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A Plea To The Moderators Of Thaivisa

onzestan

By onzestan
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onzestan Gold Member

onzestan

Posted
Posted

Ladies and Gentleman,

I would like to beg you for a little bit of consideration for us non native english speakers.

Could you please ask the members to please not use so many abbreviations in their posts.

I for one still do not understand what LOL means. I do understand what IMO means, but i am puzzled as

to why a person would use IMHO. Does that mean that this person also has dishonnest opinions?

Also I thought that a TROLL was some kind of scandinavian ugly midget with a big nose and feet (I don't know if they have other big things also because I have never seen them undressed), but clearly there must be another meaning to it when used in this forum.

As Miss November Rain asked in another topic, what is a pm.

Is it the Prime Minister, is it Post Mortem, is it Pickled Moron I don't know, for sure. I only know that if it is a time indication it should be written as p.m.

Also in the same topic, one poster mentions that he apologizes beforehand for any spelling mistakes and this apology is at the bottom of the page. Shouldn't that be at the top?

This is all very confusing for a person who is trying to understand the language of Shakespeare for all it's richness.

No malice intended.

Yours truly,

onzestan

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sbk Star Member

sbk

Posted
Posted

Perhaps you should ask them yourself? It is quite enough work already moderating this board without having to edit people's posts to make them more understandable to non-native English speakers. next time you don't understand someone, ask them what they mean.

If you go to wikipedia and look for internet slang you should find a list of everything you could ever possibly need to know (and some you don't!)

Just to answer a few of your questions:

PM means personal message. If you click on someones name you are given the option to send them a message. That is a personal message.

LOL laugh out loud. There is also a smilie for this :o

A troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics

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PeaceBlondie Star Member

PeaceBlondie

Posted
Posted

Then there's IMNSHO - in my not so humble opinion. I use that sometimes.

To both the writers and the readers, it's best to limit abbreviations. B4U say (as a Van Halen song or album said it) OI812 - Oh, I ate one, too! - it only takes a few more keystrokes.

Even we native speakers don't know national slang - Australians (Ozzies, from the land of Oz) say "mate" when a North American says "coworker" or "friend" because "mate" is very personal, as in bedmate. The British (Brits, Pommies, Limies) say boot meaning the trunk of the car, when boot is something you do to a computer, or it's those shoes cowboys wear :D We Americans (Yanks, but please not "Septics") who come from the old confederate states don't like to be called Yankees, and we sometimes express the second person plural as y'all.

Especially in Thailand, where final consonants get dropped, the British amongst and whilst are better replaced by their North American equivalents among and while. But now I'm being pedantic (a word seldom used in North America).

I'm semi-fluent in Spanish, but I read verrrrrrry slowly.

As for the time of day or night, there are too many varieties, and PM after an obvious time means after noon - and afternoon (one big word) means roughly 12:01 p.m. to about 6:01 p.m. And nobody agrees if noon is 12 am or 12 pm (I say it's neither).

English is difficult. Good luck.

I use :o when I write about the masked Zapatista rebels. :D

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WaiWai Gold Member

WaiWai

Posted
Posted (edited)
I use :o when I write about the masked Zapatista rebels.

Yes, that's roughly how I interpreted it. It always makes me think of the Asian workers' head gear, though (or is that no co-incidence :D . JOKE.)

I just noticed something - if I look at the selection of emoticons in "show all", (there are 9, if you don't click, to the left of box where we type our erudite messages,) the one that used to be called "Jap" is no longer there. Remember that one ? Looked very similar to :D but with a hat on .... :bah::o;) ... wait a minute, in that selection, there's no :bah:, and only :D . That's weird :D .

(Weird, because I am guessing that those 9 are selected as they're most commonly used ...)

Edited by WaiWai
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WaiWai Gold Member

WaiWai

Posted
Posted

( The one I find myself using most is :D ).

Anyway, I was going to ask, for what use is the "Jap" one intended ??

Also, why is :o called "yohan" and what would one use it for, and why is :D called "Dave" and who is he in real life ?

:D *sigh* ... so many questions.

And I had to split this into two because I got a message saying the post had too many emoticons !!!

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onzestan Gold Member

onzestan

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Then there's IMNSHO - in my not so humble opinion. I use that sometimes.

To both the writers and the readers, it's best to limit abbreviations. B4U say (as a Van Halen song or album said it) OI812 - Oh, I ate one, too! - it only takes a few more keystrokes.

Even we native speakers don't know national slang - Australians (Ozzies, from the land of Oz) say "mate" when a North American says "coworker" or "friend" because "mate" is very personal, as in bedmate. The British (Brits, Pommies, Limies) say boot meaning the trunk of the car, when boot is something you do to a computer, or it's those shoes cowboys wear :D We Americans (Yanks, but please not "Septics") who come from the old confederate states don't like to be called Yankees, and we sometimes express the second person plural as y'all.

Especially in Thailand, where final consonants get dropped, the British amongst and whilst are better replaced by their North American equivalents among and while. But now I'm being pedantic (a word seldom used in North America).

I'm semi-fluent in Spanish, but I read verrrrrrry slowly.

As for the time of day or night, there are too many varieties, and PM after an obvious time means after noon - and afternoon (one big word) means roughly 12:01 p.m. to about 6:01 p.m. And nobody agrees if noon is 12 am or 12 pm (I say it's neither).

English is difficult. Good luck.

I use :o when I write about the masked Zapatista rebels. :D

Thank you for that :D

And to others who would like to make me look like a fool, please note that I'm fluent in Dutch, English, German, French and can make myself understood in Thai, Italian and Spanish in a polite way.

