Social networking’s new language goes beyond old cultures

When I moved from the British Isles to Louisiana in 1973, I found myself having to learn a whole lot of new words, expressions and a new way to spell many of the words I already knew. I had grown up speaking, reading and writing the King’s (Queen’s) English which, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, had been turned around, upside down and made into the American form of English.

Obviously, in my choice of career it was most important to learn the American way of reading, writing and speaking, and I will admit it did not come easy in the beginning.

My cheques became checks, my tyres became tires, my aluminium became aluminum and my colour became color.

Not only did I have to change my way of spelling words, I had to get used to substituting new words to take the place of more familiar ones. Words such as apartment, which had to be substituted for my English counterpart, flat.

As if this was not hard enough, I also had to get used to the same words in both countries having a different meaning in each.

Take the word lavatory for instance. In England this is another word for toilet. I must admit I had quite a shock when I first got here and was told I could wash my hair in the lavatory! Little did I know at the time, this was the word for the English washbasin.

But little by little I learned this new language and spelling, so well in fact, sometimes it was difficult to remember what I used to call things back in the old country.

So I admit to becoming a little proud that I could hold my own when conversation, writing or reading was required.

I became comfortable.

I should have known there would be much more waiting for me down the road.

So, here I am, more than 30 years later having to learn yet another language, even more foreign to me.

No, it’s not French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or even Russian. This is a language with new words appearing almost daily. Words such as Twitter, Tweet, Text and blog.

I am invited to places such as Facebook and MySpace, where friends and relatives, not to mention total strangers, tell you exactly what they are doing at any given time.

I have to admit I have visited MySpace and I am a member of Facebook, but I’ll be honest and say it’s all a little strange to me.

The reason I joined Facebook was to communicate with family and friends in England, but I have acquired quite a list of “friends” from far and near. I can understand sending short messages and admit I do enjoy knowing what my kinfolk have been doing. The part where it gets a little strange is when people send you flowers, buy you a drink or give you candy. Understand, there are no flowers, there is no drink or candy. It’s all virtual. I’m sorry, but I have to ask, “What’s the point?”

And what’s the difference between Twitter and Facebook. I’m still not really sure whether you twitter on tweet, or tweet on twitter, but either way, I have to ask “Why?”

It’s the same with texting people from your cell phone. What’s so all important that a person has to ignore his or her surroundings, people and, in some cases, traffic, just to tap out a message on the phone keys.

Will there come a time when people never actually speak to each other face to face?

Has writing letters become obsolete? I wonder how many teens today know there used to be writing instruments called fountain pens which we old codgers had to fill or dip in ink to be able to put words on paper. Not only that, but we had sheets of blotting paper to place over the newly written words so the ink wouldn’t smudge.

I suppose youngsters who text their friends are not that much different from the youngsters of my generation who had to make do with writing messages on pieces of paper and either passing them to the intended party or flying it through the air like a paper airplane. The only difference is we could only message as far as we could throw. These days, texts can be sent anywhere at the click of a finger.

But I try to keep up even though most of the time I really don’t know what it all means. As my dad used to say, “It’s all a load of codswallop” — and for that, there is no American translation.

JENNIFER E. MAY is former Teche Life editor for The Daily Iberian.