KEY POINTS:
"Wicked. Did you hear the good news?" my 14-year-old nephew asked as he greeted me at the door last Thursday. "We can now use text-speak English for our exams. Cool, eh?"
The two years of New Zealand high school education has contributed to his speaking Kiwi English.
I sometimes struggle to understand some of what he says, such as "ta" instead of "thank you", and expressions such as "choice" and "excellent".
He told me excitedly that the Dominion-Post's page one story that day, headlined "Text-speak in NCEA exams gets OK", is making its rounds from mobile to mobile, and the news has found its way to his cellphone.
My nephew is happy because while he has no problems speaking English, he has always had problems spelling.
"Now, it is the teachers' responsibility to figure out what I write, and if they get it wrong I can always appeal," he said smugly.
He is fast learning to talk and think like a typical Kiwi teen, but I guess after two years getting a fair dose of Kiwi English at school it is only to be expected that he picks up words and expressions that he would not have used in Singapore.
However, for school to tell him it is okay to write and spell words in text language is another thing altogether.
It is beyond me how the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Education Minister Steve Maharey can even suggest that students can use text-speak in their exams.
It has been described as the second language of thousands of teenagers, and NZQA deputy chief executive Bali Haque said that in subjects where the written form of English was less important, such as physics, text-speak would be allowed.
Maharey said the NZQA policy of forgiving minor mistakes meant students would still be given a credit where, for example, they spelled pigeon as p-i-d-g-i-n, which he says is a simplified language used between persons of a different nationality.
Text language came about for speed in communication. People can't text as fast as they speak, so resort to the time-honoured solution of shorter forms familiar to secretaries, students - and journalists. For example, "you" becomes "u", "see" becomes "c" and "communications" becomes "comn".
Apart from shortened words, it is also used in acronym form - "be right back" becomes "brb"; "by the way" becomes "btw". Text language spelling is based on how words sound and uses alphabets and numbers to form those words - so "pigeon" is "pidgin" and "wait" becomes "w8".
Haque argues that if a candidate's answer clearly shows the required understanding, they will be given credit regardless of spelling and language.
If we buy this, then to be politically correct the NZQA may as well say students who can't write can illustrate their answers if their drawings show they understand the questions.
Language expert Max Cryer said the text language move in NCEA examinations was a very heavy downward slide. And and head of Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters described it as dopey. I absolutely agree. I was brought up in an English-speaking home in Singapore - which has a strong emphasis on writing and speaking English correctly - I find it hard to accept the argument that bad grammar and spelling is acceptable, especially in a situation such as exams.
My upbringing did not turn me into a language expert but it did teach me to respect the English language and its usage, given its status as the global language of commerce.
English should be taught and encouraged to be used in its proper form, and school is definitely no place for students to be told they can do otherwise.
Over the weekend, my sister-in-law phoned me from Singapore in a state of near-panic. Someone had emailed her the same piece of news and she wanted to know if it was true.
"What is happening to the New Zealand education system?" she asked. "I am not spending all that money for my boy to learn how to write text messages."
Like thousands of other Asian parents, New Zealand was her choice for her child's education because of the belief in its strength in teaching English.
News that even the the Minister of Education is prepared to compromise on the standard of the language in schools is shattering to parents like my sister-in-law - she pays almost $15,000 a year in school fees for my nephew, who is an international student.
Judging from the responses from readers to the columns I write in the Herald, how English is used in New Zealand is of major concern to many.
When I wrote "mom" instead of "mum", one reader, P.M. O'Donoghue, said the spelling I used was American English and that in New Zealand I should be using our English and that of our heritage cousins the Australians, British and Irish, and not the American version.
On my occasional lapses in using the language - such as when I wrote "No one would even raise an eyelid," five readers pointed out the mistake.
One of them, Angie King, said it should have been "bat an eyelid."
Another reader, John Slane, after making the same point, went on to say say: "Even after the grammar is mastered, English is infuriatingly difficult with its idioms - like a bear with a sore head, thumbing his nose at authority, wiping the slate clean."
Our education system could play its part in imparting to students the same level of passion that these readers have for the language in its written form, instead of downplaying its importance.
Principals Federation president Pat Newman described the text message phenomenon as the spawning of a whole new language.
He said: "Really, what you've got is smart youth who are developing a language and once they are adults that will be the norm."
Far from it being a new language, text-speak is more like a code which is totally incomprehensible to those not in the know.
It may be an innovative, clever and effective means of communication that is used between friends and family and it should stay that way.
There is no place for text-speak in schools or NCEA exams.
