-D

P.S. This thread has been posted here because even though this forum is for other languages, English is a still a language, hence it goes here...I think. :-D

 

[Zhen Lin]

Well, my dictionary says that America, English, USA, NATO, UN, HTTP, WWW are also not words. So I guess we should stop using them too.

 

[Barb]

It helps to remember that acronyms are initials that are pronounced as words [Examples: NATO, DARE, MADD, and UNICEF]. It's easier to say "NATO" than it is to say "North Atlantic Treaty Organization." I suppose that 'aka' and "ASAP' could be added to this list.

However, I still take exception to people online using 'r' for 'are' and 'u' for 'you.' That is laziness.

 

[birdboy2000]

What about 1337, then? If AIMspeak is evil because of laziness, than surely 1337 |\/||_|57 83 5|_|p3r10|2, 45 17 74|<35 +3|-| 10|\|6 70 7yp3.



(Devil's advocate here)

 

[Dark Espeon]

Well, not for me. Those are names of organizations and countries. But aka and ASAP are actual English phrases for crying out loud! Why would anybody use them in speaking? That's lazy >>. (Again it is understandable when writing or typing)...

As for www, http, etc., they're also understandable because they're usually dictated to people, so saying "My website is world wide web. something. ca", etc, would not be very logical.

Those acronyms and such are used in pretty much any modern language, I believe. I mean, we still say EU (US) in Spanish, and we say OTAN (NATO), and we say ADN (DNA), and OVNI (UFO), and laser, etc, etc, etc. But I cannot think of one Spanish speaking person ever "acronymizing" phrases like in English does...such as ASAP and aka.

What about 1337, then? If AIMspeak is evil because of laziness, than surely 1337 |\/||_|57 83 5|_|p3r10|2, 45 17 74|<35 +3|-| 10|\|6 70 7yp3

Actually, I never bother to read those things. It hurts my brain to try and change the number or symbol for the equivalent of Roman alphabet letter. I'd rather try Japanese or Russian. So yeah, I have no clue what you just said there, and I shall not be bothered to find out either =P. Hate that thing. Who made it up anyways? I like the Roman alphabet just fine.

And remember, I'm talking about SPEAKING here. Not about typing or writing. I don't mind there. But in speaking, it can't hurt to say the whole phrase, does it? It certainly doesn't hurt me :-D.

 

[Argy]

I use abbreviations such as aka and ASAP in my speech, but I never really think about it. People know what I mean either way. If I were giving a formal presentation, it would be a different situation, but I just don't see it as a big deal in day-to-day conversations.

 

[Barb]

I don't see it as a sign of laziness. It's simply getting your point across in an expedient manner.

 

[MondoTR]

Translation of birdboy's 1337: must be superior, as it takes teh long to type.