Goodbye grammar

[Romana]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/11/nz.text.ap/index.html

Read and tell me what you think.

I personally believe this is one of the most idiotic ideas ever. It's a creeping sign of a loss, or laziness, to write good grammar.

[ZeaLitY]

Hell, they can do whatever they want now, and the schools can be utter weaklings for allowing this. Becaaaause, I'll enjoy seeing txt speakers try to get jobs.

[Romana]

Ha! That would be hilarious.

How do they expect to learn? I'm guessing someone is very corrupt to allow this. I love my grammar, and wish other people (in my school... 'bout 80% are idiots) would learn to use it properly as well. This is just ridiculous, though.

[Lord J Esq]

Any evolution in an active language which reduces the overall communication capacity of that language, without increasing literacy rates or proficiencies, is a development I oppose.

[Burning Zeppelin]

What did you expect? New Zealand was going down this road ever since they denied becoming part of Australia

[ZeaLitY]

Speaking of English words, WHAT IN THE HELL IS A MORTGAGE? I've heard about them ALL my life and have read about them in this awful tax class but I still have no earthly idea what the hell it is. It sounds like one of those cryptic, unsavory agreements that debtors enter in to. You know, the kind of people who don't actually own anything they buy because they're all on installment plans for the rest of their lives and will file bankruptcy if push comes to shove.

[Lord J Esq]

Speaking of English words, WHAT IN THE HELL IS A MORTGAGE? I've heard about them ALL my life and have read about them in this awful tax class but I still have no earthly idea what the hell it is. It sounds like one of those cryptic, unsavory agreements that debtors enter in to. You know, the kind of people who don't actually own anything they buy because they're all on installment plans for the rest of their lives and will file bankruptcy if push comes to shove.

The short short of it is that a mortgage is an agreement wherein some financier agrees to loan you enough money to buy a home. In return, you must repay not only the loan, but interest on the loan as well.

While mortgage interest rates can be predatory, and often are, mortgages themselves are the key to home ownership for tens of millions of American families. A house is often the most expensive thing a person owns, and the value of that house can be used to sustain or expand one's financial security and personal wealth. But most people don't have the cash to just walk up and buy an entire house with one up-front payment. Without mortgages, many people would never be able to buy a home. Mortgages are therefore among the major reasons why we have a large and relatively stable middle class in this country.

[DBoruta]

Read and tell me what you think.

 I have one "thing" to say to this: roflcopter.

In all seriousness now, I highly doubt this will last.  While other languages have evolved, such as the Chinese language, to the point where many tenses, genders, and other aspects of the language have become very simplified, I don't believe for a second that this "text speak" is the future of the English language. 

[Burning Zeppelin]

So what do they mean by "mortgaging a house" well after it has been paid off?

[Lord J Esq]

So what do they mean by "mortgaging a house" well after it has been paid off?

It doesn't just apply to buying homes for the first time. More generally, mortgages are all about borrowing a whole bunch of money based upon the value of a piece of property (typically a house). That money can and often is used to buy the property initially, but it can also be used to generate money for other expenses, such as college tuition, health bills, automobile purchases, or 250,000 burritos.