I once apologized beforehand to a German customer of mine, for any mistake I might make speaking German, and he said that I should never apologize for showing someone the courtesy of speaking to him/her in their own language.

BTW this 3 letters mean something completely different in my language i.e. "Belasting Toegevoegde Waarde" which means VAT in English.

I strongly believe that a common language is something that should bring us closer together and not something that divides us. If this is not the intention of this forum then by all means tell me.

Once again no malice intended.

onzestan

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PhilHarries Ruby Member

PhilHarries

Posted
Posted
And to others who would like to make me look like a fool, please note that I'm fluent in Dutch, English, German, French and can make myself understood in Thai, Italian and Spanish in a polite way.

onzestan

No one is going to criticise any non native English speaker for their lack of fluency. That you can speak/write it at all is enough testimony to your intelligence. :o

As a native English speaker I was astounded when I learnt Spanish just how little I knew about English grammar. :D

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weary Silver Member

weary

Posted
Posted

Onzestan, if you speak all those languages, surely you will not object to learning a handful of abbreviations required to follow a web forum. People are usually quite happy to answer if you ask a question...

Cdnvic's list covers the most important ones. The rest you can ask about - or google for.

Apart from vanilla searches, Google has plenty of other nifty functions.

Type define:search term and you will be taken straight to a definition for the search term.

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Dakhar Platinum Member

Dakhar

Posted
Posted
And to others who would like to make me look like a fool, please note that I'm fluent in Dutch, English, German, French and can make myself understood in Thai, Italian and Spanish in a polite way.

onzestan

No one is going to criticise any non native English speaker for their lack of fluency. That you can speak/write it at all is enough testimony to your intelligence. :o

As a native English speaker I was astounded when I learnt Spanish just how little I knew about English grammar. :D

U speak all of those language, and IMHO stupdifies u? My wife knows more net slang than I do and she is not an English native.... I think it is more of a generation thing, more than an "origin" thing.

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onzestan Gold Member

onzestan

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Onzestan, if you speak all those languages, surely you will not object to learning a handful of abbreviations required to follow a web forum. People are usually quite happy to answer if you ask a question...

Cdnvic's list covers the most important ones. The rest you can ask about - or google for.

Apart from vanilla searches, Google has plenty of other nifty functions.

Type define:search term and you will be taken straight to a definition for the search term.

Dear Weary,

Thank you for your reply and also thank you to others, Cdnvic amongst them, for providing the links.

I'm not saying that I'm not able to learn a few abbreviations, but it takes a lot out of the fun reading topics and posts having to resort to linking to another page in order to understand them.

Why is it so difficult to type the full words in, it is not as if we are on a time limit like on a handy phone for example.

English is a beautiful language why not use it properly?

cheers

onzestan

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WaiWai Gold Member

WaiWai

Posted
Posted
I'm not saying that I'm not able to learn a few abbreviations, but it takes a lot out of the fun reading topics and posts having to resort to linking to another page in order to understand them.

I think that's a very reasonable comment.

Mind you, in some cases we'd still not understand if they did type in full :o

I get irked when someone nonchelantly uses a Thai phrase without explaining it in English.

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qwertz Platinum Member

qwertz

Posted
Posted

I'm no world class typist so I eliminate half of the legibility problem by typing up in a Word format and then lifting it as a copy, as I do with all my emails. The usual abbreviations in TV belong to the forum language so a quick scan of the guide was all I needed, being English. Things like VAT I tend to describe as government tax which is probably more universally understandable. The German is MwSt (Mehrwertsteuer) which probably only German speakers would understand. I take onzestan's point though, some posts are a bit cryptic. Not a whinge, I just like to know what people are saying.

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Tywais Star Member

Tywais

Posted
Posted
BTW(By the way)could'ya(could you)pls(please)explain what that is, cdnvic?

b4(before)On(onzestan) starts complaining. 寫某事這裡 :D

I was able to sus out cdnvic's signature, but will leave the answer as an exercise for others. :o

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richard10365 Platinum Member

richard10365

Posted
Posted
Ladies and Gentleman,

I would like to beg you for a little bit of consideration for us non native english speakers.

Could you please ask the members to please not use so many abbreviations in their posts.

I for one still do not understand what LOL means. I do understand what IMO means, but i am puzzled as

to why a person would use IMHO. Does that mean that this person also has dishonnest opinions?

Also I thought that a TROLL was some kind of scandinavian ugly midget with a big nose and feet (I don't know if they have other big things also because I have never seen them undressed), but clearly there must be another meaning to it when used in this forum.

As Miss November Rain asked in another topic, what is a pm.

Is it the Prime Minister, is it Post Mortem, is it Pickled Moron I don't know, for sure. I only know that if it is a time indication it should be written as p.m.

Also in the same topic, one poster mentions that he apologizes beforehand for any spelling mistakes and this apology is at the bottom of the page. Shouldn't that be at the top?

This is all very confusing for a person who is trying to understand the language of Shakespeare for all it's richness.

No malice intended.

Yours truly,

onzestan

Let me guess. You live in Thailand and your an English teacher. :o

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Ijustwannateach Star Member

Ijustwannateach

Posted
Posted

Onzestan,

An odd request... usually those of my friends who are comfortably multilingual keep trying to expand their knowledge, not make requests for others to box themselves in to what they already understand... in any case, I think you will find people happy to explain to you what they mean, especially if you mention that you are not a native speaker- but the board cannot change its language for the sake of non-natives.

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