NEWS: LOL: New Zealand Testing Allows Text Speak

CULTURE: LOL: New Zealand Testing Allows Text Speak

In order to seem cool, New Zealand has authorized its students the use of "text-speak" in national exams this year. Text speak, a language developed and adopted by mobile text message senders the world over, abbreviates thousands of words in order to make messaging more efficient. Popular examples are "LOL" to replace "Laughing out loud," "H8" is a shortened version of "hate," "BRB" for "be right back," or "CU" for "see you."

New Zealand's Qualifications Authority, the committee responsible for the decision, emphasizes that it still strongly discourages the students from using anything other that proper English, but feels forces to give credit when the answers demonstrate the required understanding. The Deputy Chief Executive, Bali Haque, stresses that answers should be as clear as possible and though the language will be accepted, anything other than complete English will be penalized to a degree.

Many critics are split over the decision allowing text slang. President of the Post Primary Teachers' Association, Debbie Te Whaiti, said the authority's move only reflects the current prevailing classroom situation. Others say the exam required for graduation, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), suffers a serious blow in reputation and respect.

One New Zealand blogger, Phil Stevens, responded to the decision in a way the NZQA is sure to understand but only give partial credit for.

yeah, this is going to make people stupid.

Oh, god damn it.

Are you fucking kidding me?

That's all I can think to say.

New Zealand has just reversed human evolution by 10,000 years.

Thanks, New Zealand. We're all dumber by association, now.

deer nu zeelend. u suk. ftw.

IM IN UR TESTS

IM FUKIN UP UR LNGUAG

OMG! 4 RL?

holy balls that is so sad.

Abominable.

Chomsky should be thrilled.

I see nothing wrong with it. The tests are still looking for clarity and understanding - in whatever way they are presented, I believe that works.

Of course, I'm not one to prescribe rules for spelling and grammar.

But:

So I don't think the sun is exactly setting on the Queen's English. I don't know the exams myself, but I haven't seen many calculus exams with points off for labeling your X axis "tm."

lollerskates.

in the eternal battle between linguists and english teachers, science has gained a beachhead.

A demonstration of understanding can include a picture, a graph, or a fucking shit smear on the page if it relates to the question at hand.

Bro, if I were you, I would be very careful before throwing around statements like that. all.Considering the intellectual state of parts of your country.... you know, people in glass houses....

Must be a slow news day at CNN. That is all.

People who use cliches shouldn't throw stone houses.

I am so fucking embarrassed right now.

But, then again - sure we may have dumbed down civilization by a few thousand years, it still puts us ahead of your average redneck american...

Oh my God, this is just embarassing. NZQA needs to stop trying to make kids "feel good" and instead stand up and say "you have got to be fucking kidding"
Stupidity is not a virtue!!!

I really don't know where you would get that idea.

Wait, let me translate that for you.

OMGZ, whur wld u gt an id3a liek tht?

It's good to know that it takes you rednecks and sheep fuckers took about four posts to turn this into a retarded national pride fest, like any of you has anything to do with drafting educational standards.

It is glaringly obvious that the whole idea is completely retarded to begin with. You want 6 pages of everyone saying "This is a completely retarded idea," fill them up yourself.

No, I'd clearly like you goons to call each other rednecks and sheep fuckers for another page or two before someone closes the thread.

And actually, the idea isn't all that retarded, and merely saying so doesn't make it so.

Since you are the only one referring to them as sheep fuckers, on behalf of the Redneck Goons, I'd like to welcome you to the group. I'd give you the badge, but it won't fit on your hallway monitor belt.

And to UmbraDigital, I think that my remark possibly came off quite a bit bitchier than I originally intended it to. I forget sometimes that people that don't know me might actually take my sarcasm to heart. Can a dumb redneck like me and a sheep fucker like you join hands and get a rousing rendition of kumbayah going on? I'm afraid I can't translate it into text-speak for you, but I'm sure such trifling cultural differences can be overcome.

No, you see, you're all goons, it's just that some of you are sheep fuckers and some of you are rednecks. I'm just a damn Yankee.

Isn't textspeak just a modern kind of shorthand?
Shorthand writing systems have been around for thousands of years. As long as grammar and understanding are preserved then I don't really see the problem.

It's no different than if they said they would accept an essay written in cyrillic or brahmic script. Unorthodox yes, but still correct language.