1. Confused		:-S or :s
2. Crying		:'(
3. Angry		:-@ or :@
4. Disappointed		:-| or :|
5. Embarrassed		:-$ or :$

  

            The following  information is reliable because the survey took place from February to October 2004 and 184 Cantonese-speaking secondary school students and 15 English language teachers were involved.  Firstly, they asked the respondent:

Have you ever used 'Internet language' in your assignments?

 And the result was:

    There was 26% of the respondents who did unconsciously incorporate ‘online  language’ (supposedly different from the normal of language education in HK) into their written assignments in school.  For example, students are able to use letter homophone‘ C ’to represent the word ‘see’, ‘U’ for ‘you’ and number homophone ‘2’ for ‘to’ and ‘9’ for ‘night’ etc.

 

General Features

     A large number of shortened forms are used, and all these shortened forms including abbreviations, clipped forms and especially homophonous or near-homophonous words indicate a high degree of creativity. Major strategies of shortenings are summarized in the following table:

 

 Types of shortenings used in the reported expressions 

Different types of shortenings	Examples
1. Acronym of phrase/sentence	G.N.(good night), ttyl (talk to you later).
2. Compression of word/phrase	Thx/Thz/Ths (thanks), gd nite/Gd nite (good nite), tmr/tomoro/tomo/tml/tomolo (tomorrow).
3. Homophony in number	8 (bye), 88 (bye bye), 9 (night), 2 (to).
4. Homophony in letter	CU/cu/CY (see you), U (you).
5. ombination of processes: compression of word & homophony in number	gd 9 (good night).

  

    Here are some more examples of the common language that used in MSN or SNS:

1. tmr= tomorrow	13. cya = see you
2. thx = thank you	14. nvm = never mind
3. sth = something	15. ttyl = talk to you later
4. gd = good	16. skl = school
5. nite = night	17. da = the
6. ur /yr = your	18. jkjk = just kidding just kidding
7. wat = what	19. reli = really
8. gtg = got to go	20. hate = h8
9. ec = easy	21. 88 = goodbye
10. msg = message	22. please = plz
11. k = okay	23. b4 = before.
12. ppl = people	24. u = you

      We have also investigated why people use MSN and SMS languages on the internet. They tell us that they use MSN or SMS because it will be more convenience in writing and use it for studying. 

     Some people think that MSN & SMS languages are the symbols of being fashionable and mature. However, parent nowadays are scared that these languages will affect the academic results of their children.  

    Some students did unconsciously incorporate ‘online language’ into their written assignments in school.  For example, students use letter homophone C to represent the word ‘see’, U for ‘you’ and number homophone 2 for ‘to’ and 9 for ‘night’, etc.  

    One possible way to solve is to incorporate MSN language into our formal educational curriculum so that the students will not be confused when used.