I’m not sure where my appreciation for language comes from, but one thing I’m determined not to forget is that English is an amazing language that gets taken for granted by its native speakers. Of course, a language is something that grows and evolves over time, and can even grow into a region-specific dialects. That said, I think it is very important to preserve as much of the language as we can. How often have you seen this sentence: “Wut r u doin?” More and more, I see similar (and sometimes more severe) perversions of the English language. It makes me sad to think that some people don’t know the difference between they’re and their. I don’t believe it’s a product of poor education, but it’s a result of the growing phenomenon of the way kids communicate with each other: texting, email, blogs, etc. Words have become approximated and their meanings expected to be interpolated. Are we witnessing a degeneration of our language? I’m sure we’re all guilty of it. Most of us say “gonna,” “wanna,” and “k” (instead of okay). But we know that writing those words as we say them is… well, incorrect.

I always say that it must be frustrating to be learning English as a second language because of the examples we choose to elevate in our pop culture. Song titles and lyrics are littered with poor grammar and intentionally misspelled words (guilty!). I believe that there is a place for such “cutsieness” in pop-culture. After all, one of the wonderful things about our language is its flexibility and readiness to adapt. But let’s draw the line! Let’s take email and texting back! Let’s use capitalization and punctuation the way they were intended! English is rich and full of expressivity. Instead of using smilies and various onomatopoeic expressions (like “ugh”), let’s use English correctly! Let’s use it to its full potential and stop using shortcuts when we write.