National exam says no to netspeak
By Guo Qiang (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2007-02-15 17:13 Students are prohibited from using hard-to-understand Internet terms in their compositions during the national College Entrance Examination in 2007, or face mark deductions.
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Internet terms refer to words and expressions that were created by online web surfers based on dialects or similarities in pronunciation.
These expressions are rampant in daily use among teenagers and even adults. The state media are flooded with stories that lash out at abusive Internet terms.
A report on China web portal sina.com said a composition written by a middle school student in central China was rife with these intricate Internet terms, which are a fad among students, such as 'GG' (literally meaning elder brother), 'Ou' (I), 'Sauce Purple' (so) and 'KPM' ( a combo word of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and McDonalds).
Experts play down the use of Internet terms among students, a group that is considered to lack judgment and easily succumb to peer pressure.
Director of the Linguistic Department at Huazhong Normal University in the central province of Hubei Wu Zhenguo said students should be prudent while using Internet terms.
Committee director of the China Association of Lexicography Zhou Mingjian said in a report from the official Xinhua News Agency that Internet terms cannot be used as formal expressions and students are discouraged from using them because once they are accustomed to it, it will be hard to get rid of the habit.
Comments from Wu and Zhou will inevitably meet strong opposition from middle school students, who account for 32.3 percent of China's 137 million Internet users.
Beijing No 25 Middle School student Li Menghui said Internet language is simple and appealing. "Most students use these terms when they surf the Internet."
"You will be laughed at if you can't keep up with the fad," said Li.
However, Li is cautious about when she uses the terms.
"I am afraid that my teacher cannot understand them, so I will not use them in my composition," said Li.
Shanghai's stiff stance
In Shanghai, attitudes toward the fad are not that amiable.
The economic hub has stated in its rules on the abidance of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Common Language and Characters that came into effect on March 1, 2006, that news reports, government documents and textbooks will be labeled illegal if they use terms such as 'MM' (beautiful girls), 'Dinosaur' (ugly girls), 'PK' (means face-to-face duel) and 'bean vermicelli' (fans).
Deputy director of the Shanghai Language Committee Zhu Lei said the government can't ban the use of the terms on the Internet.
"Terms such as 'bulletin board moderator', 'download', 'upload', 'homepage' and 'web address' are acceptable and frequently used in our daily lives while the use of others such as 'frog' (boyish male netizens), '7456' (to make someone angry) should be discouraged," said Zhu.
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